Concerned About My Children

[moon-gypsy]

Well, here's my situation in a nutshell. . .I've had various symptoms for at least 20 years (painful bloating/gas, constipation, fatigue, occasional numbness in fingers and toes, joint pain, constant acne that has scarred my back and neck, and heaven knows what else.) Doctors have been little help. No one really took me seriously. Ten years ago, I cut barley out of my diet because I had a definite skin reaction. Things got better for a while, but in the past 5 years, the symptoms have been getting worse, especially my skin and the bloating. I could tell that it was caused by something I was eating, but couldn't figure out what. Allergy tests came back negative. I always thought celiac meant chronic D, so I didn't consider it until I read a magazine article 6 months ago. Talk about an epiphany! So far, I've noticed an improvement on the gluten-free diet, although CC issues are killing me.

Because I am self-diagnosed, I am unfamiliar with all the tests available for this. (I did have an upper GI, but the biopsy was negative, and the doctor insisted that I was swallowing all that gas. Jerk.) If I want to have my kids tested for this, what should I do? Do I test all of them, or just the one who seems to be sick all the time? I have two apparently healthy kids and one who is always complaining of something, but not really sick.

I would appreciate any advice you could give.

-D

[dbmamaz]

First of all, my symptoms werent as bad as yours. I had been off wheat and dairy as a baby, due to bad D, so I decided to quit them hoping i'd feel better. Eventually I had three kinds of testing, celiac test, regular allergy testing for foods, and a sensitivity test (I did the A.L.C.A.T test, a lot of ppl here recomend the enterolab test).

My celiac panel was negative, but i'd been off gluten for a month and a half already anyways. My other tests had tons of reactions, and i'm feeling much better now off all those foods.

I have three kids. The oldest is stick-skinny and low energy, the middle had tons of D and C issues as well as serious mental health issues, and the youngest is kinda wild(4). I want to put the middle one through the same testing I did, but I dont really want to start on the diet until school is out - it just seems easier. My youngest has been plummetting down the growth charts, and if he's still falling at his next annaul apt (6 mo away), I will have him tested for celiac too.

However, the other testing - i dont want to put the other kids through all those needles if they dont have a lot of symptoms. The 11 yo wants to feel better, and is willing to go through the testing. The oldest has a needle phobia and the youngest is hard to make sit still long enough!

You have to weight the pros and cons, think about testing, think about just trying the diet, whatever feels better to you. Good luck with your choices