Benefit Of Seeing Gi Doctor?

[Mama Ruthies]

We had our 3.5 year old son tested through Enterolab in October and he came back elevated in everything with a celiac gene and a gluten sensitivity gene. We've had him gluten free since.

Is there any benefit to seeing a GI doctor? We wouldn't put him back on gluten for additional testing as we trust Enterolabs results. We also wouldn't have him scoped. I'm thinking it would be a better use of our money to have him see a naturopath to help us heal his body.

Does anyone have any things that they have seen as positives to having a GI doc? If the GI doctor wouldn't accept Enterolabs results, we wouldn't think of even paying the co-pay.

Thanks for any advice!

Amy

[Guest j_mommy]

Since he's been gluten-free since October, unless you want to do the gluten challenge, I don't think a GI is going to do much. THey can't really do any testing, b/c the tests won't be "true".

[happygirl]

However, the doctor can look for other reasons that he is still having symptoms. I am assuming by your post that even though he's been gluten-free for 3-4 months, he is still having symptoms.

Sometimes gluten isn't the problem, or something gluten isn't the only problem.

[HAK1031]

Does his pediatrician at least know? Doctor's notes for school can be important so that his needs are taken seriously. Also his nutrient levels in his blood and his growth may need to be mroe carefully monitored.But I agree that you definitely should NOT put him back on gluten for testing.

[Mama Ruthies]

Actually, our son didn't have any digestive symptoms. We had him tested thru Enterolab because he had tested positive to all twenty items the allergist tested him for (10 food/10 environmental). He has speech delays, and we didn't feel he could effectively tell us when food bothered him when we did food elimination trials so we decided to test thru Enterolab. We were shocked at his results!

Now we feel that his speech delays probably are attributed to the gluten. I nursed him until around 16 months and he got some vaccines around 19 months. His younger sister was born when he was 20 months and we noticed his speech regressed after she was born.

We have seen a gradual improvement in his speech since pulling the gluten and family members who don't see him often say they have noticed a big change.

We don't plan on having him have gluten again. Now I need to pull our other four kids (all double DQ1) off gluten and see how they respond.

I wasn't sure if there was anything else the GI would do. I'm very interested in making nutritional changes to help his body---supplements, etc. My guess is a lot of GI doctors don't deal much with that.

One gal from our church said her son's GI tested for enzyme levels. Have you heard of this? He was lacking some enzymes.

Thanks for your responses!

Amy

[HAK1031]

I would not put a child that young on any supplements without a doctor's advice, but if your pediatrician (who should be aware of your son's gluten problems) advises you, then I'd say there's no need for advice from a GI on that count. You might consider a nutrionist though, or a naturopath like you mentioned. But do talk to your pediatrician as they may be more comfortable with a GI treating your son- my pediatrician is clueless about celiac. As for the enzyme levels, I have no idea. Good luck!