How Did You Get To A Dx Of Celiac For Your Child?

[mythreesuns]

I'm in the process of a gluten-free trial myself for my own issues, but now I'm concerned about my son. He's had chronic diarrhea for more than a year, he went through a period of time where he was sick (throwing up) frequently (a couple of times a month without other obvious sickness) and he was tired a lot and his head hurt.

He went through a multitude of tests and through several channels we discovered that his ANAs came up high on his blood tests and he did get dx's of OCD and Tourette's from his developmental pediatrician.

Well, after what I went through/am going through, I decided to get him tested as well, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. For me, the blood tests and the biopsies came up negative. Is there a better way to test for children? This kid HATES bloodwork (almost passes out) and I can't see putting him through an endoscopy.

Any thoughts?

[azmom3]

I'm in the process of a gluten-free trial myself for my own issues, but now I'm concerned about my son. He's had chronic diarrhea for more than a year, he went through a period of time where he was sick (throwing up) frequently (a couple of times a month without other obvious sickness) and he was tired a lot and his head hurt.

He went through a multitude of tests and through several channels we discovered that his ANAs came up high on his blood tests and he did get dx's of OCD and Tourette's from his developmental pediatrician.

Well, after what I went through/am going through, I decided to get him tested as well, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. For me, the blood tests and the biopsies came up negative. Is there a better way to test for children? This kid HATES bloodwork (almost passes out) and I can't see putting him through an endoscopy.

Any thoughts?

You might look into Enterolab. They use a stool sample and I believe you don't even have to be eating gluten at the time of the test as you do with both blood and biopsy, so you could get tested this way also. From what I understand they're tests are very sensitive and may pick up something that the other tests can't. The downside? Expensive and not covered by insurance all the time. Someone on this board can probably give you more information as I'm still new myself and haven't used Enterolab as of yet. good luck!

[AndreaB]

I recommend enterolab. They can't give an official dx but they can tell you whether you have an active gluten intolerance. I had my family done and aside from my husband we are gluten intolerant. I didn't even try to run it through insurance. Enterolab gives you the code break down so you can submit it for reimbursement if they'll cover any of it. Open Original Shared Link

[mythreesuns]

Thanks, I did look into Enterolab for myself and it's just too costly for us at this time. I know that sounds trite, but here it is August 16th and I haven't paid this month's mortgage yet, so I really do mean it when I say we don't have the money.

[Nic]

Plenty of us can understand the not being able to afford it, don't feel bad . If you are really avoiding the blood work for your son you can just try a gluten free challenge with him. If you take it away you should start to see improvement within the next few weeks if he has Celiac. At least that is what I have understood from parents of kids who have D as their symptom as well as my father who is a Celiac. My son on the other hand had constipation and therefore took about 3 months to see improvement.

Nicole