Growth Delay?

[sarahelizabeth]

What type of growth delay is usually seen in kids with celiac?? Is it primarily weight?? or can it be height??

I was at the ped's today with my 4 year old son for ear infection #4 since his tubes fell out in January (erg... whole other story) and she commented on how small he is and looked at his growth curve. I knew he hadn't grown in the past year but I didn't realize how far on the charts he'd fallen... 50th percentil for height at 2 years, 25th percentile at 3 years, and then 10th percentile at 4 years and now he's even below that.

She's having us come back in 4 weeks for a height recheck and if he hasn't grown then she's going to order an xray of his hand for bone age and possibily bloodwork (she didn't say what). Ironically enough this what not our regular ped (saw who we could see today at the time we needed to come in) and our regular ped was not in the least concerned about his height when we were in in Jan.

Anyway... his weight has stayed 50th percentile all along since he was 15 months old so he's still gaining weight just fine... just not growing taller.

Could celiac **just** stunt height and not weight?? I am just curious because I am thinking about pushing for a celiac panel to be run if they draw bloodwork in 4 weeks.

[2kids4me]

Be sure they test his thyroid. My daughter fell off the growth charts - she stopped growing between 3 and 4 yrs old. Growth hormone and thyroid hormone work together - so one without the other = growth failure. Why are they waiting 4 weeks??

Yes celiac can impact growth (in height) and that is why it MUST be included in the bloodwork.

Interesting, it was our regular ped who dismissed concerns as she fell off the growth chart, (she was also sleeping a lot and constipated)...then suddenly we get a stat referral when she developed something called myxedema (her face was puffy and she had weak facial muscles).

TSH was over 900 (normal is below 4) and her T4 was 5.2 (very low)

Celiac and hypothyroidism would be first on my list

Sandy

[vampella]

my daughter was delayed in both weight and height.