Testing And Symptoms In Teenagers

[azmom]

My husband has celiac disease and I am wondering if my 13 yr old son may also have it. My son's symptoms include: insomnia, memory problems and lack of concentration. He does not show any signs of digestive problems and is a little on the heavy side. He actually eats like a horse and tends to crave glutenous food (bread, pasta,etc.). I am becoming very concerned about his schoolwork. He is a very bright kid who scores high on standardized tests, but is actually failing 8th grade mostly due to not doing his homework and poor test performance. He says he forgets things during tests. He is sullen and irratible also (of course, he is 13..hello hormones!)

I'm wondering what symptoms other teens may have shown before diagnosis. Also, since I will need to pay for the tests out of pocket, what is the best method for diagnosis?

Thx!

azmom

[momothree]

I have two older kids (13 & 11) who were just tested positive for Celiac in March and June. For both of them there were very few "typical" symptoms. However, my daughter (11) sounds a bit like your son. Very moody, lack of focus, inability to get things done, tired all the time, and pretty grumpy. She has only been gluten free for about 9 months, but we are slowly seeing some improvements. She seems to be able to focus much more clearly, and she says that she hasn't felt so good in years. For us, that's success. My son (13) had a few minor digestive issues (mostly when he was younger though), and he would eat, and eat, and eat all the time. He is small for his age and was quite spindly no matter how much he ate. He also used to grind his teeth all the time at night which has completely stopped. The symptoms can sometimes be hard to even notice until they aren't doing them anymore. LOL

[ARK]

  azmom said:

My husband has celiac disease and I am wondering if my 13 yr old son may also have it. My son's symptoms include: insomnia, memory problems and lack of concentration. He does not show any signs of digestive problems and is a little on the heavy side. He actually eats like a horse and tends to crave glutenous food (bread, pasta,etc.). I am becoming very concerned about his schoolwork. He is a very bright kid who scores high on standardized tests, but is actually failing 8th grade mostly due to not doing his homework and poor test performance. He says he forgets things during tests. He is sullen and irratible also (of course, he is 13..hello hormones!)

I'm wondering what symptoms other teens may have shown before diagnosis. Also, since I will need to pay for the tests out of pocket, what is the best method for diagnosis?

My 14 year old son has those same problems except for the insomnia.

His depression can get REALLY bad when he eats gluten. It was so bad that he was crying on a daily basis, and that is the #1 thing that we made our first doctor appt for. Fatigue was #2.

His stomach was hurting off and on, but no diarrhea or constipation.

We were blessed with a doctor who took one look at him and said "Something is REALLY wrong!" (No mention of anti-depressants, thank the Lord!) It did take 3 months to figure it out, and it was a miserable three months, but if we can stay away from accidental glutenings (still learning!) then he feels amazingly good. ALSO, he does not eat NEAR as much as he used to. It only takes a normal amount of food for him to feel satisfied.

We used EnteroLab for testing - but may do some blood work this week as well.