If Not Celiac What Could Be Causing Low Weight Gain?

[mom-to-claire]

We are sure my DD has a gluten intolerance but not sure if it is Celiac or not and probably will never know as I'm not about to challenge her any time soon. She is doing well in terms of her mood, sleep etc being gluten free but is still not growing. We saw a pediatric GI recently and he does not think she has Celiac due to the fact that she was anemic, low weight gain, cranky and miserable from very early on (pretty much from birth), vomiting on rice cereal which shouldn't have gluten etc. I don't know what everyone else thinks of that but he didn't think it was Celiac. He is sending us to an endrocrinologist for more testing and did some blood work to check for chromosonal abnormalities.

My DD is almost 13 months and is only 15 lb 9oz and about 26 inches long. She is below the 3rd percentile. She didn't just start to fall off, she's always been low on the charts since she was about 3 months old. She was born 7 lb 8oz and was 19 1/4 inches (I think).

Does anyone know or has dealt with this issue? I would think if she is responding well to the gluten free diet in other ways (mainly behaviour and sleep) that she should be gaining weight as her intestines are healing (provided she has Celiac).

[chrissy]

my youngest was failure to thrive for 2 years. she originally had reflux which was bad enought to require surgery----reflux was taken care of, but then she continued to be failure to thrive. she developed esophageal thrush, once it was cleared up she started to gain but then got sick and lost weight. she developed obstructive sleep apnea which caused her to continue to be failure to thrive. once her tonsils and adenoids were removed she has thrived.

there can be many causes for cranky behaviour and poor weight gain in small children and infants.

[kirbymom]

Is there any possibiliy your daughter has a yeast infection i.e. thrush? Has she ever been on antibiotic? Have you tried probiotics at all? Did the rice cereal have any dairy?