Celiac Disease?

[ninahbear]

My DS (almost 4) has had diarrhea for almost three weeks now. The doctor said try not to give him a lot of milk and have him eat toast and bannanas. I took a stool sample to the lab last weekend and now they want me to do another one. Getting the sample is impossible. Anyway, my DH, DD, and I have not gotten sick so I am wondering if it could be Celiac Disease. I read today that people with Celiac Disease can also have itchy skin. My DS has been complaining the last few days of his butt itching. He has also been tired lately (taking naps earlier) and not wanting to play outside which he loves to do. It also seems like he is more sensitive some things can just set him off and he will get mad or cry. Does this sound like Celiac?

 

[tzolkin]

I would talk to your doctor and have him tested.

I know many people with celiac's and they have all exhibited different symptoms. Could you try cutting out anything with gluten in his diet and see if this helps? If he has celiac's all that extra toast cannot be making him feel good. I imagine it might be quite difficult with a young child since they often really only like the foods they can't eat.

 

[crisi]

I probably have celiac - I have a gluten intolerence but to test for celiac I'd have to go back on gluten.

Could be, the initial test is a blood test - then they do a biopsy to confirm (if you decide to confirm - on a four year old, I'd just do the blood test). My skin has never been itchy, but on wheat I'm prone to migraines - celiac has a range of symptoms - most of mine are bloating and diaherrea.

It could also be lactose intolerence, a parasite infection, a bacterial infection, a virus, a different food allergy, IBS......... Don't try and self diagnose, talk to your doctor. Do NOT remove gluten from his diet without at least the blood test, in order to confirm you'd need to put him back on gluten - and a gluten free diet is a bigger pain in the back end than diaherrea - especially for a kid. You wouldn't know for sure if he was gluten intolerent or if whatever else was going on just happened to clear up about the same time he went off gluten.

 

[JoeMickey]

I was diagnosed about 3 years ago. I was feeling tired alot just not feeling myself. Went to several doctors, first off they discovered i am a Diabetic, but I was loosing too much weight, I lost about 80 lbs over the course of a year. After about 6 months of going to this doctor, that doctor they did find out my iron level was very low, sent me for more tests preliminary results were i had Celiac but was sent to my doctor to do a simple blood test, had to wait a week for results only problem was we were going to....WDW for a week, so I started to panic and found out how the restaurants cater to people with food allergies. Had a great trip and came home to the voice mail that confirmed the Celiac. I would try and get that simple blood test done and go from there.

Good Luck!

Joe

 

[Bibbidi]

His bottom itching could be a yeast infection as a result of having so much diarrhea (and pooping out the good bacteria). I would consider that as a possibility. Definitely talk to your doc. My dd5 is home with diarrhea today out of the blue. It's not fun, but it can last a couple weeks in kids depending on what is causing it. Best of luck in helping him feel better.