Gluten Challenge

[e&j0304]

What have your drs. told you? How long would a child have to be back eating gluten in order to hopefully get an accurate diagnosis one way or the other? Does it make a difference depending on how long the child was gluten-free. The child has been gluten-free for a year now.

Thanks for any insight!

[tarnalberry]

At least three months (at this point, four would be better); at least three slices of bread a day (or the equivalent).

[mamatide]

At least three months (at this point, four would be better); at least three slices of bread a day (or the equivalent).

Our pediatric GI said that the challenge for a child this age (my DD is 5) would be 1 slice of bread a day for two to three months. She's been gluten-free for 8 months.

He also said that at this age (and I see your children are 3.5 and 2) a child can get extremely ill (i.e., hospitalized) on a gluten challenge, which is why we're waiting until our DD is older. There will come a time in her life when she'll want a definitive diagnosis and we'll do it then, now now when she definitely would not understand why we're doing this to her.

If you're going to do a challenge I would recommend that you consult with a pediatric GI and have that doctor monitor the challenge and schedule the biopsy before you even begin.

He also said that a challenge means every single day - no haphazard approach - they'll be looking for very small changes in intestinal tissue so it's important that the challenge be done properly or you won't be able to trust the results.

Good luck,

mamatide

[e&j0304]

Thank you both for your help. We have been giving him gluten for the past week, but I don't think we've been giving him enough. He's only had one regular waffle per day. His dr. wanted him to start his little mother's day out program on a normal diet and see what happens. Also, he is going to be getting an endoscopy for his awful reflux problem so I thought maybe they could also check for celiac again since it was neg. when they scoped him at a year old. He has been gluten-free for the past year since that scope was done.

He has been having diarrhea several times per day since starting the challenge, but is acting normally. He doesn't seem to feel badly or be in pain. I guess we can continue with the challenge unless he gets really sick or starts losing weight.

I'm waiting to see if his stools firm up in a few days because it could just be his body adjusting to having gluten back in his diet. We'll see and hope for the best!

Thank again.