Have questions about Celiac?

[Kimy]

I have been researching this for the last few days because my pediatrician thinks that my 15 month old son could possibly have celiac.   He is irriatable, not gaining weight, has weighed 19 pds since 9 months old, has an egg allergy, and has really bad ecezma.   While researching this I have found that celiac show symptoms of myself that I thought were normal.   I have constant cramping and constipation, fatigue, anemia, low vit D, it was at an 8 when tested, shoulder and hip joint pain, and constant headaches.   Then oddly enough the more I researched this I have found out the celiac disease can cause high liver enzymes.   My husband has had this for 10 years, with no answers to why.   We have had a number of blood tests, ultrasounds, and a biopsy.   Still no answers.   My son is being tested today by blood and I called my husbands gastro and he is also being tested today.   My appt is next Friday.   Do you all think these are going to come back positive?  If so, what is the next step?

Sorry this post is so long!  Thank you in advance.  Kim

[the sensible celiac]

Hi Kimy,

Welcome to the forum!

Your description of your own symptoms certainly sounds perfectly consistent with celiac disease.  If you should turn out to be the case that you have the condition, then the chance your son might have it is increased about ten times, still that's only a 10% chance.

About 1 person in 100 has celiac disease, but very  few people with celiac disease have been diagnosed.  This is because the symptoms vary so much from one patient to another.

The blood tests are very often not considered to be conclusive, many doctors will want to follow up with a biopsy of small intestine tissue obtained by way of endoscopy.  A positive result of small intestine tissue would be because of absence of villi or more often stunted, flattened villi that are abnormal.  This damage to the villi is what causes the nutritional deficiencies seen in people with celiac disease.

I'm not qualified to guess if you have it or not, but I will say I think you are smart for having the blood tests done.  Please let us know what kind of results you see in your family.

Steve