Symptoms Of Celiac In Babies? Experiences?

[oscarsmom]

Hi I'm new and desperately looking for any possible explanations of my baby's diagnosis as failure-to-thrive.

He's 10 1/2 months old, and the size of a 4 month old. He literally appears to have stopped growing. He's never had diarrhea, but his BMs have always smelled bad and he has bad-smelling gas sometimes. He was exclusively breastfed until now, with table foods added around 7-8 months.

I don't think he has cystic fibrosis, he's never been sick or had any other symptoms, but he DOES spit up a lot. (reflux). He's on medication for the reflux but so far he still spits up.

We've had blood work - he looks pretty normal, nutritionally speaking. Slightly low on iron and things, but not starving.

He's very happy baby and met all of his milestones (sitting up, crawling, etc). He's just way tiny. We are being sent for an ultrasound of his head, abdomen, and a chest x-ray next week. I'm desperately trying to get him to switch to formula because I think my breastmilk supply has been dangerously low the last 2 months.

For those of you who had babies with celiac disease, could this be a possibility? And if so, what should I do? thanks in advance for any help. He only weighs 14 lbs right now - he is very short, underweight, and small head circumference. He basically took a nosedive and fell off the growth chart starting around 5-6 months.

[MySuicidalTurtle]

I don't know if this will help by my symptoms as a baby were diarrhea and my borther had projectile vomiting.

I hope your baby gets better.

[JennyC]

My son also had diarrhea, but not everyone does. When he was a young infant he was actually constipated. He was also exclusively breastfed and had horrible smelling bowl movements and gas. As an infant he could clear a room! He also spit up a lot. So much so that he would go through multiple bibs/shirts a day. My son was a big baby but his growth slowed down by about 6-9 months and had about stopped when he was diagnosed at three. He also had terrible sleep habits.

The tests for celiac disease are not reliable until the child is at least 24 months old, so you may want to try the gluten free diet to see if it helps.

[oscarsmom]

thanks for the replies!

I've been thinking.....his sister had projectile vomiting as a baby too. But she outgrew it.

My son's gas could clear a room too - so weird for such a young infant! And as I was looking at his baby pictures this year, I realize that he looks like he started losing weight/not growing around the time I started letting him eat cheerios and crackers - all made from wheat!

The other weird symptom I want to ask about: I read that Celiac's have pale skin.... my baby's skin color changed. He used to be olive skinned. (I'm white but my husband is asian). After he stopped growing he became extremely pale-skinned. Has anyone else noticed this in their children?

I have this weird feeling that I might be dealing with Celiac's... I'm going gluten-free tomorrow, just to see what happens!

[Adelle]

My husband projectile vomited as an infant. Breast milk, formula, everything. He was finally able to have goat milk. After the goat milk he grew normally but continued to have symptoms until I was DXed and we both went gluten-free. Within a few days he felt better and his symptoms dissapeared!!

I don't care what anyone says IMHO gluten goes thru breastmilk. I wish you luck!! Hope going gluten-free does the trick!!

[JennyC]

My son was very pale too. I think trying the gluten free diet is a good idea.

[MarsupialMama]

I know this is an older post, but I thought I would reply, in case others out there are looking and come across it. It is not always easy to find information on babies and celiac when they are very young.

The EXACT same thing happened with our baby - was almost 2 years old, but comparing with a one year old in size, weight, etc. I searched up "failure-to-thrive" and cystic fibrosis.....all the things that are normally diagnosed... but it just didn't match up. I always keep coming back to the gluten issue. Our daughter is very short, underweight, little emaciated looking thing. Started dropping on growth chart around 9 months and eventually fell off.

Blood work was okay, except low in B12 and iron (anemia), obviously from not being able to absorb anything.

But as you say, she was "just tiny"!

At almost 2 years she was around 16 pounds.

We started the gluten free diet and noticed improvement in her overall look in about 3 weeks- she started getting a thin layer of fat on her body - very slight, but you could tell SOME kind of improvement. After three weeks we had an "accident" which made it drop back off, which was very discouraging and started making me second guess myself (EVERY DAY!)

From everything I've researched, and the experiences we've had in switching her to gluten-free, this is really it.

She went from NO appetite (having to force feed her practically) to coming to me with a bowl several times a day wanting food. Started sleeping through the night for the first time. Attitude improved tremendously.

Meeting milestones mentally and everything else seemed fine other than the weight and malnourishment issue - meaning it didn't appear to be affecting her mental status. Everything else seemed "normal".

She didn't have the vomiting or diarreah that most experience - rather chronic constipation.

[B'sgirl]

I've posted this before, but here again is my complete symptoms list for my son:

[*] the father's sister has Celiac's Disease (undiscovered until she was 20 years old)

[*] we read that a parent with an autoimmune disease is more likely to have a child with Celiac

[nikabe]

I've posted this before, but here again is my complete symptoms list for my son:

[*] the father's sister has Celiac's Disease (undiscovered until she was 20 years old)

[*] we read that a parent with an autoimmune disease is more likely to have a child with Celiac