Endoscopy on 2 year old

[SarahMW]

My 2 year old had his endoscopy today. They took biopsies for celiac, sucrose and lactase. The doctor said the lining appears healthy. Does this mean it's unlikely to have celiac?

[Scott Adams]

Did they take 3-4 samples and examine them under a microscope and give you a Marsh score? This is the normal approach for a celiac disease biopsy. Only your doctors can make the diagnosis, so ask them about this.

Also, did they do a blood test, which is the normal first step in the diagnostic process?

Also, he could still have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which is ~10x more common than celiac disease, yet there is no test for it. So you may still want to try a gluten-free diet after all tests are done.

[RMJ]

On 2/28/2023 at 2:29 PM, SarahMW said:

My 2 year old had his endoscopy today. They took biopsies for celiac, sucrose and lactase. The doctor said the lining appears healthy. Does this mean it's unlikely to have celiac?

“lining appears healthy” sounds like a visual inspection, especially if you were told that on the day of the endoscopy!  Biopsy results take longer.   Celiac damage can’t always be seen with the endoscope, so you’ll need to wait and see what the biopsy results are.

[SarahMW]

On 3/5/2023 at 6:10 PM, RMJ said:

“lining appears healthy” sounds like a visual inspection, especially if you were told that on the day of the endoscopy!  Biopsy results take longer.   Celiac damage can’t always be seen with the endoscope, so you’ll need to wait and see what the biopsy results are.

This was exactly the case. It came back with duodenitis. They said they didn't see any chronic changes yet but between the blood test being positive and the inflammation in the small intestine he likely has celiac disease.