Need Advice On How To Proceed With 9mo

[shelby1]

My 9mo son recently had a bout with chronic, watery diarrhea for 5 weeks. Symptoms were exacerbated by Cheerios & many Gerber Puffs.

I have eliminated Cheerios completely and greatly reduced the # of Gerber Puffs in his diet. He is not eating any other foods with wheat or gluten.

His symptoms of diarrhea disappeared within 2 days and has had normal bowel movements since. He is not gaining as much weight as they would like...only 8oz since 6 months and it appears he may be losing weight now.

Is it possible to have a gluten threshold? Meaning you can eat X amount of gluten daily before symptoms appear?

The diarrhea started 2 weeks after an Amoxicillin treatment ended. He had a very significant hive reaction on day 10 of that treatment. At this point, we are still in the early stages of fact-finding with our MD. We do not know if this is a temporary intolerance to something because the gut was wiped out. Stool cultures were not done until week 4 of diarrhea and all tests came back negative for bacteria/parasites.

Next week I am supposed to reintroduce Cheerios/gluten to see what happens.

I want his blood tests to be as accurate as possible. One person suggested he be on gluten for at least 2 weeks.

Since he is so young, how much intestinal damage can there be to show up on the tests?

Will a gluten intolerance but not Celiac show if applicable?

Will an IgA deficiency or other autoimmune disorder show up (if applicable) on the panel if I have them run all 5 tests?

Anti Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti Tissue Transglutiminase (tTg) IgA

Total Serum IgA

Is there anything else you can recommend either for me to watch out for or guide me in this process?

I am very new to Celiac.

Thank you!

[Ursa Major]

Shelby, with him not eating any significant amount of gluten for a while now, it is most likely that all tests will come back negative for celiac disease, even if he has it. Personally, I think getting the gene test done makes more sense than the celiac disease panel right now. If he has the celiac disease genes and obviously reacts to gluten, that would be enough for a firm diagnosis.

A baby that young doesn't even need any solids yet, and I suggest to stop feeding anything that contains gluten. It would take at least four whole months of eating LOTS of gluten for the tests to even have a remote chance of being positive. You shouldn't do that to anybody, never mind a little baby!

It sounds like the good gut bacteria were wiped right out by the antibiotics. I suggest getting probiotics specifically for babies (powder) to be mixed in with formula (or breast milk), to reintroduce needed gut bacteria.

The illness and the antibiotics could have triggered celiac disease if your baby has the genes.