Our 6 year old had a bunch of labs done last week in trying to track down some issues.
So far the only abnormality is he tested positive for Celiac Disease.

Getting scheduled with GI. Anyone have any tips as we start this venture??

My wife has it and other than being an Italian who can't eat pasta, it is easy for her to keep under control.

Corn tortillas = good; flour = bad
Store bought wheat pasta = bad; husband made, fresh, gluten-free pasta = good

My suggestion, before spending all the $$ on tests, just go gluten-free for a few weeks. If that's what it is, the kid's major issues will clear up in a few days and the minor ones within a couple weeks.

Hard part, with the kid being 6 year-old, you and the rest of the family will need to be gluten free (which really isn't that bad).

^^^

what he said,

wife is also GF/Celiac,

also has chogrens (likely spelled that wrong)

there is a metric shitton of GF options out there, and many are not good (taste wise),

you will have to try them and obviously pick the ones he likes,


baking is easy , lots of GF alternatives ,


big thing is to learn to read ingredients, look for the 'may contain' in bold at the end of the list,



there are a lot of every day items that are GF and a lot that can be made at home by simply substituting a gF blend for regular flour,

My sister in law has Celiacs.

My only contribution is that while there are a ton of gluten-free options you have to be fastidious about contamination. Gluten free doesn't always mean 100% uncontaminated with gluten.

One of the biggest steps my brother and his wife made was training a service dog in gluten detection. They have a Belgian Malinois that she trained like a bomb or narcotics-sniffing dog, just with a different target. Her instagram follows the dog, and she shares instances where the dog has picked up on contamination, from something as simple/hidden as a food product being made on shared lines and have trace gluten, despite being on gluten free food lists. She's gone from getting sick a few times per year to being relatively issue-free.

Restaurants and packaged food are minefields, even if they're labeled "Gluten Free". I know she's had good luck with Aldi gluten free products, if you looking for things like chicken nuggets or other 'kid food'.

Follow basic food safety - wahs your hands, don't cross-contaminate, don't leave surfaces that came in contact with gluten uncleaned, and prepare dishes separately, and you can have gluten in your home. My brother still eats gluten, just a whole lot less than he used to.

our middle daughter has Celiac. She's in her early 50's and complained for quite a few years about how poorly she felt. Gas,bloating, loss of appetite, fatigue etc. Once she was finally diagnosed and started on a strict gluten free diet she's back to normal, but if she accidentally gets a bit of gluten, it's days of feeling poorly before it passes. That diet will be tough for a 6 year old but the results are amazing from all accounts.

My problems started at age 72, I’m now 80 and mine changed from Celiac to IBS to a form of Colitus. Don’t take a chance of thinking if going off gluten temporary will solve the problem. It’s an immune system problem and likely will be with one for life.

My wife has Sjogrens and gluten intolerance is common for those diagnosed with it.

The good news is that Gluten Free foods are getting more common and better tasting. Almost all pizza places offer gluten free crusts and now some have cauliflower crusts. If you look around you will probably be able to find Gluten Free bakeries around you. We have several.

There are a lot of pasta noodles that are Gluten Free now and I can't tell the difference. It will be trial and error in finding what she likes or dislikes. A lot of Gluten Free foods are just not edible.

It will be an adjustment but a Gluten Free diet is healthier overall.

Some good advice in this thread.
I did as LS1 GTO recommended and just went off gluten and it made a huge difference. I believe there are genetic tests for Celiac now, if you really need to confirm for some reason. Most of the antibody tests require the patient to be eating gluten regularly to test positive which I just do not think is worth it.

Hopefully that's the only thing and eliminating gluten fixes it right up.

I second the recomendation of Aldi's Live G Free stuff.

A few other things to consider:

Autoimmune diseases tend to come with other Autoimmune diseases. So just keep an eye out if something else seems off later on. I have Grave's disease (an autoimmune thyroid disease) as well as my unconfirmed Celiac disease.

There are also potentially some issues with cross-reactivity. link Certain other proteins have similar structure and can provoke the same antibody response as gluten. Milk seems to be the biggest issue for this.

If your kid continues having issues with it, there is something called the AIP (AutoImmune Protocol) diet which eliminates all of the foods more likely to provoke a response or inflammation. It's similar to Paleo, but eliminates eggs and seeds also in the initial phase. You then add foods back in to see if you can tolerate them once your guts are settled/healed.

Good luck.

OK, so I have it, which is why we have great GF cookies and cream, banana pudding and key lime pie ice creams. (People genuinely like them, and the cookies, without knowing they are GF. Still trying to get GF biscuits worked out. So far, I’ve made some great crackers/decent scones, but struggling with biscuits - and I cannot eat that much rice flour, either, so it makes development tricky - I wasn’t diagnosed until 32 though, so much more damage was done.)

A) He may need to take b vitamins and vitamin K.

B)The selective carbohydrate diet was very helpful for me, for the first few years - I still have to watch refined sugar and lactose, potatoes and cannot eat too much starch.

C) It’s hard to keep a home kitchen clean enough to keep the gluten out of it, if there’s any in the house. If you are going to do so, think of flour as rat poison to the boy, and keep that in mind - watching where crumbs go, flour dust, cereal, etc all becomes an issue.

D) Get prepared to spend a fair amount more on food.

E) For the most part, it’s better to just not eat the GF versions of many dishes.

F) Stuff has gotten much better.

Be warned......many prescription medications are contaminated with gluten. You will not necessarily see any of the “normal” gluten items you would look for. There are numerous starches and other items that are gluten.

There are almost 300 symptoms of Celiac some mild some severe, continuing gastric and even other problems may be caused by it. Our sister-in-laws nephew had nerve pain in his left leg for years. After many tests and drugs his family doctor told him to go off Gluten and the pain gradually stopped.

I had some major GI allergy issues a few years ago which severely restricted my diet for about 9 months. A friend who has Celiac referred this cookbook to me which saved my sanity-

https://www.amazon.com/Essenti...1941169082/ref=nodl_

Lots of prep, but we fed our whole family including 2 kids on this to avoid me having to make all separate meals.

I have it. You should make peace quickly with the fact that your whole house will need to be GF, you can rarely feed the kid food other people have cooked, and most restaurants that have gluten free options have a fair amount of cross contamination.
The good news is you’ll see improvement in the kid, and you caught it while they were young.

My daughter has it, cut out all the wheat products , you wont believe how many products have wheat in them. and what Cheeze said ^^^

Good friends of mine only daughter has it.

Prior to diagnosis, she was always sick and had a weird body shape with an obese torso and bird legs. She saw countless doctors and specialists. This was all before celiac's or gluten was ever mainstream.

After diagnosis, Mom meticulously took all of the gluten out of the house and her immune system stopped attacking her digestive tract. Once that happened, the bloating went away and everyone was shocked at her anorexic appearance because she previously, unknowingly experiencing malabsorption. After a few months of very strict diet, she gained enough weight to be at a healthy level, felt great, and had tons of energy. The last time I saw the daughter (I don't live in that state any more) she had been doing great for years.

Don't have any specific advice, but just wanted to share a success story.

no experience, but i've read about it. these may or may not apply to your situation. dietdoctor (first 3) puts out some solid information. draxe sells a lot of stuff too, so there's that.

New solid studies: the advice on gluten for infants needs to be changed

Studies: More gluten, more celiac disease

Can keto help certain kids? A pediatrician’s story

Celiac Disease Diet: Foods, Tips & Products to Avoid

The wife and I have been doing a lazy (basically we don't count macros) keto for over a year now. Cutting out wheat will probably improve the rest of your families health as well. Coconut flour is kind of bleh, almond flour is pretty good.

After no wheat products for a year we tried some wheat (pizza) and found that it was rather unpalatable. One bite and into the trash.

Keep in mind that even though a lot of nuts and especially peanuts are considered Gluten Free, there is an awful lot of cross contamination when they are processed and are not truly GF. My wife's Internist has recommended to her not to eat peanuts.

quote:

and what Cheeze said ^^^

Thanks. Yeah it is tough but there are lots of silver linings to being 100% vigilant. You’ll find that the rest of your family feels better as well. Since i had to go GF my family has all shown individual improvements in their health. I think gluten/wheat is bad for everyone, just in varying levels that many times goes unnoticed enough to be overlooked.

one thing that may be worth trying is the AIP diet


wife was having some issues (joint pain, gastric stuff,) that was related to Celiac and Sjogrens, but it seemed to flair up more than normal, and the flairs were longer,

so we did the AIP diet, and honestly, it sucked,

however, we have learned that fresh corn sets her symptoms off, badly (yet corn chips or tortillas not as bad if at all) and she has to be careful not to have too much potato,

after a couple weeks of strictly following the diet, she started reintroducing a few things to see how it affected her,