Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Came Here For Son, But Am I Celiac Too?


missquarejane

Recommended Posts

missquarejane Rookie

my 15 month old son stopped really growing at all around the 6 to 8 month stage, suffered horrible GERD from 8 weeks of age on. no hair and lonnnnng eyelashes. doctors finally suggested celiac around 10 months and since being pulled from any trace of gluten, he has finally begun to grow again. i came to the msg board here looking for info and support for him, but now i am beginning to think that i need to be tested too. all the reading here has me putting two and two together... it all adds up.

i was a bald baby with super long eyelashes and of irish and brittish decent. collic and irritability from 3 mos (when my mom introduced formula). i have a history of severe rash as a child, occasional random outbursts of hives as an adult. chronic nagging sinusitis and post nasal drip that never clears, occasional migranes, chronic headaches, irritability and or moodiness and or depression in bouts for no aparent reason. i have also had asthma and allergies ever since i was 6 mos old. at one year, i was the size of a 6 month old and now am only 4'11''.

4 years ago i had my appendix removed because i was having such horrible pains in my abdomen and sides off and on... when i eventually went to the hospital, my white blood cell count was through the roof, and on the ultrasound it appeared that i had fluid in my abdominal cavity. the surgeon and specialist weren't certain that it was appendicitis because the appendix itself looked normal on the ultrasound, so they did an old fashioned large incision so that the could poke around and proclaimed diverticulitis. i am only 36.

what do you all think? is it possible i have just been poisoning myself my whole life? i had always assumed that i just came from bad genes with nagging health issues that i was just supposed to deal with. is it really possible that i just need to stop eating the wrong things? and now i wonder about my daughter as well. she also had the tell-tale no hair and long eyelashes, asthma, chronic cough and post nasal drip... and she suffers from bouts of anxiety that are almost uncontrollable. even as an infant she would panic if she wasn't at home. at three, she would flip out if i started the bathtub and left the room while it filled. (not with her in the tub, just she would worry that it would overflow--to the point of screaming). i have recently pulled her off wheat completely.

are there any testing options in canada that are less invasive and more accurate than glutening and blood tests or biopsy? i don't like those options, especially for my son and daughter. is there enterolab here? can you request this type of testing from your md?


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



wowzer Community Regular

It sure sounds like you could have celiac also. It is genetic, so your son got it from somewhere. If you haven't been gluten free yourself, you could try the blood test. It can have a false negative, but not a false positive. I am in the United States, so I don't know about the entereo lab, I'm sure you could always mail for it.

psawyer Proficient

The symptoms that you have described are consistent with celiac disease, but are not exclusive to celiac. Most doctors like to see "definitive" evidence. The biopsy showing villous atrophy is definitive. Positive blood results, especially tTG, are very specific.

Those tests look for the reaction to gluten exposure, so the subject must be eating gluten on a regular basis for them to show positive.

Although a majority of doctors don't yet accept it, a positive response to the gluten-free diet can be diagnostic. This is particularly true if you see an improvement, reintroduce gluten, see a decline, eliminate gluten again and see another positive response (this is typically called the "gluten challenge").

I am in Canada. There is nothing comparable to Enterolab here, but if you can send the required material to Enterolab they should be able to do the test. I'm not sure how various transportation companies and US Customs will react to a shipment whose declared content is human excrement :o

As to yourself, if you are not currently on a gluten-free diet, blood tests should help determine if you have celiac disease.

The celiac panel consists of:

tTG-IgA or tissue transglutaminase-IgA

AGA-IgG or Antigliadin IgG

AGA-IgA or Antigliadin IgA

Total IGA

Of these, the tTG is the most specific (99%) for celiac. Open Original Shared Link

gfpaperdoll Rookie

I am Irish & english, & most of my family has a gluten problem. It sounds to me like you need to be gluten-free. I do not see how anyone that is Irish & English & has any symptoms would not have a gluten problem. You can email Enterolab & see what they say about shipping to & from Canada. I recommend them, because your family might be like mine, all doulbe DQ1 & do not test positive via blood or biopsy until the damage is huge ( & the bad health to go with it) & we are older. It is near impossible to get a positive test on a child or young adult if they have the gluten intolerance gene, except thru Enterolab. That is why we all like them so much, they just saved our life!!!!

cruelshoes Enthusiast

All first degree relatives of celiacs should be tested, regardless of symptoms. After I was diagnosed, we had both my kids tested. One was positive - he had NO symptoms, but his degree of damage was almost as severe as mine was. I disagree that it is impossible to get a gold standard diagnosis (bloodwork/biopsy/dietary results) on a child, because we got one on my son. His ttg was sky high, and his villi showed damage on the severe end of the spectrum. He was only 6 at the time, and with the degree of damage he had, we probably could have gotten the diagnosis much sooner if we had known what to look for.

If I were in your shoes, I would definitely get tested, and get my other kids tested as well.

missquarejane Rookie

wow, thanks so much guys! keep the opinions coming because i need all the info i can get.

the enterolab sounds like the way to go for testing but it is so expensive... especially if there are four of us to be tested and no coverage at all for it.

am i wrong in understanding that for the standard blood work that you must be consuming gluten on a regular basis? this is a problem for my son as there is no way at almost 16 mos and only 20 lbs i am going to gluten him. i am pretty certain that he has celiac.

i have recently removed wheat/gluten from my daughter's diet and mine as well. is it too late to test us? (blood work) is there a link between diverticulitis and celiac too? sorry i have so many questions but like i said, we are new to all of this.

thanks everyone.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,360
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    anabjermeland
    Newest Member
    anabjermeland
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.4k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Your post really highlights the financial and emotional struggle so many families face. You are not alone in feeling frustrated by the high cost of gluten-free specialty items and the frustrating waste when your daughter can't tolerate them. A great place to start is by focusing on naturally gluten-free whole foods that are often more affordable and less processed, like rice, potatoes, beans, lentils, corn, eggs, and frozen fruits and vegetables—these are nutritional powerhouses that can form the basis of her meals. For the specialty items like bread and pasta, see if your local stores carry smaller, single-serving packages or allow returns if a product causes a reaction, as some companies understand this challenge. Regarding vitamins, that is an excellent next step; please ask her doctor to prescribe a high-quality gluten-free multivitamin, as insurance will often cover prescribed vitamins, making them much more affordable. Finally, connecting with a local celiac support group online can be a treasure trove of location-specific advice for finding the best and most affordable products in your area, saving you both time and money on the trial-and-error process. 
    • Scott Adams
      Welcome to the forum--and you are absolutely not alone in your experience with a non-celiac gluten sensitivity that presents with severe constipation and profound inflammatory consequences. While the more commonly discussed symptoms are diarrhea-centric, your reaction is a valid and documented, though less common, manifestation. It is completely understandable to feel isolated, especially after moving to an area with less familiarity with this specific presentation, but your vigilance in protecting your remaining colon is not just justified, it is critically important. Your history of autoimmune disease (Hashimoto's) further supports the likelihood of your body mounting a significant inflammatory response to gluten. Many in this community share similar frustrations with a skeptical medical community and the social challenges of maintaining a strict diet, so please know you have found a place where your condition is believed and understood. Staying gluten-free to prevent further damage is the safest path for your health, and we are here to support you in that crusade.
    • Rogol72
      I've never had an issue this side of the pond. If I'm out I drink Bulmers Cider. Sometimes draft and sometimes bottled. The draft cider lines are for Cider only. 
    • Rejoicephd
      Hi everyone do you know whether when you get a draft cider if there is a chance that it runs through the same tubing as a beer did sometime prior?  the reason I’m asking is that I’m trying to eliminate a source of hidden gluten that I think hits me about once a month. And I have a suspicion it might be cider from the draft at certain bars. When I am out, if I decide to drink, I usually order a cider brand that I know is gluten free.    what I’ve noticed is that a couple times when I got a draft cider, I got symptoms of being  glutened that night and the day after. This doesn’t seem to happen with all times I drink cider. I had a draft at a very clean brewery and I didn’t react from that, which is what made me start to wonder. Does anyone know if this is a possible source of getting glutened? I am like 99% sure that this is the cause and I think I’ll switch to bottle/can only from here on out, but would be interested if others experienced the same thing (or work in a bar and know how this works). Thanks!
    • Mykidzz3
      Hello everyone, I am at struggling finding gluten-free food for my 17-year-old daughter who has celiac disease. she finds things that she thinks she would like she takes a bite and ends up in the trash gluten-free food happens to be very expensive. I collect Foodstamps and I contacted the county to see if I could get extra Foodstamps due to her, so the ex disease, considering the food cost more. I am running out of options. Most stores don’t carry gluten-free stuff and we spend majority of our time looking at the ingredients and get frustrated because everybody’s looking at us, wondering what we’re doing and what we’re looking for so I’m struggling as a mom to find the best options for my daughter that she would like, and I didn’t know that he could also affect her mental health she does get a check up every six months, but our biggest thing is getting her on a good vitamin one that the doctor can call in because we have insurance and just trying to find food that she could eat and not waste we waste almost $200 a month and just gluten-free food that she just throws in the trash or that to sit on the shelf and go to wasteso if you have any ideas, please feel free to contact me with any ideas 
×
×
  • Create New...