Fwd: Re: Re: Help for diagnosing toddler

[Guest guest]

A gf diet is very restrictive and difficult to maintain - I personally

would want to be absolutely certain my child had celiac before

attempting to commit her/him to the diet. I also think as a child gets

older and takes more control of her/his diet, it would be easier to

impress upon her/him the importance of maintaining the gf diet if you

had a medical diagnosis. Many things can cause symptoms that mimic

those of celiac disease.

I have never heard that celiac is just further along the spectrum of

gluten sensitivity and I worry that promoting that line of thought is

unhelpful at best, dangerous at worst. Celiac disease is an autoimmune

disease with a very specific response in the body (the destruction of

the villi in the small intestine). Gluten sensitivity or gluten allergy

do not cause the body to attack itself and do not prevent the body from

absorbing nutrients. I have never heard that a person with a gluten

sensitivity could " bring on " celiac disease by continuing to eat

gluten; I would be interested in seeing peer reviewed medical journal

sources for that claim.

Thanks,

Tristan

-----Original Message-----

From: <guomo@...>

Sent: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:47 am

Subject: [ ] Re: Help for diagnosing toddler

,

If your child has problems when she eats gluten and feels better when

GF, well then she

has Celiac. Let me qualify th

at. Many celiac experts

believe that Celiac, i.e. villous atrophy and the associated symptoms,

is essentially the most advanced stage of someone who is

gluten-sensitive. So if your daughter responds well to a GF diet, it is

most likely an indicator that continued life-long exposure to gluten

would bring on full-blown celiac. Whether she is celiac or

gluten-sensitive, the label doesn't really matter as the " cure " is the

same for both.

Ironically, even though biopsy is considered the " gold standard " for

celiac disease, doctors validate the test result with two other things:

the presence of symptoms and they try a GF diet and see if the symptoms

abate; if so they then reintroduce gluten in large quantities and then

see if the symptoms return. Indeed, doctors think a positive biopsy

result is suspect if there are no symptoms or if the patient doesn't

respond to a GF diet and then reintroduction.

The point is, if the GF diet protocol is the validation for a biopsy

well then why worry about " getting a diagnosis " ? It sounds like you

have already diagnosed it.

-

& gt;

& gt; Hi,

& gt; I am trying to figure out if my 2-1/2 year old daughter has celiac

disease. I have been raising her GF because it is easier for me

because I am20gluten free. Also, the times I have given her gluten it

has seeme

d to cause her problems. The trouble is since she is on a

gluten free diet, how do I get her diagnosed? I had the genetic test

recently done and am waiting for the results.

& gt;

& gt; About a year ago she had a blood panel run and the doctor said all

the tests were normal for celiac. She was GF at the time so I assumed

the tests would be normal. Am I wrong?

& gt;

& gt; What advice do you have?

& gt;

& gt; Thanks!

& gt;