Comes And Goes?

[jnifred]

So I discovered I was gluten intolerant about 1 1/2 years ago......really think at least 2 of my kids have a gluten intolerance also.....one of them went for all sorts of testing last summer...all normal. SO, tonight he tells me that he is sick of having cramps, diarreaha (why is that word so hard to spell????) blah blah blah. Writes down a list of his symptoms and asks me to call the doctor in the morning.

My biggest obstacle is that my DH is a pediatrician and lives by test results. It took a couple months for him to take my intolerance seriously, he totally is on board with me now. I am so convinced my son has the same thing as me, but I am NOT putting him through all the GI tests again and the bloodwork is just going to come back normal again since intolerance doesn't show up in bloodwork, only Celiac itself, yes???? Am I wrong????

So my question for you all is......did your child have sypmtoms continuously or did they come and go???? His comes and goes. And we'ver tried keeping a food diary, but right now pretty much everything cause him to run to the bathroom. I'm thinking he is a bit lactose intolerant right now too, I had some of that but it went away after being gluten-free.

so anywhoooo, my question.....did the symptoms come and go, or where they constant????

Thanks for reading my rambles.......at my wits end.

[Nantzie]

Now that my daughter has been gluten-free for a while, I can say that she had a constant not-feeling-good, but then had occasional upsurges in symptoms.

Have your husband take a look at and/or communicate with www.enterolab.com. The doctor who runs it is working on a study and is just trying to get as much information and test results as he can before he publishes. They are very good about communicating with just regular people, so I'm sure they'd be good about communicating with a pediatrician.

Daddys can be funny. Moms just want our kids to feel healthy, whatever that needs to be. Dads don't want their kids to be sick. You can not be officially test-results "sick" and still feel like you got run over by a bus.

Just the fact that your child is coming to you saying that he is tired of feeling the way he's feeling, when all most kids want to do is have a sugar/chocolate/caffeine/fastfood IV installed, says a lot about how bad he's feeling.

You're right that intolerance doesn't show up in blood work. I had negative tests and my life completely changed after I went gluten free.

Just try the diet. If it's brings a positive change to his life, HE will be the one who will self-police.

We put my daughter on a gluten-free diet right after she turned 4. I explained to her ONCE that the doctor figured out that gluten was what was making her tummy hurt. Once. (Based on my history and her dietary response, her ped GI was very supportive of not needing a scope.) I have never, EVER had a fight with her about not eating gluten. Not one teardrop. Not one single fit. And this is a child who will argue about everything. Seriously. EV-ER-Y-THING.

My husband sometimes worries about her missing out on things, so I think it's a Daddy thing. My daughter doesn't seem to care a bit about gluten.

Nancy

[aikiducky]

One thought - celiac develops over time, so it's possible to have negative test results one year and then positive ones a couple years later. A negative test result for celiac is not valid for life!

Pauliina

[jnifred]

Thanks so much for your responses. He's in 5th grade and so he has a lot of control over what he eats. Right now he is willing to only eat what I tell him he can. I'm trying to keep him very bland and no lactose for at least a couple days and see if we can get him feeling better.

Since I went gluten-free, the whole family eats gluten-free in the house, except for the occasional bagel (seperate toaster) or bowl of Cheerios or a flour tortilla rollup. So it won't be that hard for him at home, eating out will be a different story, esp. the lactose thing, but that is only temporary until his gut feels better.

I hope by this experiment I can convince DH and him that he needs to be gluten-free. And maybe the other son (older) will decide to try it too. That one is in Middle School tho, and the lunch choices, OY!! I think they sprinkle extra gluten on everything...ugh! It will have to be take your lunch to school if he decides to try gluten-free. Now to see what happens with the rest of the boys.......

Thanks again!!!