I Think My Son Has Celiac Disease

[Roberta67]

I've been doing some reading this week, bare with me, I realize I am new to this and those that are here probably know so much more and the information that I am sharing may or may not be accurate, just what I have read over the past two days.

About a week ago my 12 year old son started complaining of severe stomach pains. Now he has always had the tendency to get intestinal upset and after a trip to the bathroom he will feel better. That has been going on for years and I figured he just had his fathers gut there. He'd feel better and that was that.

Well in the past week, maybe less ( 4 days???) in the evenings he starts getting really bad stomach aches. He tries to go to the bathroom but it's not that. He has always tended to be on the gasy side as well. But even now, he's not passing gas either so I don't think its that.

So anyway, it's just a gut wrenching pain he gets that makes him miserable to the point of tears. Nothing I give him makes it better (Pepto, Mylanta, peppermint tea, etc...) I feel so helpless and sorry for him. I feel like he feels that I dontcare because there just isnt anything else I can give him at this point that will help.

So I started suspecting Celiac or Wheat allergies. But from what I read with the Wheat allergies is that typically the symptoms will appear right away after eating the Wheat. With him it seems that it takes a few hours for the symptoms to start after he has eaten bread, pizza, pasta, etc.........

I am going to do some research and start him on a Celiac diet and see if that helps. We don't have insurance so I don't want to take him for testing because I'm not sure how much it will cost. But of course I will if I can't control this myself.

Is there anything that is at least a bit helpful with the gut pain at this point until I can at least start him on the new diet? He can'ttake this pain and I cant' stand seeing him in it.

Thank you for your input and I am looking forward to learning so much from this site. I have a lot to learn and welcome any input/support.

Roberta in Florida

[LDJofDenver]

... I figured he just had his fathers gut there. He'd feel better and that was that.

...symptoms will appear right away after eating the Wheat. With him it seems that it takes a few hours for the symptoms to start after he has eaten bread, pizza, pasta, etc.........

his father's gut: If he has celiac disease he may well have his father's gut, since celiac disease is genetic he got the gene from one side of the family or the other

symptoms: when I get glutened it takes a couple hours, then I get whammed; some people don't become affected till the next day or even a couple days later

I know you don't have medical, but I wouldn't put off having him checked out by a doctor, or even a physicians assistant -- What if it is not celiac disease? You don't want some other unknown condition to have time to turn into more of a problem. It would be worth ruling out a a few things.

[ang1e0251]

Pull him back to a very simple diet and see if his gut likes it. But I wouldn't wait long. Simple meats with salt and pepper, eggs, rice and vegetables. No dairy for now. If he feels better, then you will know you're on the right track, if not, you'll have to get him to a dr.

[taweavmo3]

Poor thing, I think childhood is much too short to spend it feeling sick all the time! I understand about not having insurance, it's crazy how much simple tests and doctors visits cost.

If you don't want to go forward with testing, there are some great books by Dana Korn to get you started. Those helped me in the beginning. If he starts to feel better, you know you are on the right track. If something else is going on, eating gluten-free isn't going change that. Cutting out dairy is a good idea too, it is hard in the beginning w/kids since so much of their diet is heavy with dairy, but it helps tremendously. This site is a great resource as well! Give yourself some time to see results, since everyone makes mistakes in the beginning. Kids generally seem to bounce back pretty quickly and heal fast....with my dd, we started to see results within the first two weeks, but it took a good 6 months for me to really get the hang of the diet.

As far as seeing reactions right away with wheat, we didn't see that either. It was only after being 100% gluten free for months did we finally see the immediate reaction to eating gluten. Good luck to you!