How Common Is It To Not Have Diarrhea And Have Celiac?

[Candikane]

My 5.5 yr old daughter has had constant stomach pain which has progressed to a daily issue within the last 3 weeks. They use to be random and show up whenever, now they're pretty much every single day. Her stomach looks bloated to me as well. We've been to numerous doctors, numerous times, and been told constipation normally. We've tried a lactose-free diet that didn't work. The last visit we had last week, GERD was suggested and she was given rinitidine (generic zantac) to take. After 8 days, and still NO sign of improvement, we went back in today. They did an xray and said if it's negative then it's on to blood work.

I always hear people say diarrhea is a common symptom though of Celiac. She doesn't have any diarrhea at all. She's a good, normal pooper.... normally daily. I'm wondering how "common" it really is, or if this could very well be Celiac? She's normally a very active, happy child... these stomachaches couch her and stop her from wanting to go places or do things a lot of the time. I know in my heart this is NOT just constipation, and definitely interested in Celiac as a possible diagnosis.

I did read that celiac is linked to rheumatoid arthritis, and is genetic. My mom has RA.

Has anyone else been diagnosed with no other symptoms except stomach aches?

[Cara in Boston]

My son has not had D since he was in diapers. Back in November he was complaining of daily stomach aches at home and at school. To be honest, I sort of ignored him because I thought he was just being dramatic. When his teacher called to let me know they were happening at school, I took him to the doctor. At just about the same time, we also saw a behavior change (tantrums, melt downs, etc.)

She did a blood test for celiac and he came back positive on 2 of the 5 tests (the IgG ones only).

By the time we got in to see a specialist, the stomach aches had long been gone, so he was basically symptom free.

He had an endoscopy last week and it was positive for celiac.

Thinking back, he had other symptoms that I just didn't know were related. Frequent nosebleeds, dark circles under his eyes, excema on his arms, occasional leg pains (MD said "growing pains"), etc.

He is now 6 and gluten free. Hard to tell if it is helping, since he really had no symptoms.

Ask your doctor to do the blood tests.

Cara

[hnybny91]

That was never one oif my symptoms. In fact, the opposite was true - I was chronically constipated. Now I poop darn near every day for the first time in my life. I still get happy about it like I am a little kid...LOL

[Candikane]

My son has not had D since he was in diapers. Back in November he was complaining of daily stomach aches at home and at school. To be honest, I sort of ignored him because I thought he was just being dramatic. When his teacher called to let me know they were happening at school, I took him to the doctor. At just about the same time, we also saw a behavior change (tantrums, melt downs, etc.)

She did a blood test for celiac and he came back positive on 2 of the 5 tests (the IgG ones only).

By the time we got in to see a specialist, the stomach aches had long been gone, so he was basically symptom free.

He had an endoscopy last week and it was positive for celiac.

Thinking back, he had other symptoms that I just didn't know were related. Frequent nosebleeds, dark circles under his eyes, excema on his arms, occasional leg pains (MD said "growing pains"), etc.

He is now 6 and gluten free. Hard to tell if it is helping, since he really had no symptoms.

Ask your doctor to do the blood tests.

Cara

WOW! I can relate with the nosebleeds, dark circles, and leg pains! She also has been exhibiting a lot more behavior problems at home (she's so shy that it doesn't happen in public, she doesn't even barely TALK in public). My DD also has tics that was diagnosed as a tic disorder, possibly tourettes but we haven't been back in to the doc on that one yet (the one who diagnosed left the clinic to go back to his hometown, and we haven't found ANY new primary doctor yet at all). I'm so tired of the usual "common" problems, and medication, being thrown at my daughter. I really wish I could find a DR that would really take the time to figure out what is wrong with my child. I'm starting to read a lot of Celiac symptoms that are hitting the nail on the head though!

[Candikane]

That was never one oif my symptoms. In fact, the opposite was true - I was chronically constipated. Now I poop darn near every day for the first time in my life. I still get happy about it like I am a little kid...LOL

This is MY problem! I'd love to be able to poop daily!

[mamabickler]

WOW! I can relate with the nosebleeds, dark circles, and leg pains! She also has been exhibiting a lot more behavior problems at home (she's so shy that it doesn't happen in public, she doesn't even barely TALK in public). My DD also has tics that was diagnosed as a tic disorder, possibly tourettes but we haven't been back in to the doc on that one yet (the one who diagnosed left the clinic to go back to his hometown, and we haven't found ANY new primary doctor yet at all). I'm so tired of the usual "common" problems, and medication, being thrown at my daughter. I really wish I could find a DR that would really take the time to figure out what is wrong with my child. I'm starting to read a lot of Celiac symptoms that are hitting the nail on the head though!

wow - what are your dd's tics like? my son started to do what looks like a tic around 8 mths of age. he continued with it off and on, when we eliminated gluten, they stopped. now we're doing a gluten challenge and we've seen 4 in 2 days. i'd be more curious to hear about your daughters.

[Candikane]

wow - what are your dd's tics like? my son started to do what looks like a tic around 8 mths of age. he continued with it off and on, when we eliminated gluten, they stopped. now we're doing a gluten challenge and we've seen 4 in 2 days. i'd be more curious to hear about your daughters.

She has cycled through different tics, this all started about 1.5 years ago now. She has both physical and vocal tics. She normally has a set of 4-5 at a time and when those start to slow down, then she'll develop a new set of tics (1 in, 1 out style).

The vocal tics she has had is a "uh" breathy sound, kind of like if you close off your throat and then let a little bit of pressing air out. She also had a throat clearing one, and now it's a squeak sound that she does.

The physical she has gone through are numerous different ones, but the ones I can remember or that are current are: hard eye blinking, sniffing her fingers, shoulder shrugs, bending her neck to the side with 1 shoulder shrug, HARD head nodding (back and forth, it looks like she's going to break her neck!), bending and then shoving her arms outwards (looks like a push-up, but while standing up), kicking her hip out to the side (this one is constantly reoccuring and she almost always does a vocal tic at the same time), crossing all her fingers for a second....

I'm sure there's more, but these are the ones off of the top of my head. It's horrible I'm really interested in trying the gluten-free diet, especially if it will help with these tics! I'd like to probably test beforehand, but is the doctor going think i'm nuts to demand a blood test?

[ravenwoodglass]

WOW! I can relate with the nosebleeds, dark circles, and leg pains! She also has been exhibiting a lot more behavior problems at home (she's so shy that it doesn't happen in public, she doesn't even barely TALK in public). My DD also has tics that was diagnosed as a tic disorder, possibly tourettes but we haven't been back in to the doc on that one yet (the one who diagnosed left the clinic to go back to his hometown, and we haven't found ANY new primary doctor yet at all). I'm so tired of the usual "common" problems, and medication, being thrown at my daughter. I really wish I could find a DR that would really take the time to figure out what is wrong with my child. I'm starting to read a lot of Celiac symptoms that are hitting the nail on the head though!

You could be describing me both as a child and for most of my adult life. I didn't get D until after my second child was born but had been celiac since I was about 5, that was when I developed DH rashes that were misdiagnosed as 'poison ivy in my blood'. I was aware of my physical and vocal ticks but there was nothing I could do to stop them. They disappeared very soon into the diet. My DD also had severe stomach pain as her main symptom along with the dark circles, she was easily exhausted and for a long time we thought she might be having petit mal seizures because she would 'shiver' sporatically.

After you are done with all testing do try the diet no matter what the test results are. False negatives are even more common in children than in adults.

[Candikane]

The Dr called and said the xray came back showing a good amount of stool, so they want to skip blood tests and just have her take Miralax for a few weeks and see if it helps the stomach upset. Once again, throw drugs instead of finding the reason. So maaaybe the backup is the reason for the stomach aches, but what's the reason for the backup? How about the tics? Dark eyes? Recent aggrivation? Seperation Anxiety?! She's been experiencing this lately as well, at 5 1/2 yrs old! Even just as simple and going up to her room to play.... she won't go without me.

I just don't understand the process of filling childrens' bodies with drugs and call them cured. It's NOT curing them! It makes me so frustrated!

I'd love to try the gluten-free diet, I've also read about starting with a diet excluding all artifical colors and flavorings, high fructose corn syrup, and lowering sugars. I guess either way I just feel so overwhelmed that I don't even know where or how to start.

[Debbie B in MD]

I think I might be a bit demanding as far as the blood tests. She is your daughter and you know her best.

[Roda]

My son was around 5 1/2 years when he started complaing of random stomach aches. Some he would lay on the couch, others he wanted me to rub his belly and some he would mention and then go off to play. He always was a good pooper. He is like clock work every day and no diarrhea or constipation. I did notice a few times some fat floating though. Temper tantrums out the wazoo and he developed this weird obsession with the velcro on his sandles and his shoe strings on his sneakers. No matter what you did he didn't like it and it would result in major meltdowns. I did have him screened via blood after my diagnosis and he was negative. He wasn't complaining of any symptoms then and he was 2 months shy of being 4. His stomach aches lasted about 5 months when I had his celiac blood work redone. He was positive on the Iga ttg this time. We did not do the scope and biopsy and put him gluten free in Nov.'10. We saw slow gradual improvement in the temper tantrums and the obsessive thing with the shoes and now he doesn't have either. No more complaints of stomach aches either. We did a gluten challange with him the end of March that only lasted three days. The stomach ache came back and his behavior/moods did a 360 degree. He also got constipated and didn't go to the bathroom for 5 days. He has only been constipated twice..once as a baby due to his horrible reflux and right after he went gluten free (that resolved). His daddy called off the challenge and is now for sure a believer that gluten is his problem and was glad to get him back gluten free. He is now 6 and in kindergarden. We were able to have the school accomidate him (even without the official dx from a GI) because his allergist wrote a note of his need for gluten free. His teacher made his classroom gluten free since it was to hard to manage and protect intruction time with 19 other kids eating gluten.