18 Month Old Twins Tested For Celiac......

[katieskrew]

After over 6 months of diarrhea and always being under the weight scale we finally went to the GI doc. He is doing some blood tests and also some stool tests. All the blood work has come back fine, but we havent got the Celiac test (im not sure what it is called) back, hoping to get that by weeks end. We did get one of the girls stool results back and she has increased fecal fat. Ive googled "increased fecal fat" and mostly things about Celiac and CF came up. The girls have already had the Newborn Screen and no respitory issues so I dont think its CF. Does anyone know if increased fecal fat can mean anything else??

[Ridgewalker]

I'm not sure about any other causes of increased fecal fat, but I did want to mention that Celiac blood tests and endoscopies in young children are not terribly accurate. When they come back positive, they are definitely positive, but there is a significant rate of false negatives. Keep that in mind if the Celiac tests show up negative.

From what I understand, high levels of fecal fat indicate malabsorption. There's always a reason behind it, it doesn't ever just happen on its own.

[Worriedtodeath]

Not to be the scary person here, but do not rely on any Celiac blood test or biopsy performed on a 18 month old. THey will more than likely be completely negative and a total waste of time and money. The gi you have may agree with this or be like ours - a negative means no. A negative Celiac panel or biopsy does not rule out the disease. My child has had the Classic presentation of Celiac disease and is a perfect textbook case in the words of 3 different specialists. Still negative. On the gluten-free diet she is doing great. The gi wishes her to be on gluten because no test confirms she has a problem with gluten. Basically the only infants/toddlers I have heard of with a positive Celiac biopsy were in the hosipital on the verge of death. Really really sick babies. Mine was just sick and not thriving but not enough to warrant medical intervention. Keep on gluten until the biopsy is over if you choose to do that and then take them off of gluten. IN a month, you will probably be amazed at the difference. and if you make that decesion, it will more than likely be because of what you read here not what the dr tells you. our gi was perfectly content with my child having mulitple stools daily for the next year or so to give her the chance to develop "full blown Celiac". We were not willing since it wouldn't have taken another two months and our child would have been in deseparate shape. We made the decision to go Gluten-free Casein-free directly against the "wisdom" of our gi. So keep that in mind if eveything comes back negative or a lactose problem and your kids still aren't better. You may have to go against the grain.

Stacie