Okay So The Blood Test Was + Now The Biopsies ++

[WalksonWater]

I'm back! It's been WAY confirmed. He is definatly Celiac, no questions! We even have pics of his intestines.....too bad it has gone on for years (he needed 3 bags of blood).....now we are on the road to recovery....6 weeks gluten free. Sooooo here's my question:

I have two boys...a 7 year old and a 4 year old (4 year old tested but blood work was negative...I'm not convinced). We've thought of having another child. I'm scared that Celiac will transfer to a newbie or worse yet that the newbie would not be well (worse than Celiac)...(I'm 35 to make matters worse). I've read the above fears in a book....what do you guys think? I've also read about infertility. We didn't have that problem years ago....wonder if we would now?? Hmmm. Thanks for any opinions!

[Ursa Major]

Celiac disease is not contagious, so won't 'transfer' to anybody in that way. But it is genetic, and of course any child of somebody with celiac disease can have the celiac disease genes, and be predisposed to getting it (or even being born with it already). And that chance is fairly high.

Infertility appears to be a common problem for both men and women with untreated celiac disease, but once on the gluten-free diet, that problem should clear up within a few months.

As for your boys, blood tests in young children are highly unreliable and yield many false negatives. So, if you are not convinced that the results were accurate, I would suggest just trying the gluten-free diet to see if it makes a difference. The diet is the most accurate test, anyway.

[GFBetsy]

You know, it is always a risk that a new child will have some sort of problem. Even very young mothers can have children with severe birth defects. Age does increase the risks of some problems (like Down's) but not others. The 2 children my mother had after she was 35 had no problems at all. And when the problems are very severe, a spontaneous miscarriage is likely to occur.

As far as celiac goes . . . when they first start the diet, some people feel like it might have been better never to be born than to have to eat gluten free . But, the longer you deal with the diet, the easier it gets. And once you learn some of the tricks of gluten free baking, you can make almost everything that a "normal" diet contains. And a child who has always been gluten free really won't feel bad that he or she has to eat that way.

I don't think I would make the decision about whether or not to have another child based on their likelihood of having celiac. Based on the likelihood of having other severe problems . . . perhaps. Depending on the problem. But I think you have to combine all of those risks with your reasons for desiring to have another child.