New And Confused

[Michl]

My name is Michelle, we have a 3 yr old son who has suffered with constant diahrea for 5-6 months. Last week he started passing clear foamy fluid from his bowels. We tested for parasites, blood etc and everything came back ok. We were now told to do a gluten, wheat, egg, milk(he was already lactose intolerant but did take well to cheese and yogurt before) free diet. If they dont see a change at the end of the month he will have to have testing and x-rays done on his bowels. I almost now hope its an allergy so I know there isnt anything 'physically' wrong with him. He is a completely happy boy, no problems with weight at all. He has some minor behavior issues which we jsut chalked up to being a boy, but when reading I see this can be a symptom also.

He is doing really well on the diet, there has only been a couple things he doesnt like. I have yet to find a local store with a large selection of products for him, but its only been a week.

I have been reading posts and it seems like my Dr is having us do things backwards. Should he have had some test wheile still Gluten, or is my Dr smart in just taking his reaction as diagnoses? Would love some feedback, this is very new to us. We also have an 8yr old daughter with no allergies or intolerances to anything.

~Michelle

[nettiebeads]

Believe it or not, I agree with your dr, because that is the same approach my dr took with me lo, these many years ago. I prefer the noninvasive type medicine myself, and your little boy I'm sure wouldn't mind if he understood. What you might do is the enterolab to see what's going on and to do the gene test. It's something I hope to do in the future. The diet challenge is a valid dx tool, and because of your son's age, the tests have a notoriously high false negative rate. And celiac is genetic, but for some reason the disease seems to have been "turned on" in you son, while your daughter, so far, is in the clear, although she may have the exact same celiac genes. I have celiac, my brother doesn't. I'm sure it's from my mother's side, but none of my cousins seem to have it. It's another one of those things that medicine can't explain.

Hope your son has a good response to the diet. Keep us posted!

Annette

[lovegrov]

Standard advice from celiac doctors would be to at least do the blood tests while your son is eating gluten. Blood tests are no more invasive than having blood drawn and will not be accurate after your son is gluten-free unless he starts eating gluten again. The tests are not perfect but from everything I've read they're considered effective in most people by age 2.

richard

[Guest nini]

actually I think dietary response is the most valid diagnostic tool. blood testing in children is completely unreliable. In adults it's not that reliable either, too many false negatives.

I belong to the alternative way of looking at this, which is, a gluten-free diet is healthy, there is no reason to NOT be on it, if it helps your son you have saved yourself a lot of money and aggravation with going round and round with Dr.s trying to get them to do the tests you want and then leaving you on your own to figure out the diet. You do not need a Dr.s permission to go on the diet, regardless if it's Celiac or Gluten Intolerance or an allergy, the treatment is the same, avoid gluten... for life.