Why Am I Putting Off The Inevitable?

[Spookymom]

Hello all,

I'm calling my daughters allergist on Monday and having him run a celiac panel. I think I've been trying to hide from this. She has starting having gas, like farting and burping, and now instead of being constipated, she had been for lack of a better terms 'sharting'. She did it once earlier this week and then just today. Her poop wasn't diarrhea though it was just soft, but had shape. She has said a couple times this week she's tired, and this morning she said she wasn't hungry, although she did eat. She had a grilled cheese for dinner. She's saying she's tired and has a headache tonight. I feel like I'm watching the celiac get worse, but in September when we started with this, she was normal and happy. My husband keeps saying its nothing she's fine, no one can find anything wrong with her, the oral surgeon said the white areas on her tongue were from rubbing her teeth against it.

Am I going crazy?

[nvsmom]

You're not crazy, it could be celiac disease so it is a good idea to get it checked... Just in case.

 

Celiac disease is not an allergy though so seeing an allergist for a diagnosis may not be helpful - it depends entirely on if the allergist has chosen to educate himself in this non-allergy field. Celiac is an autoimmune disease, like lupus, diabetes, or crohn's, and it deals with the IgA and IgG parts of the immune system whereas allergies are IgE based.  You can see a GP about testing (if the allergist doesn't work out) or get referred to a pediatric GI specialist.

 

When she does get tested, make sure all the tests are run as it is not that unusual (but still a minority) to get a false negative result in one test. These are the tests:

• tTG IgA and tTG IgG
• DGP IgA and DGP IgG (good tests for kids)
• EMA IgA 
• total serum IgA (a control test)
• AGA IgA and AGA IgG (older and less reliable tests that were replaced by the DGP tests)
• endoscopic biopsy (6+ samples taken)

 

She'll need to be eating gluten in the 8-12 weeks prior to blood testing, 2-4 weeks prior to the endoscopy, so do not have her eat gluten-free yet.

 

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) has almost the same symptoms as celiac disease but will test negative on the tests.  If the tests are negative, you might want to consider trying the gluten-free diet for a few months to see if it helps.

 

Best wishes and welcome to the board.  

[Spookymom]

Thanks, her allergist can run the celiac panel, but refer us if it's positive for an endoscopy. So I'll just hope and pray the blood work comes back o.k.

I'm hoping I'm an over involved mom and paying too much attention to little things that are just normal things. The tongue thing is what started this roller coaster, so now that I know what it is, I can start to freak out about other things.

[nvsmom]

In my experience, when we think something is up with our kids, we're usually right. We may not be right about the cause but we know when something is up.

 

Good luck with the tests.