Making Up Growth

[Pattymom]

Hi, My daughter has been off gluten for the last month, she is 3 1/2, 35 inches tall, 25 lbs. She has no symptoms other than the slow growth, though she was sensitive as an infant, with horribly stinky diapers. After I took many foods out of my diet (she was completely Breastfed), her diapers, rashes and fussiness improved. We started giving her gluten aroudn 2years, and hade blood work done which was normal. Since she had no other issues we let her eat gluten. I stayed off of gluten, and had mildly positive blood work after being off for many months.

So, now she has fallen off the growth charts. Her celiac panel was negative, we go an endocrinologist this week, though we took her off gluten again, just to see what it might do. Seh has grown 1/2 inch in the last month, and gained nearly 1/2 lb. Which is huge considering she had no change at all in the 6 months before that.

How fast have other kids started growing once off gluten? I wondering if she is going to climb back onto the charts, or fi we should just be happy with any forward progress. How long did they continue to recover lost height verusu just playing growing at a normal rate, we would like any of it, though I am really tired of people asking how old she is, and telling me she is soo tiny. I had noticed.

Also her Insulin-like growth hormone was on the low end onteh normal range (the lowest number really) Does anyone have experience with growth issues beyond gluten. If gluten free means more growth, do I still need to investigate teh growth hormone issue or can I leave well enough alone.

I'm hoping for the voices of experience to help me here.

thanks,

Patty

[SusanGB]

Hi Patty-

Wow - talk about a similar situation! My son is 3y3m, 34.5 inches and 27 pounds. He has been followed by an endocrinologist since age 1 and all tests seem to be inconclusive. His levels are always low-normal. He was tested for celiac at about 12-15 months of age and was negative. My aunt has celiac and I've been thinking of getting him retested since he was so young at the first test. He has no other symptoms but my aunt had zero symptoms when she was diagnosed in her 60s. They can't seem to figure out if he is growth hormone deficient or not which is so frustrating! I'd love to hear what you learn from the endocrinologist. We got back in March for his next follow up which is when I'll ask about re-testing him.

Good luck-

Susan

[Worriedtodeath]

We put all three of mine on gluten-free/CF diet and we are on week 6 of it even though no one had a positive result. THe oldest and middle kids just slowly over time have slipped off of the growth chart and since the baby has to be gluten free, we thought why not.

The youngest has had the classic syptoms of Celiac and she has gained over a pound and an inch in the last 6 weeks (21 months old)

The middle son has gained two lbs and grown about an inch as well - he's 7 and needed a belt with slims even the ones with the waist adjusted to the smallest setting

THe oldest 10.5 has only grown 8.5cm in the last 2 years. He's down from 90% at age 2 to 5 % at age 10. He's grown in the last week!!! (i check him every week) an entire cm and has grown a total of 1.5 cm in the last month. Now maybe that is a growth spurt kicking in, it's too early to tell at this point - but he normally only grows around his birthday and his rate of growth over the last 2 years is only .35417 a month. And he is one of the kids you never noticed any growth on. You know some kids wake up and their pants seem 2 inches too short. Not him, only by measuring can you tell he has had any growth. It's that slow you never notice any growth. This week we noticed he was taller and checked him. So we will see if he continues growing this fast next month.

I've been told by the gi and the ped that if Celiac is the problem, they should bounce back to the normal growth curve for them. The baby's height is closer to normal and we shall see how the boys go.

Thanks

Stacie

[mmcdaniels]

My 8 year old son's growth since going gluten free in mid-December has been phenomenal. He was a very large baby-- 9 lb 9 1/2 oz, 22 inches. Sometime between age 2-4 his growth stagnated. He did grow but very, very slowly. He could wear the same clothes for 3-4 years. At the beginning of this school year, he was still wearing size 4 or 5 pants. Sunday I had to buy both my kids new pants and my son is now up to a size 8! He has grown more in the two 1/2 months than he did in the preceding 3-4 years. He went from 50 to 60 pounds and gained at least an inch of height. He was super-skinny and is now a bit on the hefty side. He isn't really eating more--just is now gluten free. It looks like he is heading back towards the top of the growth chart after a few years towards the bottom.

Marsha