Symptoms With No Solid Diagnosis

[Isa-lee]

My7 year old son has always been on the small/thin side. At four he was diagnosed with dyspraxia, at six with ADHD. His energy is always cyclical. Sometimes he is fine, but he goes through periods where he is abnormally tired and cranky. This year his stomach has been giving him a hard time. He has random vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea. His pediatrician did a general blood screen and a celiac test, both of which were fine.

I am leaning toward some sort of gluten sensitivity despite the negative test. I do not think he is lactose intolerant. I watch him carefully after he has had milk, cheese or ice cream and don't see any symptoms in the immediate period after he has consumed the dairy. And I don't think it is anxiety about school (although there are problems there sometimes). His stomach is bad at 7 pm on Saturday when he knows there is a fun activity planned for the next day. It also did not improve after school finished for the summer. Gluten sensitivity is the only thing that seems to tie together his various issues.

So I am planning to eliminate gluten and lactose for a period of time to see if my son feels better, but since he is not officially celiac, do I need to be super strict? I plan to eliminate all obvious form of gluten in his diet and replace sauces that contain gluten. But do I need to get a new toaster? I have read that some people do. Also, I give him Spirutein, a protein/health drink, for breakfast sometimes. It contains a small amount of oat fiber. Will this be a problem? I know that oats are often contaminated, but this supplement has only a tiny amount of oat fiber. Not like I am giving him a bowl of oatmeal.

Thanks so much for any guidance you can share. If my son was straight up diagnosed with celiac, I would get with a strict program right away, but since I am just a mom with a strong intuition, it is hard to know how strict I need to be.

For what it is worth, I seem to have symptoms too. I should probably get a blood test as well. Sigh.

[GlutenFreeManna]

If you are going to do the diet you have to be strict for it to work. Even a little bit can cause symptoms in most people. I posted in another thread about a friend with a toddler she was trying to take gluten free. She kept feeding him cheerios because she figured they were good for him and the little bit of wheat starch in them wouldn't hurt him. His symptoms (which were bloody stools) didn't go away while on his "gluten free" diet. I strongly suspect that if she had really taken him gluten free she would have seen results (and I tried to tell her this). Instead she is still dragging from doctor to doctor trying to find out what is wrong. Just breaks my heart. Bottom line is a little bit can still hurt and you won't know the results of a gluten free trial unless you are really, completely gluten free.

Now if you don't want to go buying a new toaster and new pans, you can buy toaster bags or just don't give him gluten free toast. You can also use foil to cook most of his food to prevent and cc from the pans. I read someone on here uses wax paper on top of their cutting boards when cutting fruit and veggies (or a small new cutting board dedicated to gluten-free foods only is not expensive). SO there are other less expensive ways to be safe (they just might not be as convenient in the long term).

[Dixiebell]

My son went through some of the same problems. Alot of them were behavioral prob. Negative blood test. His GI, Dr.P, said these tests are not 100%. They did x-rays on his tummy and found severe constipation. We got that cleared up an he was still having lots of pain an very odd BM's. Another x-ray was done because Dr.P thought it would be C again. No C. He was clear as a bell. We decided not to do the endo and just try the gluten-free diet, well what do you know, about a month later, he was feeling so much better. Now about three months later he is feeling great. I do think he is having prob with dairy now.