Going In For Child's Gi Appointment

[Dave-KC]

We'll be going to a pediatric gastroenterologist in about a month for our (then) 15 month old. She's had a blood test that may indicate celiac.

We're preparing questions, but are interested in ideas to be prepared to ask the doctor. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[kareng]

How many patients have you diagnosed with Celiac? How many biopsies of the small intestine will you take? Even if it looks good in there? Answer should be at least 6 and even if it looks good because it's hard to see with a scope.

[Dave-KC]

It's a Dr. at Children's Mercy, referred to us by our regular pediatrician. Just doing some quick research on the web indicates that he may be fairly new to the Kansas City area. I read a review with him in Omaha.

We'll be making a list to take along with us, as it's never fun to get to the Doctor, and then forget the questions you wanted to ask...

[Dave-KC]

Well, we had our appointment yesterday with Dr. Seth Septer at Children's Mercy in KC. He was excellent, listened to us, asked lots of questions probing our daughter and her condition.

Her blood tests included three things, and my apologies for not remembering all of the test names. She was abnormal on one, and normal on two. The one she was abnormal on the Doctor said is the one that gives the most false positives. That and combined with her normal growth pattern, and lack of symptoms after the 8 day bought of diarrhea (and it's been 1 1/2 months since that bout) leads him to believe she does not have celiac. He said it's 90% likelihood that she doesn't have celiac.

Going forward, he wants us to watch for symptoms (diarrhea, vomiting), and then do her blood work again when she's two (she's 15 months now). And unless other symptoms or the blood work show a problem, we assume she doesn't have it.

Also, he thinks that likely the 8 day bought was a virus.

We were very, very impressed with Dr. Septer, and would definitely recommend him for anyone in western Missouri or Kansas that needs a pediatric GI doctor.