What Are Symptoms In Older Children?

[slmprofesseur]

I wasn't sure where to post this...

My older son is 9 yrs old. He is 4ft9 and weighs 70 lbs. He's also had some delays in gross and fine motor skills. He has not gone gluten free (myself and little brother have) due to fact that dh thinks its too expensive.

He has very frequent bm's and also eats ravenously- but never gains weight. I can feed him a hefty meal and 1/2 hr to an hr later he's starving. He also sleeps a lot for a kid his age. He can sleep from 10pm to 10 am plus take 2 hr nap with his brother. He also has a poor memory. He's had no other health problems (i.e. respiratory).

What are symptoms in older children? How do you go about a diagnosis?

So far the ped just says that "he's underweight try butter on everything." She also suggested that for ds2 after the wheat allergy diagnosis. I went fully gluten free and now he's gaining weight on a healthy diet.

What do I do? I want him to be healthy. I don't know how to approach this with a doc. With ds2 I took him to an allergist after DH was making him miserable as a baby and he was constantly wheezing.

Any advice would be helpful!

[dandelionmom]

Insist the pediatrician run the celiac panel. It sounds like there's a family history (all first degree relatives should be tested anyway) and some possible symptoms (Open Original Shared Link).

If your pediatrician won't, it is time to find a new one.

[RiceGuy]

Well, as for the expense, it's not more expensive unless you buy prepackaged gluten-free foods. Most things are naturally gluten-free - veggies, fruits, beans, meats, nuts, seeds, etc. Bread is going to be one of those things which you either make yourself, find a substitute, or stop eating. You might be surprised how good gluten-free breads, pizza crust, and so forth tastes when you don't get sick from it.

On the other hand, what IS expensive is continuing to eat gluten, developing serious health complications, and basically spending a lifetime being miserable. Consuming gluten for any celiac is unacceptable.

The best diagnostic tool is the gluten-free diet - if it works, stick with it!

If you feel you want an "official" diagnosis, now is the time, before the gluten-free diet and healing takes place. That would only cloud the results, and they're already highly inaccurate. I didn't bother with doctors, having given up on them by the time I figured out what was making me so ill. I have no regrets about it.

Hope you get the answers you need!

[betty6333]

are you kidding... Add butter? the advise you got was to add butter? wow... my physican insisted all immediate family members get tested the day ds was diagnosed celiac..... add butter........wow.. ok, get the celiac panel run no question, then when his ttg comes back high -- insist on a biopsy so he won't need to do a gluten challenge later in life when he on his own and is just "curious". add butter -wow (oh and if you can ---get a new doctor..... add butter, unbelieveable)

[Amyleigh0007]

The most obvious symptom my 8-year-old son had was slow growth. He was 43 pounds when he was diagnosed in late March. I'm not sure of his height but he was a full head shorter then most of the kids in his class. He also had leg cramps at night. When I took him in for his yearly checkup in early March and found out that he had only gained one pound in a year I insisted on bloodwork. His doctor tried to put it off saying he was going to be a small child because my husband and I are small but I stood my ground. He was dx with Celiac (both bloodwork and biopsy positive) and several food allergies (wheat, corn, soy, peanuts) a few weeks later. Before dx Haydon would only eat a few foods and we had to beg him to eat those foods. He is a totally different kid now. He tries new food and eats and eats and eats! His leg cramps are gone too! PS- His GI told me to put butter in all of his food too

[stephie]

Hi there,

I was just recently diagnosed with celiac (October 2007) and I'm still getting the hang of reading every label before putting it to my mouth but I've been trying to do more research about the disease especially for my kids, every site I've gone to has different symptoms....like weight loss...or little weight gain...or bloating...or constipation... are there any definite signs of the disease or is it all hit and miss? I remember the problems (and the tests they did) I had while growing up, everyone thinking it was the flu or nerves or "all in my mind". I would like to know before I put them thru these tests because some of them are pretty nasty especaily for a 7 year old.

Thanks Stephie