1st Appointment With GI On Wednesday

[dlmclaugh]

My daughter will have her 1st appointment with a GI DR in 2 days and it sure could not be soon enough. She has had issues with stomachaches for years but over the past year it has gotten much worse. For the most part, she goes about her day and it does not stop her from doing too many things. She was diagnosed with lactose intolerance when she was 3 after many failed attempts to give her regular milk since she was 1. Since then she has been on lactose free milk. As long as we limited foods containing lactose, she seemed okay. But for the past 6 months or so, she has had some type of stomach pain almost every day. Her pediatrician did some bloodwork that showed the Gliadin IGG was positive at 29.9 (anything over 10 is positive) but she did not do the complete testing so I am not sure what those results really mean. She told me to try eliminating gluten but before I do that, I think she needs to see a GI specialist. I would kind of like to know for sure what is causing her problems instead of guessing at it.

That is just a little background,.......the reason I am posting now is because she seems to have developed some new symptoms over the past week and I am not sure if this is something related or something on top of everything she already had going on. She got a stomachache on Sunday that was so bad she threw up. At 1st I was thinking that she got the flu but I am sure that is not the case. Once she threw up, she did feel better. GOod enough that she wanted to eat a full meal. After that she played all day and even jumped on her trampoline. Later the same day, she ate a few tortilla corn chips and then came to me telling me that her stomach hurt really bad, she did not throw up this time. She said that this pain is located a little higher than where her pain normally falls (most of the time she says it hurts in the belly button area,...this time it was about 3 to 4 inches above the belly button area.) I gave her mylicon(gas drops) because she said the pain was really sharp, I thought maybe it was being caused from trapped gas??? A little while later she said she felt better but it still hurt like her stomach always hurts. She got up today and said she has a stomachache but it is how she always feels,....not the sharp pain. Last week I got a call from school because she had gotten a really bad stomachache them too. I had to go get her out of school. She came home and laid down and seemed to feel batter after about 20 minutes.

Does any of this sound like it really could be celiac or gluten intolerance? I have a friend that is a nurse and she thinks I am crazy for even thinking that it is possible that she might be gluten intolerant.... she has not lived through the past 7 years with my daughter always having issues with her stomach. I get kind of tired of people thinking that I am making a bigger deal of this than it is. I really think that my daughter has learned to live with a constant stomachache without complaining too much until it gets really bad.

I hope that we get some answers on Wednesday...even if it ends up not being gluten, I need some answers....

Denise

[Cara in Boston]

My son (just turned 6) has tested positive twice on the blood test but only for the IgG. He also has one of the genetic markers for Celiac. His doctor has confirmed that based on his blood tests hs is (at least) gluten intolerant and is continuing to check him for Celiac (endoscopy next week)

If his endoscopy is negative it could be because he doesn't have it, or is in the very early stages. If it is negative, he will need to be tested for celiac every couple of years but we plan to start the gluten free diet as soon as the test is over.

His symptoms are not serious (a couple of weeks complaining about stomach pain several months ago. Also, some behavior issue that I'm hoping will also resolve with the change in diet.)but he always looks sort of "unhealthy" (tired, dark circles under his eyes, etc.) dispite a very healthy diet and lifestyle.

Do NOT try the diet out before you are done with testing.

Hope your daughter feels better.

Cara