Is This Celiac Disease?

[SMommy]

I'm new to this subject, but am beginning to suspect that my 8mo old may have Celiac. The nonstop crying started at 2 wks old. He was exclusively breastfed, and couldn't tolerate anything I ate. I did the elimination diet, which did help a little. At 2 mo old, he was put on Prevacid for silent reflux. His newborn baby poop was watery green and smelled very bad. I was eating no dairy, eggs, nuts, and very little processed foods, but I never completely went off of wheat. I gave up when he was 7 mo old, becasue we could no longer tell if he wasn't tolerating what I was eating or if the food he was eating were bothering him. He does well with fruits and veggies, and rice cereal, but baby oatmeal is a joke. The first day it doesn't bother him too bad, but by the third day, he is MISERABLE! I have also noticed that his saliva also has very wierd metalic smell each time I have tried the oatmeal. It also seems to take a good week for him to feel better after all of this. Does that sound normal? He is tolerating soy formula, by no means happy, but not miserable and the spitting up has definately improved. I tried cheerios the other day and the same thing happened. The first day wasn't too bad, but by the third day, it was awful, he tries to gag himself all day long. We just went to the upper GI Specialist, and he said that he has "Soft Symptoms" and that the tests aren't that reliable. We left feeling pretty deflated, if he can't help us, who can? He is a good healthy 17 lbs so his doctors don't seem concerned. But I don't feel like it's normal for a baby to be miserable all day. This is my third, so I know what normal fussies are, and this is not it. Has anyone had a baby react to gluten or wheat from breastmilk at this early of an age? I would appreciate any suggestions that are out there, Thanks.

[Ridgewalker]

Yes, I have heard several accounts of babies reacting to the gluten in breastmilk, from what the mother is ingesting. And the GI specialist is right, the tests are very unreliable in young children.

I say, follow your instinct! Put him on a gluten-free diet and see if he improves. There's no danger in eating gluten-free. It does take some effort on your part, though. Read, read, read as much as you can on these message boards and in the library to help you get started. Even though it's difficult for medical tests to detect Celiac in young children, young children can absolutely have Celiac!

For the trial diet to be valid, he must be 100% gluten free, not just wheat free. That means no wheat, rye, barley, or any derivatives of those. It also means no oats, unless they've been certified gluten-free. Gluten is hidden in processed foods under numerous names and labels. Check out the FAQs on this website for "Forbidden" lists.

The tiniest trace amount of gluten can and will be reacted to, so you must be careful about cross contamination... crumbs get everywhere, so you need to have separate uncontaminated containers of things like butter, jelly, etc. Gluten also sinks into wooden spoons and cannot be removed, and it hides in scratched non-stick pans.

If you want help getting him gluten-free, just ask!

-Sarah

[ShayBraMom]

YES<YES<YES<YES!!!!!!!!! My daughter will turn 1 yr. in 2 weeks she still gets breastmilk. and oh boy, if I eat noddles or bread, 24 hors. later SHE will be in hell! Igt her never to eat Oatmeal, otherwise I wuld have maybe realized that she has issues with that! and if they got issues with wheat, you can bet your butt that they'll more then likely pretty sure will get the same problems with milk. With my daugther the same things, the first day she's not too bad, the second one is ok too, the same the nights but oh boy after htat...... the most problems she has during the night then. I was wondering if with others their babies get the worsed of the problems during the night then. My daughter had the Gene-Test for Celiac done, and she is positive for both Genes that have been associated with Celiac desease as a predesposition. the ohnly way to diagnose it in black and white is only a colonoskop[y but I talked to a lab yesterday and they said, it can take YEARS for the instestine to show damage with the Celiacs. I have ordered the Malnutrition Stooltest from Enterolab, it's an out of pocket expense but to me it's worth it! At least that way I can see if my daughters intestine already took a beating and decide if it's even worht it to go for the clonoskopy at all! Go to EnteroLab.com they are specialized in Celiac. they have a Stool-Glutensensitivitytest which is so sensitive it'll still pick up on it even a year after you quit Gluten- if it turns out positive either way they recommend to stop eating any gluten because down the road it can still turn into Celiac or all kind of other healthissues in context with the sensitivity!

I'm new to this subject, but am beginning to suspect that my 8mo old may have Celiac. The nonstop crying started at 2 wks old. He was exclusively breastfed, and couldn't tolerate anything I ate. I did the elimination diet, which did help a little. At 2 mo old, he was put on Prevacid for silent reflux. His newborn baby poop was watery green and smelled very bad. I was eating no dairy, eggs, nuts, and very little processed foods, but I never completely went off of wheat. I gave up when he was 7 mo old, becasue we could no longer tell if he wasn't tolerating what I was eating or if the food he was eating were bothering him. He does well with fruits and veggies, and rice cereal, but baby oatmeal is a joke. The first day it doesn't bother him too bad, but by the third day, he is MISERABLE! I have also noticed that his saliva also has very wierd metalic smell each time I have tried the oatmeal. It also seems to take a good week for him to feel better after all of this. Does that sound normal? He is tolerating soy formula, by no means happy, but not miserable and the spitting up has definately improved. I tried cheerios the other day and the same thing happened. The first day wasn't too bad, but by the third day, it was awful, he tries to gag himself all day long. We just went to the upper GI Specialist, and he said that he has "Soft Symptoms" and that the tests aren't that reliable. We left feeling pretty deflated, if he can't help us, who can? He is a good healthy 17 lbs so his doctors don't seem concerned. But I don't feel like it's normal for a baby to be miserable all day. This is my third, so I know what normal fussies are, and this is not it. Has anyone had a baby react to gluten or wheat from breastmilk at this early of an age? I would appreciate any suggestions that are out there, Thanks.

[SMommy]

Thanks for your thoughts, does anyone know if babies can be sensitive but not intolerant to gluten but outgrow it as they get older? Will waiting to introduce gluten into his diet make any difference?

[MammaW]

[Hi there,

My 11 month old has been having sleep issues since he was 8 wks old. He started with his first ear infection at 6 wks old, up all night crying, after the antibiotics he started sleeping throught the night and did so for a few weeks. At 8 wks old he started with this routine of going to sleep no problem...lay him down in his crib, he would fall asleep and then a few hours later he would start fussing, arching his back, acting like he was in pain. He also would get this terrible rash which eventually led him to the rheumatologist who ruled out rheumatoid arthritis, but referred us to an allergist who figured out he had some food allergies which was very interesting since we hadn't introduced food yet! Peanut and rice. We figured his rash was itchy and was keeping him up at night. I was nursing so I eliminated all rice and peanut and his rash cleared up! He kept on with the nighttime screaming though. Most nights he would wake every 30 minutes or so, sometimes screaming, arching his back, sometimes just whimpering. We then went the reflux route. Tried some Prevacid and miraculously after three days of being on it he went to sleep in his crib and slept 12 hours straight! This is a baby who just a week ago had been sleeping about 2-3 hours a night total. Well this was short lived and after about a week, he was back to his night misery. During the day he is great. happy, no diarrhea, no vomitting, no spitting up ever. just this night time pain. We tried letting him cry it out- he would go on and on all night long....a week went by and besides feeling like a terrible mother, nothing changed. He has seen a neurologist, a gastroenterologist- who ordered an upper gi and ultrasound which were both fine. now they want to do an overnight sleep study with a ph probe and eeg. It occurred to me today that he has had lots of gas at night...I got to doing some research and came across celiac disease and called our pediatrician who ordered some blood work. so he is going for the blood tests next week and i dont know what i am hoping for. i guess i am hoping they are negative although i realize that doesnt necessary mean he doesnt have it. if they are negative, my plan is to try a gluten free diet for a month and see what happens. for now, i dread the nights and just hope that he will just grow out of whatever is going on but I am not too hopeful. Because his symptoms started before we started solids, the doctor is not really that concerned about gluten....supposedly the gluten molecule is too big to pass in breast milk, but I don't know if I beleive that. As I said, my little guy showed a positive allergy to peanuts and rice before we ever introduced solids. I am interested in the results of his upcoming bloodwork, I dread finding out that he DOES have celiac disease, but on the other hand at least it would be an answer.

Take care,

MammaW