Just Starting The Tests

[mistresninos]

Our 22 mos son had a celiac panel (and several others) done last week. We are currently awaiting the results of all these tests. We had a couple of questions.

1) Last night we were watching Mystery Diagnosis on DHC and they had a little boy with Celiac on there. One of the things the mom said he did as a 1yo was to stuff his mouth full of food but not swallow it. Is this a typical thing for a baby with celiac? We were surprised when she said that because our son does that. In fact we have to check his mouth before he goes to sleep because he wants to sleep with food in his mouth.

2) I was reading up on some of the testing and was wondering if the endoscopic intestinal biopsy is always done for confirmation?

3) We have another son who has a birth defect that is possibly genetic (they are still studying to find out the cause, no one currently knows what the cause is). Is it common for people with Celiac Disease to come from families who have several people with birth defects or genetic disorders? Or is this just our fluke?

Thanks.

Stan & Sara Heer

[julie5914]

I think the food stuffing is more a psychological reaction to malabsorption, which would result from Celiac. The endoscopy is done to cofirm by some doctors, but if the blood results include the Ttg and EMA tests and are obviously positive, many will take that as enough for diagnose and forego the endoscopy, especially in young patients.

I am not sure about genetic defects as a whole running along with Celiac, but autoimmune disorders run in families where Celiac is present. Many people also have Irish heritage for whatever reason (potato famine, they say, but I am not sure how true that is). He is a cutie - hope they figure it out!