Seemingly Endless Appitite?

[sarahelizabeth]

Is this a symptom of celiac??? The Dr's have thrown around the idea of testing my 1 year old for celiac but haven't yet. He's only in the 5th percentile for weight but eats NON STOP... more than most school age children it seems!! He's short too, has chronic constipation issues, reflux, very gassy, is very irritable, and is not digesting much of the food he eats (it comes out whole), he was anemic at his 9 month check up too. The Drs told me that children with celiac don't want to eat cause their tummy's are uncomfy so since Matthew has a HUGE appitite he must not have celiac??? I am confused!!

[mommida]

Is this a symptom of celiac??? The Dr's have thrown around the idea of testing my 1 year old for celiac but haven't yet. He's only in the 5th percentile for weight but eats NON STOP... more than most school age children it seems!! He's short too, has chronic constipation issues, reflux, very gassy, is very irritable, and is not digesting much of the food he eats (it comes out whole), he was anemic at his 9 month check up too. The Drs told me that children with celiac don't want to eat cause their tummy's are uncomfy so since Matthew has a HUGE appitite he must not have celiac??? I am confused!!

All the things you have listed are symptoms for Celiac. If I have been glutened I feel BURNING hunger pains. My daughter was eating more food than I was and she was only 10 months old!

L.

[penguin]

With celiac, you're malnourished. You're not absorbing any food, so your body thinks its starving, ergo-massive appetite.

It's very much a symptom of celiac, or at the very least malnutrition.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Is your one-year-old still getting any breast milk, or is he already weaned? For some reason, besides for being more easily digested than any other milk (including ALL formulas), the proteins and fats in breast milk go directly to bone and brain growth rather than fat. He may be thirsty, too. One year-olds can't always tell the difference between hunger and thirst--make sure he's washing all that food down!

If his food is coming out the other end whole, then he's not chewing his food and he shouldn't be eating that kind of food. Run it through the blender first with some liquid!

If you've only recently weaned him, you can still probably relacte by pumping. It sounds like an awful pain in the patootie, but I bet you'll see a HUGE diffrence.

[penguin]

If his food is coming out the other end whole, then he's not chewing his food and he shouldn't be eating that kind of food. Run it through the blender first with some liquid!

It's also a sign that food isn't being digested at all, if it's chewed but comes out looking like the chewed state. Any grown up celiac with a full set of teeth that's ever eaten a salad on a bad day can tell you that

[sarahelizabeth]

He weaned himself from breastmilk at 9 months. At that time we thought he had a dairy allergy so it turned out for the best. He had allergy testing done and came back negative for everything except peanut (but that is a whole otehr story) He was only Alimentum up until his birthday 2 weeks ago and is now on whole milk.

Our GI Dr said that it **can** be normal for kids his age to have foods come out whole because they lack the teeth for good chewing. He said if his poops still look like that in a year then he would send him for further testing. He told me not to worry about it and not to change his diet. He said the same thing about the reflux... can be "normal" up to age 2 so wanted to wait another year before any testing. So now we just have to sit back and wait a year

[Fiddle-Faddle]

So now we just have to sit back and wait a year

You don't HAVE to do anything you don't want to do! You are in charge of what goes in your son's mouth, not your doctor!

If he has a problem chewing his food, then it can't possibly be good for his intestinal tract (with or without celiac) to have unchewed food passing through it! His stomach is probably producing extra acid to try to break down the unchewed food. If he has reflux, there ARE measures to lessen it (my daughter had reflux, too). you're probably already doing them, but just in case: keep him upright as much as possible, especially after eating. If he's tired, hold him with his head on your shoulder and rock him, and then just hold him til he wakes up, or else let him sleep in a toddler car seat. Feed him HALF as much--but twice as often.

You might want to go back to the Alimentum and see if he has an easier time digesting it. If you MUST do cow's milk, please get Organic--all the things we nursing moms were told we CAN'T take and still nurse our babies, like antibiotics and hormones are in the diets of America's dairy cows. They are on constant antibiotics and recombinant bovine growth hormone, and they eat pesticide-laden feed, too. Organic milk is ridiculously expensive--but worth it in the long run.

[kenyonsmommy]

My son is 2, just diagnosed by biopsy last month. He eats non-stop. he wakes me up at 5 am every morning with a go-gurt that he has grabbed from the fridge. he eats it, has some water and goes back to sleep. When he is awake, he is constantly hungry. he's only been gluten free for about 3 weeks, he's gained almost 4 pounds. Before he was Dx, his poop was almost white and smelled horrible, he was getting no nourishment what so ever. I think he may have gotten used to the non stop eating then, and its just continuing now. Not to mention that he feels 10x better.

By the way, I also just trained him to grab a diaper when he comes in with his go-gurt, that way i dont have to get up. 5 am is way too early for me.

[e&j0304]

Endless appetite was the main problem that we had with my dd. She would eat ALL the time and was also very tiny. Only 18lbs and 27inches at a year old. She should have been 40lbs at least. She was so malnourished before we figured out that gluten was the problem that her hair was falling out in clumps and she was actually bald in spots on her head. She was about 2.5 years at that point.

She is now almost 3.5 years old and is doing VERY well. Her hair is growing in, she is happy and thriving in every way. She is of normal weight although she is still short. She is still an above average eater, I would say, but I think that as someone else mentioned, she was used to eating such huge amounts of food and I think that stuck with her. What we are not dealing with now is the total obsession about when she could eat next, melt downs about being hungry (after just eating something) and lack of ability to just function in a normal social setting because she was so miserably hungry.

I would advice you to try the diet. It can't hurt and it may be the best thing you could ever do for your child. I thank God every day that we were able to help my dd with the simple dietary change.

Good luck!