Daughter Stopped Growing - Is This Celiac?

[JenC]

I just realized that DD hasn't grown in the past four months at least, maybe longer. She was born in over the 80th % for height and weight, but is below 15% now. She is allergic to soy and dairy. She has had terrible dental decay, resulting in having to have the top four front teeth pulled. She has always slept terribly. Worse when she consumes dairy or soy, but in general, awful. As in, will not sleep without me there, wakes up every 20 minutes to 2 hours (ONE time slept 8 hours straight, ever). Her stool frequently has undigested food, is extremely foul smelling and irregular in frequency and consistency. She always has bags under her eyes and is frequently congested.

Does this sound like celiac or gluten intolerance? I have Hashimoto's disease and am going in to be tested for food allergies and celiac next week. We have an appointment with a new ped next week. Should I be pushing for testing for her as well?

Thank you so much for any responses you could provide. I'm so worried.

[domesticactivist]

Yes, have her tested. But know that there is a high incidence of false negatives, especially in children. After the testing, I would try eliminating gluten, dairy, and soy and see if there is improvement,

[domesticactivist]

Oh, and you can cut out the dairy and soy before the testing, but not the gluten.

[mushroom]

I agree with domesticactivist - your daughter's symptoms sound pretty classic for childhood celiac and she should definitely be tested. Regardless of the results of the testing, once that is done you should eliminate gluten from her diet. Be aware that if the blood test is positive she may be referred for an endoscopy with biopsy, (some doctors will not make the diagnosis on the basis of symptoms and blood tests alone). If you choose to have this done she would need to continue eating gluten until after this test as well.

Good luck to you both - yes, you may well be positive too.

[BeHappy]

Sounds like classic symptoms to me... test her! Good luck.