New Diagnosis

[lrothlewis]

My 12 year old son has been sick since before thanksgiving 2003, throwing up at least once a day and feeling terrible. The only thing the doctors could tell me was that he had gastritis and duodenitis. Finally, after several rounds of bloodwork, he was giagnosed with celiac disease. He has been on a gluten-free diet for a little over a week and still does not feel good, but has not vomited more that once during his gluten-free diet. We had our other 2 children tested, and they bot tested positive!! That means that 100% of my children have it. My husband and I were tested and I was negative, but my husband was positive. I am most worried about my 15 year old son who has had the symptoms his whole life, but was never diagnosed!! My 8 year old daughter shows no signs, nor does my husband. I find it odd that ALL of my children have this!! Does anyone have a similar situation??

[DLayman]

Thought I replied to this.

There are several out there like this. The family will all go gluten free. There is a yahoo group called celiackids that you might find helpful and there is a good book called Kids with Celiac Disease by Dana Korn (she is active in the yahoo group) also she has a book called Wheat Free Worry Free as well I have not read that one but I hear it is good. There is also a great cook book out there.. developed by a teenager with Celiac.. I am sorry I don't know the title.. I am sure it is on this site somewhere.

Hope this helps!

Denise

[gf4life]

I just wanted to say that it is not uncommon for a whole family to have Celiac, but you are fortunate to have gotten them all diagnosed! The gluten free diet is not the easiest, but it is certainly do-able and I would choose this over another disease that would require medication and/or surgery to fix. They say their is no cure for the disease, but the treatment totally reverses the damage in most people. It does take longer for a week to get real relief, so don't worry about your son. He will be feeling much better in a few months.

As for the dad and child who don't have symptoms, that is not as common, but not unheard of. Some people have the disease, but don't have ANY symptoms, or they have minor symptoms, but don't realise they are caused by the Celiac. They may actually notice that they feel better after a while and some little health issues just suddenly clear up. This happens for some people and they just don't realise they felt bad, until they feel better. They need the gluten free diet just as much as a very ill person, since the damage will continue as long as they eat gluten. Even in the symptom free person. Your son should get completely better, as long as he sticks to the diet 100%. I've had symptoms for more than 27 years. Others on the board were sick for 50+ years before diagnosis. It takes longer to heal and often more health problems come up (in the form of other related diseases) the longer you eat gluten, but I wouldn't worry about your son. He is still young and should heal fine.

The fact that all of the kids and your husband have it, that is just how genetics go. If one parent has it then the kids have a 1 in 10 chance of having it. That doesn't mean 1 out of 10 kids from the same parents will have it, it means that each child has that chance of getting the gene passed on to them. I have three children, all of whom are symptomatic for celiac disease, and I am having them tested. I have it and so I just figure they all have it too. I don't know if my husband has it, he won't get tested.

God bless,

Mariann

[flagbabyds]

your son should read the teens only section i am 13 and have had celiac disease since 20 mnth. you should think of joining a rock group, raising our celiac kids it is helpful for the kids and parents