eleanorj

Received my results yesterday, doctors says I'm negative for celiac and saw my actual test results this morning. And yes, all in normal range but the

 

immunoglobulin a, qn, serum 82     91-414 mg/dL

 

It's a tad low and I'm wondering what it means? I was expecting to see numbers higher than the range, not lower.

 

Thanks

So far, we have tried 3 gluten-free breads: Udi's from the store, Gluten-Free Pantry bread mix and Pamela's bread mix. Pamela was just aweful (to our taste anyhow!), Gluten-Free Pantry taste is ok, but texture is very caky, Udi wins by FAR but is SOOOO expensive and there's 4 of us, so between lunches and breakfast, well, it's a lot of bread. How can I make a gluten-free bread from scratch that would be similar to Udi's in texture? I'm assuming the cakiness comes from all the eggs? I'm on a quest to bake a good bread, I don't mind mixing the flours myself, it's cheaper so really is my goal. The bread is by far the worse part of this diet for me, I'm ok with pasta but the bread Everyone else is fine with it and I'm the one that doesn't even need to be gluten-free.. sigh.. I will survive and ultimately bake a good loaf! LOL!

I was told to not use pots & pans on both gluten & gluten-free items? To what extent? Is regular dishwashing enough or would it require a more thorough cleaning? What about toaster? Right now we have a 4-slice toaster, I was planning on keeping one side (the one that we use less) for gluten-free items, would I need to buy a new one since you can't really scrub a toaster? To what extent do we need to freak out about cross-contamination? Does it have to do with the amount of intolerance? What about bread baking, can the same pans be used for both wheat & gluten-free bread as long as it gets washed properly in between bakings?

I suspect my 9 y.old to have celiac or at least an intolerance to gluten. His stools have never been right, he had giardia at 20 mo., was diagnosed with stomach ulcers around age 2. He often complains of headaches and knee pain in his joints (we always blamed growing pains, but he grows once a year, and pain are on a monthly basis). Has itchy dry skin, a couple years ago he had a bad rash on his thighs that comes back every once in a while. He is a very moody/high irritability child, one minute he's the sweetest child, the next he screams and slams door. With all that, we are putting him on a gluten-free diet, we gave him a week notice, gluten will be gone on Monday. At this point, we will be telling friends/family/school that he has celiac because I feel that giving him the diagnosis will help enforcing the diet when we're not home.

With that said, I have been looking at testing and I'm wondering if it is at all necessary? I have no desire to put him through two endoscopy/biopsys, especially if they're not even that accurate. I can live with bloodwork or any non-invasive testing, but it is all so expensive and mostly uncovered by insurance. He is going on the diet and we're hoping to see improvement with all issues stated, and I feel that testing wouldn't add anything except knowing that he has it rather than thinking/believing.

So, I am seeing a few company names removed and I'm unsure if it's ok to ask, but who would you recommend to do such testing?