Suspect celiac disease In Daughter, Dh In Husband, ? On Testing

[deditus]

My daughter is 2.5. She has had chronic constipation basically since starting solids, and it has continued to get worse despite using magnesium, Miralax, and suppositories. She now is pale, bruising easily, dark circles around her eyes, hasn't gained weight in 7 months, has eczema, milk intolerance, cradle cap, dental enamel defects, stool is foul smelling and full of undigested food. She has always been clingy but is even worse now & she sleeps horribly, as she rolls around in pain.

I went to our gp a few weeks ago when she started to look bad and she basically shrugged her shoulders, so I asked for a ped gi referrral. Appointment is this upcoming Tuesday.

Last week, I stumbled upon a picture of DH. My husband had a rash that looked exactly like photos of mild cases on his elbows and knees, it has come and gone over the last several months, maybe 6-8 months? It has gone away right now, but you can still see the purple spots where it was. I wonder if it still be biopsied? I will ask in the DH subforum. Anyway, I started researching and all the pieces are falling into place. My husband is short, a good 4-6 inches shorter than the other men in his family. He had unexplained seizures as a kid, milk intolerance for a while, he has been losing a lot of weight lately, his cholesterol was unexpectedly high at his last physical (indictating inflammation somewhere in his body).

Now, I never would have suspected celiac disease in my daughter until this point. She is definitely suffering from malabsorption now and looking worse ever day. Luckily she still nurses, so I know she is getting some easily absorpable nutrients that way. Today, for example, she has only been up for 2 hours and is already back asleep. My poor girl. I am worried that we will end up in the emergency room this weekend! Should I call the gi office and see if they take emergency appointments?

How long does it take to get results of the bloodwork? I want to stop giving her gluten NOW but I don't think my husband believes me and wants to see something concrete. If the bloodwork is positive, I think he will agree that a biopsy is unnecessary.

Thanks for listening.

Emily

[Mother of Jibril]

Welcome to the group!

Those really DO sound like malabsorption problems. I have different advice for your daughter and your husband based on the difference in age:

Daughter...

Even if she has celiac disease, it's difficult to get a positive blood test in such a young child. You could certainly try! Otherwise, you could just take the most common "problem" foods out of her diet (gluten, dairy, corn, soy, nuts, citrus... that should pretty well cover it) and see how she does. My son has a severe intolerance to casein. By the time he was six weeks old he was crying all the time, hardly sleeping, projectile vomiting, and having green diarrhea with streaks of blood. He was GREAT once I took all dairy products out of my diet. Around six months, after we introduced solid foods, he started having problems with eczema. Turns out he's intolerant to corn. If you're breastfeeding you could even try taking all solid foods back out of her diet (babies don't need it at that age!). Just keep in mind that you'll need to take those foods out of your diet too. Once she's feeling better you can slowly try each category of food again to see if she reacts.

Husband...

He should definitely get the celiac panel (EMA, TtG, anti-gliaden, and total IgA) and you can think about the endoscopy. Even if the tests are negative, it won't hurt to try a gluten-free diet. He might be amazed what a difference it makes!

[Mother of Jibril]

I just looked at your post again... and your daughter is a bit older than I thought (sorry!). So... a lot of kids are no longer breastfeeding at that age

In that case, you can make her diet very simple. Fruits, vegetables, meats, avocado, nut butter, rice... That's a good way to heal very quickly. Then you can try reintroducing the other foods. If it seems like too much all at once, just take gluten and dairy out.

As kids get older there's a better chance of getting a positive result on a celiac panel.