What Age Does Testing Become More Accurate?

[sarahelizabeth]

My youngest son just had a negative TTG about a month ago but still def has A LOT of symptoms which are not going away despite doing everything the Dr recommended (chronic constipation, foul smelling poops, sometimes alternates with diarrhea, occasional blood and mucus in his poop, low weight gain (not ftt though), refusal to eat, ezcema, chronic ei's, mild anemia, etc) . My 4 year old also has some symptoms too the biggest of which I am seeing is not growing in the past year... seriously he's the same height now as he was last June!! He doesn't have major tummy issues... just some mild constipation issues... but he eats like a horse and is tiny as can be... 34lbs and 38 inches tall at 4y3m. I was thinking about asking to have him tested but I don't want him to be too young like his brother may have been.

So my question is when is a better age to test??

[Ursa Major]

Okay, lets look at it this way. Your kids have a problem NOW, not whenever their tests might (and that's a big might) come out positive. Are you really going to wait until then? What if it never happens, will you just accept that one son has all those digestive problems (which have likely lead to malnutrition already), and the other one will have stunted growth?

Or are you just going to say, 'To H**l with those stupid doctors and their tests, I will do everything I can to make my kids well, to give them the best life they can have?

If they were my kids, and I'd know that just changing their diet could result in perfect health and normal growth, even if the doctors declare they can't have celiac disease, I would eliminate gluten immediately.

In young children under six the tests are extremely unreliable and yield many false negatives. If you wait until those boys are six to have them tested, a lot of damage may have been done to their bodies by then. Some of which may be irreparable. And of course, there is no guarantee that their tests will be positive at the age of six either.

For most young children the diet trial is the most valid test of them all. And the only 100% accurate one. So, I suggest you put those kids on the celiac disease diet and see if they improve. If they do, you have your answer. If they don't you'll have to keep looking.

And you would do well to also eliminate dairy and soy from their diets, as those would quite possibly be a problem as well.

If you really want accurate testing done, go with Open Original Shared Link. With their tests age doesn't matter. If the kids consume gluten, the tests will show if it's a problem.

[janelyb]

Ursa,

How long should one try the diet before they truely say it works or not? 1 month, 6 months, a year???

For most young children the diet trial is the most valid test of them all. And the only 100% accurate one. So, I suggest you put those kids on the celiac disease diet and see if they improve. If they do, you have your answer. If they don't you'll have to keep looking.

And you would do well to also eliminate dairy and soy from their diets, as those would quite possibly be a problem as well.

[Team Young]

Ursa,

How long should one try the diet before they truely say it works or not? 1 month, 6 months, a year???

I noticed a difference in my son within 1-2 weeks. Behaviour, energy, etc. Then after about 1 month he seemed like a completely different kid. Hyper, healhty, running around, no more constipation issue.

I would put both of your kids on a Celiac diet immediately and I agree, take out dairy/soy also. You will notice a huge difference I bet.