Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Where Your Contribution Counts!
    eNewsletter
    Support Us!

Growth Spurts After Going gluten-free?


kbidarch

Recommended Posts

kbidarch Apprentice

My oldest (whom I have long suspected has gluten intolerance, but has not been confirmed) and my daughter (who IS confirmed gluten intolerant) are both near the bottom of the charts in weight & height. They started out healthy, in the 50th-60th% until 12 or so months; now both are in the 3rd-5th%. Now that we're gluten-free, they have been eating SO much. My daughter gained 2 lbs in 5 days. I'm expecting to see them add some weight. What I'm wondering, though, is if they will "catch up" when it comes to height? They are 7 and 3, so still plenty of growing time left, but I'm wondering - especially in the case of the 7 year old - if we're going to be unable to make up some of that lost growth.

Those who have been gluten-free for some time, and had small children thanks to Celiac or Gluten Intolerance --- did you see a noticable change in your child's height and weight? If so, how long after going gluten-free?

Thanks. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



jmjsmomma Apprentice

My 6 yo was dx celiac in Jan 09. His only symptom was that he literally stopped growing. He wasn't even close to BEING on the growth chart. By Oct 09, he had grown 5 inches...yes, in 10 months! He seems to have tapered off a bit now and is still VERY small for his age. The weight gain took longer.....even after going gluten-free he stayed 39 lbs until recently when he just hit 42lbs....and this boy EATS. I've read varying stories about how quickly it takes to see growth and weight, I don't think there is any "true" timing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Heidi S. Rookie

I do not have many details, but my niece was overweight and always hungry but small for her age. Now diagnosed gluten in tolerance for almost a year she has slimmed down (no more distend belly) and grown several inches! I know my sister was very relieved to get her into the normal range!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jsmjboertlein Rookie

My 4 year old hasn't grown in well over 2 years. Not an outfit size not a shoe size. He's almost 5 and still in 2t-3t clothes. I am excited to see if he grows. He's been on his diet for a month now and I have already had to buy new shoes, soooooo........

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bookworm2768 Newbie

my 9yo was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in December so he has been gluten free for about 5 months. He has gained about 15 and put on two inches in that time!

He used to be a huge off the charts baby and then his size tapered off until, at age 7, he was the bottom 5th percentile of height and weight. He is now a respectable 25th percentile and I can live with this.

His GI specialist says he will never reach his full potential for height (at two we were told to expect a six foot teenager!) since he was malnourished for so long.

What I love most (besides the height) is that fact that the child is packing on muscle at a fantastic rate. Not fat - muscle! He is suddenly running around and trying wild and wacky things that 9 yo boys like and even if he never gets as tall as he would have I am just grateful that we caught it at all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
melblondin Apprentice

Man I'm hoping we get to see some of this growth too!! All 3 of my boys are in about the 5th percentiles, but I just took my 1 year old in for his well child and at 4 mths he was 75th for weight, at 8 mths he dropped to the 10th, and now at 1 year he dropped again to the 5th :huh: He's been gluten free since the 8 month appt., so I was hoping for a little more growth than what we saw. His height curve dropped to WELL BELOW the bottom of the chart. He's sensitive/allergic to milk, so any ideas for high fat/high calorie foods that I could give him. I'm already trying egg yolks and avocados. I want to figure this out before he wastes away in front of me :( Thanks everyone!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
scarlett77 Apprentice

Man I'm hoping we get to see some of this growth too!! All 3 of my boys are in about the 5th percentiles, but I just took my 1 year old in for his well child and at 4 mths he was 75th for weight, at 8 mths he dropped to the 10th, and now at 1 year he dropped again to the 5th :huh: He's been gluten free since the 8 month appt., so I was hoping for a little more growth than what we saw. His height curve dropped to WELL BELOW the bottom of the chart. He's sensitive/allergic to milk, so any ideas for high fat/high calorie foods that I could give him. I'm already trying egg yolks and avocados. I want to figure this out before he wastes away in front of me :( Thanks everyone!

Sounds familiar. My 2yo was below 3% at the time of his diagnosis which was just before his 2nd birthday. He's on the charts between 5-10% now (he'll be 3 in November). Since going gluten-free he has grown 3 shoe sizes and 2 clothing sizes. He is still very small for his age, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in brains. My youngest recently started slipping a bit on the charts too but is still at the 50% range. But this could be due to his increased physical activity and the fact that the boy still prefers to breastfeed over eating regular food (except for chili and M&M's apparently). My boys just started to like eggs (YEAH!!!!) but they've never been big on avocados. We also eat a lot of cheese at my house, but that doesn't help you. I wonder if they'd like quinoa? Have you tried pork? That was the first meat my boys really liked. Maybe try some fried rice with egg and veggies? My youngest loves rice pasta with olive oil and a tiny bit of garlic. Also beans are good. I make mexican rice and season black beans with a homemade taco mix that the whole family loves.

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Beth03456 Newbie

My son was diagnosed at age 3 after not growing between ages 2 and 3. Was at around the 3% for height and weight. He's been gluten-free for a year now. He grew several inches and is now at the 8% for height. He went from wearing 24 mo. to 4T clothes. His weight hasn't increased that much though in the year since diagnosis. We are now giving him Pediasure and more frequent desserts on the advice of the GI just to try and fatten him up a bit, since he eats a healthy variety of gluten-free food, just not that much of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fire1966 Newbie

my 9yo was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in December so he has been gluten free for about 5 months. He has gained about 15 and put on two inches in that time!

He used to be a huge off the charts baby and then his size tapered off until, at age 7, he was the bottom 5th percentile of height and weight. He is now a respectable 25th percentile and I can live with this.

His GI specialist says he will never reach his full potential for height (at two we were told to expect a six foot teenager!) since he was malnourished for so long.

What I love most (besides the height) is that fact that the child is packing on muscle at a fantastic rate. Not fat - muscle! He is suddenly running around and trying wild and wacky things that 9 yo boys like and even if he never gets as tall as he would have I am just grateful that we caught it at all!

My son was just diagnosed. The only symptom he had was stomach aches. Our Doctor tested him and he came back positive. He is 10 and also we were told he would be 6 feet as an adult. Is there anyone who knows how much height they can gain back by adulthood. He will be crushed if he doesn't grow to 6 feet he is terrified of being short.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mmcdaniels Apprentice

My son is 10 and diagnosed when he was 8. In the first 6 months on a gluten free diet he went from a size 5/5T to a size 10. Previously, he wore a 4T at age 2 and was still in a 5 at age 8. He is now a little small for his age but not significantly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      120,501
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    fine one
    Newest Member
    fine one
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      120.2k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • SuzanneL
      It was tTG IGG that was flagged high. I'm not sure about the other stuff. I'm still eating my normal stuff. 
    • cristiana
      Thank you for your post, @Nedast, and welcome to the forum. It is interesting to read of your experiences. Although I've not had TMJ, from time to time I have had a bit of mild pain in my jaw, sharp stabbing pains and tingling in my face which appears to have been caused by issues with my trigeminal nerve.  I read that sometimes a damaged trigeminal nerve in coeliacs can heal after adopting a gluten free diet.  I try to keep out of cold winds or wear a scarf over my face when it is cold and windy, those conditions tend to be my 'trigger' but I do think that staying clear of gluten has helped.  Also, sleeping with a rolled up towel under my neck is a tip I picked up online, again, that seems to bring benefits. Thank you again for your input - living with this sort of pain can be very hard, so it is good to be able to share advice.
    • Julie Riordan
      I am going to France in two weeks and then to Portugal in May   Thanks for your reply 
    • Nedast
      I made an account just to reply to this topic. My story resembles yours in so many ways that it is truly amazing. I also suddenly became lactose intolerant, went a little under 10 years attributing all my symtoms to different body parts, never thinking it was something systemic until much later. I had the same mental problems - anxiety, depression, fatigue, etc. In fact, the only real difference in our story is that I was never formally diagnosed. When I discovered that my myriad symtoms, that had been continuous and worsening for years, all rapidly subsided upon cessation of consuming gluten, I immediately took it upon myself to cut gluten out of my diet completely. I live in America, and had lost my health insurance within the year prior to my discovery, so I could not get tested, and I will never willingly or knowingly consume gluten again, which I would have to do in order to get tested now that I have insurance again. But that is not the point of this reply. I also had extreme TMJ pain that began within months of getting my wisdom teeth out at - you guessed it - 17 years old. I was in and out of doctors for my various symptoms for about 5 years before I gave up, but during that time I had also kept getting reffered to different kinds of doctors that had their own, different solutions to my TMJ issue, an issue which I only recently discovered was related to my other symptoms. I began with physical therapy, and the physical therapist eventually broke down at me after many months, raising her voice at me and saying that there was nothing she could do for me. After that saga, I saw a plastic surgeon at the request of my GP, who he knew personally. This palstic surgeon began using botox injections to stop my spasming jaw muscles, and he managed to get it covered by my insurace in 2011, which was harder to do back then. This helped the pain tremendously, but did not solve the underlying problem, and I had to get repeat injections every three months. After a couple of years, this began to lose effectiveness, and I needed treatments more often than my insurance would cover. The surgeon did a scan on the joint and saw slight damage to the tissues. He then got approved by insurance to do a small surgery on the massseter (jaw) muscle - making an incision, and then splicing tissue into the muscle to stop the spasming. It worked amazingly, but about three months later it had stopped working. I was on the verge of seeing the top oral surgeon in our city, but instead of operating on me, he referred me to a unique group of dentists who focus on the TMJ and its biomechanical relationship to teeth occlusion (i.e. how the teeth fit together). This is what your dentist did, and what he did to you was boderline if not outright malpractice. There is a dental field that specializes in doing this kind of dental work, and it takes many years of extra schooling (and a lot of money invested into education) to be able to modify teeth occusion in this manner. Just based on the way you describe your dentist doing this, I can tell he was not qualified to do this to you. Dentists who are qualified and engage in this practice take many measurments of your head, mouth, teeth, etc., they take laboratory molds of your teeth, and they then make a complete, life-size model of your skull and teeth to help them guide their work on you. They then have a lab construct, and give you what is called a "bite splint." It looks and feels like a retainer, but its function is entirely different. This is essentially a literal splint for the TMJ that situates on the teeth. The splint is progressively modified once or twice per week, over several months, in order to slowly move the joint to its correct position. The muscles spasm less, stress is taken off the joint, as the joint slowly moves back into its proper position. The pain reduces each month, each week, sometimes even each day you go in for a visit. The joint has to be moved in this manner with the splint BEFORE the modification to the teeth begins. They then add to your tooth structure with small bits of composite, to keep the joint in its proper place after it has been sucessfully repositioned. Subtracting from your teeth, by grinding down bits of your natural tooth structure, is done very conservatively, if they have to do it at all. This process worked for me - after six months, my face, jaw, neck all felt normal, and I had no more pain - a feeling I had not had in a long time. It also made my face look better. I had not realized the true extent that the spasming muscles and the joint derangement had effected the shape of my face. The pain began to return after a few months, but nowhere near where it had been before. This immense reduction in pain lasted for a little over two years. The treatment still ultimately failed, but it is not their fault, and it is still the treatment that has given me the most relief to this day. Later on, I even went about three years with very, very good pain reduction, before the joint severely destabilized again. This field of dentistry is the last line treatment for TMJ issues before oral surgery on the TMJ. There aren't as many denists around who practice this anymore, and the practice is currently shrinking due to dentists opting for less espensive, additional educations in things like professional whitening, which have a broader marketability. Getting this treatment is also very expensive if not covered by insurance (in America at least). My first time was covered by insurance, second time was not, though the dentist took pity on me due to the nature of my case and charged like a quarter of usual pricing. Most cases seen by these dentists are complete successes, and the patient never has to come back again. But occasionally they get a case that is not a success, and I was one of those cases. A little over a year ago, I began seeing the second dentist who keeps my TMJ stable in this manner. The first dentist retired, and then died sadly. A shame too, because he was a truly amazing, knowledgable guy who really wanted to help people. The new dentist began to get suspicious when my joint failed to stay stable after I was finished with the bite splint and his modifications, so he did another scan on me. This is ten years after the first scan (remember, I said the surgeon saw "slight" damage to the tissue on the first scan). This new scan revealed that I now no longer have cartilage in the joint, on both sides - complete degeneration of the soft tissues and some damage to the bone. The dentist sat me down and had a talk with me after these results came in, and said that when he sees damage like this in cases like mine, that the damage to the joint is most likely autoimmune, and that, in his experinece, it is usually autoimmune. He has sent patients with cases like mine to Mayo Clinic. He said he will continue to see me as long as the treatment continues to offer me relief, but also said that I will probably have to see a dentist for this type of treatment for the rest of my life. He is not currently recommending surgery due to my young age and the fact that the treatment he provides manages my symptoms pretty well. I still see this dentist today, and probably will see this kind of dental specialist for the rest of my life, since they have helped with this issue the most. I did not inform him that I am 100% sure that I have celiac disease (due to my complete symptom remission upon gluten cessation). I didn't inform him because I thought it would be inappropriate due to not having a formal diagnosis. I was disappointed, because I had believed I had caught it BEFORE it had done permanent damage to my body. I had never suspected that my TMJ issues may be related to my other symptoms, and that the damage would end up complete and permanent. Luckily, I caught it about 6 months after my other joints started hurting, and they stopped hurting right after I went gluten free, and haven't hurt since. I of course did the necessary research after the results of the second scan, and found out that the TMJ is the most commonly involved joint in autoimmune disease of the intestines, and if mutliple joints are effected, it is usually the first one effected. This makes complete sense, since the TMJ is the most closely related joint to the intestines, and literally controls the opening that allows food passage into your intestines. I am here to tell you, that if anyone says there is no potential relationship between TMJ issues and celiac disease, they are absolutely wrong. Just google TMJ and Celiac disease, and read the scientific articles you find. Research on issues regarding the TMJ is relatively sparse, but you will find the association you're looking for validated.
    • trents
      Welcome to the forum, @SuzanneL! Which tTG was that? tTG-IGA? tTG-IGG? Were there other celiac antibody tests run from that blood draw? Was total IGA measured? By some chance were you already cutting back on gluten by the time the blood draw was taken or just not eating much? For the celiac antibody tests to be accurate a person needs to be eating about 10g of gluten daily which is about 4-6 pieces of bread.
×
×
  • Create New...