Wondering If My Son Has Celiac Disease?

[KaidensMummy]

I am new to this board & was wondering if someone could help out with some advice.

I have been so frustrated because I feel the doctor is not doing enough.

My son just turned 2 yrs old & has diarrhea everyday.

When my son was a baby on formula the doctor said that he was lactose intolerant as he was crying, bloating, diarrhea. We then took him off of regular formula & switched to soy formula & everything seemed to be much better.

Since my son has been eating he has had diarrhea.

The diarrhea is VERY smelly & is sometimes mucusy(sp), slimy, oily with food that is undigested a lot of times. We have gone to the doctor MANY times asking him what the problem could be. I have asked if I should quit giving him any dairy products, he told me not to do that.

He has told me to try the BRAT diet which I have & it seemed to help but he said this was a temporary fix basically as he was thinking at the time that he had some sort of bacterial infection.

The doctor also ran a test for low iron as my son was ill a lot last winter with all sorts of things like Bronchitis, croup, strep, eye & ear infections etc. & the test turned back fine.

The only thing we know is he has in asthma & lactose intolerance.

2 weeks ago we went to the doctor again because my son had diarrhea again but this time he had these things in it, for 2 days when he had a BM his BM;s were full of these little clear gel liquid filled things....smaller than the size of a pea. Then he woke up on the 2nd day & vomitted up a bit of food & also these gel things.....so i actually picked these gel looking things up & put them in a clear baggy & took them to the drs. office. The doc said he had no clue what this was & wanted me to take stool samples & send them in to the lab.

the doctor says the test say my son is fine.

I have no clue what to do now & am pulling out hair as to what I should be doing.

My son is having this diarrhea everyday & it seems to happen shortly after eating & his diaper is full right away & sometimes even leaks.

Does this sound like Celiac disease as this seems to be the only thing I could think it may be???

Thanks for your help.

[Mother of Jibril]

It's difficult to get an accurate result from testing for celiac in such a small child. The best thing is simply to take suspicious food(s) out of your son's diet and see if it makes a difference. Gluten is a great place to start. So is dairy! There's nothing unhealthy about this kind of diet. My nine-month-old son is intolerant to casein (dairy proteins) and corn... maybe gluten too, but at this point I'm not willing to give it a try. Even a tiny amount of dairy or corn gives him diarrhea and terrible eczema on his face So... he eats a lot of rice and vegetables with a little meat (he doesn't like fruit very much) and I just started giving him a little soy yogurt with active cultures. He's doing GREAT.

The crying, bloating, and gas is very familiar! My guess is that the "gel" things are undigested fat. That's a common thing to see in the stools of people with food intolerance problems. Since you've ruled out a lot of other things, I would give the gluten-free, dairy-free diet a try.

[KaidensMummy]

Thanks so much for that advice...I feel strangely relieved knowing that you & others Im sure know what this is all about.

It has been so frustrating not knowing what to do & not really getting any help from the doctor.

I will now looking into trying a gluten & dairy free diet. I am suspecting that this is not going to be easy so I will need to start checking out this site & figuring out what a gluten & dairy free diet is as I have NO clue where to start.

Again I thank you for your advice & I will get down to the business of reading

[Mother of Jibril]

Thanks so much for that advice...I feel strangely relieved knowing that you & others Im sure know what this is all about.

It has been so frustrating not knowing what to do & not really getting any help from the doctor.

I know what you mean. I figured out the casein intolerance on my own... my son had colic, diarrhea, lots of sinus congestion, projectile vomiting, and streaks of blood in his diapers... all from the casein getting through my breast milk. I found some good information at www.kellymom.com. He started to improve within a week after I stopped eating dairy. Within six weeks he was back to normal. His pediatrician was completely unhelpful. She wasn't opposed to the idea of changing his diet... she just didn't know much and was skeptical that it would make a difference.

Finding this forum has been a big relief. It's nice to feel understood and have a place to talk about these issues Plus I've learned SO much... not just about gluten, but about food intolerance and autoimmune disorders in general.

Incidentally, the Gluten-free Casein-free diet is recommended for kids with autism... not that your son has it! But if you're looking for gluten-free/dairy-free recipes for kids, those are good sites to look at. Another good idea is to post a list of your son's favorite foods on a new thread. People would be happy to help you find substitutions.

[KaidensMummy]

I know what you mean. I figured out the casein intolerance on my own... my son had colic, diarrhea, lots of sinus congestion, projectile vomiting, and streaks of blood in his diapers... all from the casein getting through my breast milk. I found some good information at www.kellymom.com. He started to improve within a week after I stopped eating dairy. Within six weeks he was back to normal. His pediatrician was completely unhelpful. She wasn't opposed to the idea of changing his diet... she just didn't know much and was skeptical that it would make a difference.

Finding this forum has been a big relief. It's nice to feel understood and have a place to talk about these issues Plus I've learned SO much... not just about gluten, but about food intolerance and autoimmune disorders in general.

Incidentally, the Gluten-free Casein-free diet is recommended for kids with autism... not that your son has it! But if you're looking for gluten-free/dairy-free recipes for kids, those are good sites to look at. Another good idea is to post a list of your son's favorite foods on a new thread. People would be happy to help you find substitutions.

Thanks for all the tips I REALLY appreciate it. It's all so overwhelming

[boobybabs]

In reference to "wondering if my son has celiac disease" - not sure if this helps, but if you rule out celiac, you might want to research other diseases......a few months ago, I was watching a TV series called "Mystery diagnosis", and there was a family on there whose daughter had years of diarrhea - every time they went to the doctor, they were told that it was nothing serious - ex..would grow out of it, etc.....she continued to experience these problems for several years - eventually when their daughter was older, she was diagnosised with a specific disease....unfortunately, cannot remember more details....maybe they have a website - I do not believe the diagnosis was life threatening....just so that you don't worry about that - In many episodes of this program - people can go from doctor to doctor and remain undiagnosed......In a lot of cases, the diseases are rare and many doctors do not have the knowledge of them..........hope it helps you