Help!

[queeniemikki]

For the last few months i've been getting really bloated. I'm constipated almost all of the time (and laxatives don't help). I've had random headaches for as long as i remember. Doctors at first thought it was my eyes but eventually just decided there was nothing wrong with me and i must have seasonal allergies (which all the tests came back negative for). Since June i've lost almost 20 pounds unintentionally (used to be 125 now 108) but it doesn't look like I lost any weight because for all the weight I lost from my stomach has been replaced by bloat. But ive never really had bad diarriah which seems like what most people with celiac disease seem to have. I'm also really short compared to the rest of my family (mom 5' 6" dad 5' 11" twin brother 5' 8" and me 5'3". I have super sensitive bones (I've broken 6 bones in 4 years). Lately whenever i stand up o sort of get a head rush and can't see right for a few seconds because these black dots swarm all over my vision. I've always had really thin hair and now I'm just remembering that when i was little i would get rashes that my doctors decided was eczema but now I'm thinking it might have been DH. I've also had reflux since I was 13.

For 4 days last week i stopped eating gluten without telling anyone (I'm 15) and i didn't notice any MAJOR improvements but on friday i started eating it again and since then i've been really bloated and constipated.

Tips on how i should ask my parents to have me tested? It can't have come from my mom's side because she has Chron's disease and before she was diagnosed they tested her for celiac and she was negative. That means she couldn't have given it to me, right? But i want to be tested because mostly all of the symptoms for celiac disease sound like mine.

I tried to convince my parents about it but my mom thinks i'm being silly to eliminate it from my diet and my dad yelled about how i was going to MAKE myself sick by not eating it then eating it in a month.

HELP

[beebs]

Tips on how i should ask my parents to have me tested? It can't have come from my mom's side because she has Chron's disease and before she was diagnosed they tested her for celiac and she was negative. That means she couldn't have given it to me, right? But i want to be tested because mostly all of the symptoms for celiac disease sound like mine.

No, thats not correct. Just because she doesn't have Celiac does not mean you can't of inherited the specific genes from her. And even if she did have it, it doesn't mean that you would also have it. Complicated right? She has crohn's which is an autoimmune disease - the fact that there is autoimmune disease in your family means you have a higher chance of autoimmune diseases yourself. (Celiac is an autoimmune disease).

Just tell them the truth - you feel sick/gassy/bloated, you want to be tested. The first step is a simple blood test, do you think that they won't want you to be tested?

[beebs]

Ps- if you didn't eat it for a month and then ate it and got sick that would mean that you have a problem with gluten. Maybe point out how common Celiac is - that it is badly under diagnosed (about 80% of celiacs have no idea they have it), that you have autoimmune diseases in the family - tell them its just a blood test to start. And that you will continue eating gluten while being tested?

[Di2011]

PLEASE keep reading about gluten intolerance. Search like crazy on this and other websites. The more you learn the more you can speak to parents and medical people with some authority or knowledge. You need to describe your symptoms and reactions really specifically and even then you need to be objective to the response you get from them.

Most of the regulars on this forum have read or experienced the worst and range of gluten problems. Ask us as many and ANY questions you'd like. We are here to help. Sometimes when no one else can. What you are going through is not considered normal but many of us lived our lives thinking it must be normal.

My mum is in her 60's and has a 1980s understanding of celiac. So the idea of being gluten free is tough to lots of people. Many people think gluten-free is "hard" and/or "expensive" but it doesn't need to be if you have the good karma of finding a forum like this. Even at your age we can help.