This is a topic of great interest to me due to the fact that my son was diagnosed with Celiac in September of 2004 and then with Crohn's (another auto-immune disease) in January 2005. My son did not show any symptoms ages 0 to 3. Then ages 3 to 8/9 he suffered from chronic constipation and we could never figure out why. He also became a low energy type person. Even though he wasn't very active, he was never overweight. Unfortunately we got into this cycle of telling him that if he would just eat better and be more active, he would have more energy and be healthier. We never suspected anything serious. Then at age 10/11, I started to worry because he was not growing. I looked back and he was the same height, weight and shoe size as when he was 8. I brought this up to the pediatrician and told him that I was suspicious because he had always had digestive problems and now he wasn't growing. He charted his size and told me he was in the 5th percentile. The first 8 years of his life he had always been in the mid range. He agreed to refer us. Not long after that, he became ill and they did a finger prick and informed me he was anemic. This convinced me that he was not absorbing nutrients properly. We feel so lucky that even though it took awhile for the lightbulb to come on for us as parents, the specialists were very thorough right away, with one of the first tests being a screen for Celiac. I had never heard of it. Now, when I read about how so many people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for years, I'm quite impressed by the fact that the endocrinologist ordered the test first thing. Sure enough, the blood test indicated Celiac and the endoscopy confirmed it. Soon after finding this out and starting the gluten-free diet, my son started experiencing acute abdominal pain. This went on for several months with lots of theories and then finally Crohn's was diagnosed. It's been a rough road since then. He's on a lot of meds and has had various side effects from them. The endocrinologist and GI are being very thorough. He's had a bone scan that shows osteopenia (from malnourishment due to Celiac and complicated by inflammation from Crohn's) and so he takes a supplement and we try to make sure we are consuming the dairy products. He also takes supplements for anemia and that is improving. They are checking him for thyroid problems. I'm learning about all the related auto-immune diseases so that I can be aware and alert for any symptoms.
