Pergnancy And Celiac

[Benjamin.A]

hi,

my girlfriend has celiac and other food alergies.

i wanted to ask what is the chance that our babies will have celiac or other food alergies and what harm can be to a baby due to the mom having celiac during preganancy?

thanks

ben

[Skylark]

Celiac is genetic, and the single highest risk factor for it is a first degree relative (parent, sibling, or child) with celiac. I can't put a number on it for you but maybe someone else has run across them. Allergies seem to be genetic as well, and they also seem to be on the rise.

I don't know about celiac and pregnancy, although there are plenty of celiac moms on this board so it can't be too dangerous.

[sa1937]

Celiac is genetic, and the single highest risk factor for it is a first degree relative (parent, sibling, or child) with celiac. I can't put a number on it for you but maybe someone else has run across them. Allergies seem to be genetic as well, and they also seem to be on the rise.

From the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, 1 in 22 is the risk factor for first degree relatives and 1 in 39 for second degree relatives. Open Original Shared Link

I'm convinced my daughter also has it but she needs to do a gluten challenge, which is not going to be easy as she generally eats gluten free already. Also difficult that she's in grad school taking a class this summer.

My Dr. was ready to put me on a gluten free diet following my positive celiac panel in Dec. but I asked for a referral to a GI doc and had a EGD/biopsy on April 9, which was positive for celiac. I was afraid if I didn't get official results, she wouldn't take it seriously. I asked her the other day if she felt she needed an "official" diagnosis to take the diet seriously and she indicated that she did. Egads, now to get her tested and have a positive result!!! It's scary to think that she might have terrible consequences down the road if she doesn't go 100% gluten free. (She's also hypo-thyroid).

[tarnalberry]

As was noted, 1 in 22 is the chance of a child of a celiac developing celiac. They not only have to inherit the genes, but also have an environmental trigger set it off. (No, we don't know exactly what these are or how the process works.) But being celiac isn't a huge deal (imho) as long as you stick to the diet.

A celiac who is on the gluten free diet has no additional risk factors through pregnancy than anyone else, though - like all women who are thinking about getting pregnant - she would want to be taking supplemental folic acid. I was certainly a little extra cautious about contamination through my pregnancy, but there is no reason why the pregnancy isn't just as healthy as anyone else's.

[slowrunner]

Well, I feel that I might be a bit of an outsider on this forum because I don't have celiac and am just gluten intolerant. However, the rules seem to still apply for me, as far as eating goes. I have recently become pregnant, and understand that I will need to watch my diet a little better (though it's a little hard living in Germany and not yet knowing the language--can't read ingredients sometimes). I wonder though, what the chance are for passing on gluten intolerance to my children. I already have a daughter who is two, and found out that I was gluten intolerant after having her. Does anyone know the stats/risks for non-celiac gluten intolerance, especially during pregnancy and genetic/non-genetic contributions to children?

Thanks,

X