? Opiniions From Other Parents ? Celiac In 4 Year Old

[kimntaylor]

My daughter is 4. She has mucous stools with abdominal bloating about every 3-4 months for several days. She is completely potty trained; however, when this occurs she will have the mucous stools involuntarily @ times in her pants. She will say she has to use the bathroom and she will have a bowel movement that is only mucous. This will go on for about 3-4 days. She had a milk allergy as an infant and had to use special formula. She also had severe reflux that was treated with Zantac until she was about 11 months old. Her paternal grandfather has celiac disease. I am a nurse, so I brought all this up to the PCP. He tested her stool which was negative. I knew it would be since we weren't passing mucous at the time the sample was obtained. He just tested her @ her 4 year check for the celiac panel. Her only positive result was the IGG test. He stated that she was "overall negative" and if the stools continued to see a pediatric GI doctor. I wanted some input from all of you about your opinions or if others have a similiar scenario. Obviously, we weren't maintaining a specific gluten diet weeks before the testing because I didn't realize he would be testing that then. Oh yes, he did a full food allergy panel which came back negative. Her CBC did show elevated WBC count; but, he felt that was immaterial. She had an egg allergy with severe hives @ about her 20 month age; but, apparently that has now resolved. Any help would be appreciated.....Taylor's Mom, Kim

[Mother of Jibril]

Welcome to the group!

You don't need to have a positive result on all the tests to have celiac disease... in fact, false negatives are pretty common in small children. Which test was she positive on? Some are more specific for celiac disease than others.

IMO, the bottom line is that your daughter has some kind of sensitivity to gluten. Maybe it's not celiac disease... but it is causing damage. Have you ever tried the gluten-free diet? It certainly won't hurt! BUT... you might also consider seeing a GI doctor. In that case, wait on the diet until all the testing is finished.

[sugarsue]

Hi! Aside from the fact that our dd's symptoms are different, my dd (6) sounds like a similar situation. Her celiac panel came back negative except for positive IgG. From what I have learned, Gliadin antibody positive (IgA or IgG) means gluten intolerant at the very least. Here is a presentation that was very helpful to me and he wrote a book as well that concentrates on non-celiac gluten intolerance that was super helpful as I was trying to learn what to do about my daughter.

www.Lame Advertisement.com/Articles/WangenGIG08.ppt

We went gluten free without a biopsy and she has proven to be so gluten sensitive that she can't have any cross contamination or she will show symptoms. Whether she has celiac or not, I still wonder, but regardless, she can't eat any gluten and she is much improved so far and hopefully still improving.

So bottom line for me based on our experience, if the IgG test is a gliadin antibody IgG test that came back positive, she should not eat any gluten.

GOOD LUCK to you!

[kimntaylor]

Thanks for the input! Yes, she was positive to the IgG antibody titer. She was negative on the other 3 on the panel; however, something is obviously going on. My understanding is d/t the immature immune system, this isn't an odd thing. I am hoping that we are dealing with a gluten intolerance which will just be a mild issue; but, who knows if it won't progress in time. Thanks again for the information....Kim