Seeking Advice on Gluten Allergies or Celiacs Disease

Hi S.,

If it is a gluten allergy I have a gluten free organic whey protein shake that is delicious and easy to digest. If you’re interested in hearing more about it you can contact me and we can talk :)

Have a great weekend and good luck

-B.

You could try the blood type diet by Dr.D'Adamo. If you google it you'll find his website. It's helped me with some health problems. Good luck!

My son was diagnosed with asthma since he was a toddler. He was on steroids, inhalers etc for a very long time. Last year we saw a specialist and he told us that our son had massive acid reflux and that basically the acid fumes were coming up his esophagus and getting inhaled into his lungs. We also then discovered that he had celiac disease and that acid reflux is one of the symptoms for many people who have celiac. He also has chronic stomach aches and headaches on a daily basis. He has been on a gluten free diet for nearly a year now and I have also started him on probiotics. Hopefully once his gut heals he will not have these tummy pains and headaches. I discovered my son's celiace through Enterolab (a lab in texas who tests for celiac and other allergies through stool and genes). They're website is www.enterolab.com . Read up on celiace and other allergies on their website. It's well worth a try and may save you a lot of worrying and pain. Good luck and let us know how things are going.

S.,
I too, am going through this very similar situation with my 2 year old. My son has had what is considered an exercised induced asthma cough and seems to have croup and bronchial problems frequently. In doing a bit of research, stomach aches, asthma symptoms, eczema and many other physical problems are from allergies to the external environment as well as the food the individual eats. Often times doctors will provide you with a pill and other remedies that will fix the symptoms instead of the cause. I would very highly recommend you do a bit of research. Here is a site that you may find helpful to you http://www.csaceliacs.org/celiac_symptoms.php

I commend your questioning of authority by the doctor as we have to remember they are in what is called a "practice". They have very helpful information, but being a smart and concerned mother can often find more answers than what they may think may be right. I am doing the same as yourself now and believe it or not, there are A LOT of options of food for individuals who are allergic to gluten.

Good luck and please let me know if you find any helpful information out.

M. E.

It might be mold spores that you are breathing in. I would investigate the possibility that your symptoms come from in home toxins. Do you have an air purifier?

I have celiac and so does my 3 year old son. If you have celiac, the rash may be called dermatitis herpitiformis which is associated with gluten. I was diagnosed by blood test and intestinal biopsy. My son was diagnosed by a dna blood test (DQ2 or DQ8 gene). The only way a regular blood test or biopsy will come back positive (if the case may be) is to have gluten in your diet constantly. Blood tests can come back as a false negative if there is no gluten in your system. The gene test doesn't require gluten in the blood but it can only tell you that you are X% positive for the gene(s). My son is 94% postitive for the gene so that leaves only a 6% chance that he doesn't have it. What proves that he has it is when he eats gluten he gets sick! He started getting sick when he was 15 months. He had bloating and diarrhea and was always tired for about a month; I changed his diet to gluten free and after a week, the symptoms went away. My symptoms, prior to diagnosis and diet change, were stomach pains that were never in one place at one particular time or for a certain amount of time. The pain seemed to come and go when it wanted and was either dull or really bad pain. I was also really tired all the time. I couldn't make it through the day without a nap even in college. Not to mention headaches, other various body pains, anemia and hypoglycemia. Since changing my diet (3 years now) I have become much mroe sensitive to gluten. If I eat gluten I vomit uncontrolably and can't keep anything down for 24 hours. I have to take an anti-nausea sepository to make me sleep so I don't throw up bile. (Sorry to be detailed but that's how bad it is.) If I eat something that has been contaminated I get headaches, constipation, diarrhea, etc. But here's the thing...sypmtoms are different for everyone that's why it's so hard to diagnose. I would highly recommend you see a gastroenterologist, not just a regular family doctor. I saw Dr. Pedersen at St. Marks Hospital and for my son, I saw a pediatric GI doctor, Dr. Harnsberger. For new patients they are usually booked out so either you continue to eat gluten while you wait for your appointment or you "simply" change your diet and see how you feel. If they aren't covered by your insurance find one that is. If you change your diet YOU HAVE TO GO COMPLETELY 100% GLUTEN FREE. No cheating, no cross-contamination, nothing. No wheat, rye, barley, oats or malt. There is a store in Taylorsville called Against the Grain owned by a woman named Diane Bell. Everything in the store is gluten free and she knows everything there is to know about the diet. She has information on restaurants that have gluten free menus as well as info on food storage. I could go into all that with you but I'm afraid my message is already too long. If you want talk more with me, you can email me at ____@____.com or if your up for some reading just google celiac disease and you'll spend hours reading stuff you never knew! Good luck...I hope you and your daughter are feeling better soon.

Sounds like it's time to push for the blood tests. I would ask for allergy and celiacs to do just one stick and get an answer to both the eczema and the stomach aches. As far as treating the eczema, we give our son a 10-15 minute bath each night using Dove or Ivory at the very end and then slather him in Vani-cream. You have to get the cream at the pharmacy, but it's otc. This is what the doctors at National Jewish told us to do. Since doing this, he has had no problems. I'm so grateful he's off the steroids! GL! I hope you both feel better very soon!

I had hives after I ate wheat. This just started after I had my gall bladder removed. After going to different Dr.s with no answer, I saw a NAET Dr. at Clinix for acupuncture. It worked. Clinix is in Greenwood Village.

If you are concerned about it, press the matter. I had some problems with allergies and being misdiagnosed for 12 years. Doctors kept telling me it was either acne, excema, or in my head until I finally insisted that I be checked for allergies, come to find out that I tested positive for 80% of what they had supplies for!

Hi S.,

It could, of course, be anything that is causing your symptoms, but it sure sounds like a very common form of eczema that VERY often accompanies gluten intolerance. It's called dematitis herpetiformus. My sister-in-law and 3 friends have this. For many people this is the only symptom of a gluten problem. You can have gluten intolerance without having celiac disease. Here's a quick blog link that you may find interesting.

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?automodule=blog&...

4 of my husband's family members have celiac disease and my kids have the gene for it. It is very heriditary! Since we tested them at birth with a simple cheek swab, they have never had gluten. They have both recently tested intolerant of dairy, soy, and eggs. This is faily common for people with gluten issues. It makes sense that if your body has trouble with one protein, it might struggle with others.

There are tests widely available (cheek swab for gene testing, blood, stool, intestinal biopsy). I suggest you find a doctor who is an authority on food intolerance (NOT ALLERGIES!) and get some tests done. Enterolab.com is widely used among doctors who know about it. Check out their website for lots of info and statistics about food intolerance. You can even order tests yourself if you feel comfortable with that. If you are in the Boulder area, you might try Helios Integrated Medical Center.

I could go on and on, but lucky for you, I won't...or maybe I already have. If you have any desire to do so, feel free to contact me directly. I have a very large collection of GF, dairy free, soy free, egg free, nut free, etc recipes I would be happy to share. In June I am offering free cooking classes in my home in Louisville. Best of luck.

Cheers, L.

From what I know about celiac disease (which is, admittedly, not very much at all), the tests are fairly inconsistent and not too accurate. There's a yahoo group you might be interested in looking at... http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/foodlab/
There's a lot of discussion there about special diets and celiac testing.

I would also consider getting allergy testing done. I think you're doing a smart thing with the food diary, as it'll give you a good picture of how certain foods are affecting your family. And if you're suspecting a reaction to a food... you're probably right. I'm also in an allergy group on Yahoo (my DS1 is allergic to tree nuts) that's extremely informative and is made up of a helpful group of (mostly) moms, just like Mamasource. You might want to check it out:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TerrificKidsWFA

Good luck! I hope you find your solution soon.

I can't help with any advise on celiacs disease but i can tell you that i to have asthma and with that came a rash that my doctor told me was eczema. i went to an asthma specialist and he told me then that that rash was due to the type of asthma i had. i guess it not only shows in the way you breath but also comes out in your skin. i hope this helps answer some questions.

My 3 yr old daughter was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. She was very constipated, had very bad smelly gas, tummy aches, and was distended.

Unfortunately Celiac is a hard disease to get diagnosed because it can take on many different symptoms. You can be constipated or have diarrhea totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

The most important thing is to NOT self diagnose such as going on a gluten free diet. There is a very easy blood test you do first. If that comes back high your doctor will have you do an endoscope to do biopsies of your small intestine. We just did that with our daughter.

Celiac is an autoimmune disease. Apparently autoimmune diseases travel in groups. So eczema is an autoimmune disease, asthma may be too, I'm not sure. Celiac is also a genetic disease, in my quest to learn about this disease I often find family members that all have it (mom and kids, aunt and nieces.

www.celiac.org and www.csaceliacs.org have been great websites with a ton of information. You can learn alot about the disease.

It took a year and a half to finally figure out what was wrong with our daughter. It's a huge change to go gluten free and a life long disease. So make sure you are properly tested and diagnosed. Sometimes going on a gluten free diet alleviates the symptoms so you think you have Celiac when in fact it's something else like a different food intolerance.

Also, if your doctor isn't listening, it's time to find a new doctor. Like I said the first step is a simple blood test, they should have no problem doing that.

see http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/

see http://www.celiac.org/

There are MANY conditions that could cause your symptoms, and only testing by biopsy will confirm whether a person has celiac disease.

There could be an allergy component involved (linking the rash and stomachaches) -- good to trust your instinct on this. Have you had any recent allergy testing? Even that can be very unreliable, but it's a place to start.

What you're doing - observing what you eat and the consequences - is probably the best thing you can do for now, other than begin going to GI doctors and having lots of tests.
Have you tried cutting out all soy? wheat? dairy? Cut one thing out for several weeks if you aren't sure.
Even if it's not an official allergy, food sensitivities can cause GI or skin symptoms (and many other problems too).

A good friend of mine was at first diagnosed with celiac disease, but it turned out she was allergic to soy. Once she stopped eating soy she felt 1000 times better, she lost all the extra weight she couldn't shed for 30 years, and she is now in fantastic health.

If you can't figure out a dietary cause, you may need to get checked for other things that could be involved in your symptoms.

I would also recommend the book "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman - it will give you really helpful context for navigating unclear, complex medical territories.

Good luck and I hope you feel better.

I have a product that has really helped our family. It's called Body Balance. Take a look at it ... www.lifeforce.net/20562766 Call me and we can talk about it.
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My son had chronic diahrrea last fall. We took him completely off dairy thinking that he might be lactose intolerant. We had previously seen that reducing his dairy alleviated his eczema a great deal. This did not help his stomach troubles. A friend recommended we take him off wheat to see what happens. The result was tremendous - not 100% better but 90%.
Then I took him to the doctor to have the blood tests. The test came back negative for celiac, but positive for wheat and dairy allergy. A wheat allergy is common in my husband's family. Since then he has been completely wheat and dairy free. I give him rice pasta and rice crackers and gluten-free snacks, but since his problem is wheat not gluten I was able to find a true German rye bread made without wheat. It tastes like real rye bread which to him is so much better than the gluten free breads. He is almost never has stomach problems now.

I would look into Candida overgrowth as well. It's hard to find a doctor who will consider this as a possibility. I went for over 2 years before it was figured out and I was the one who figured it out. You can do a whole lot of internet research but let me know if you need more of a direction. I did find something that has taken my symptoms away and I am feeling SO MUCH better. Usually it's treated with a very strict diet and prescription medication but I have not had to do either of those things and I am better now. Let me know if you need anything!

It is a tough one because you need to track it yourself. My sister was first diagnosed with it 9 years ago and had genetic testing done about 3 years ago that revealed both our parents are carriers of the gene. From there it was putting the pieces together.
I suffered from contipation mostly. Other times i would have bouts of diareah (however you spell it). I am active and eat well so this was not making sense to me. I started to cut back to one wheat meal a day and i saw some improvement for about 1 month. I was still getting sick so I took all wheat out of my diet and began to notice a huge difference. Since then, I have been nearly gluten free for 3 years although i do cheat once in a while-2 cookies last night. Those two cookies will most likely give me some bloating and gas.
Now my 6 year old daughter: She would complain of stomach aches 4-5 times a week. She would have inconsistent BMS-either hard or runny. I asked the doctor if they would do the blood test (I give a false positive on this test so it is not always 100%). They did not want to do the test b/c there was a strong genetic link and i was already on a wheat free diet. They said to take wheat out of her diet and see if she is better and she was.

P.S. Before i took the wheat out of my diet, milk was giving me eczma.
It is really not too bad once you get used to it and today there are many products available that are gluten free.
Best of Luck,
K. Perez ____@____.com

S.,

There is a blood test for celiacs disease.
You can keep on guessing and wondering,
or have your daughter take the test. Your choice.

C.

The stomach aches and rashes could very well be symptoms of the same root cause. If the problem is celiac disease you are likely to have intestinal problems after eating gluten foods such as wheat or barley. Stomach aches and rashes often indicate food allergies which can lead to celiac disease or a candida imbalance. Since you have a history of asthma in your family, you may be prone to food allergies. Try eliminating suspected allergens from your diet for a while to see if you feel better. Reintroduce suspected foods one at a time. Check with a nutritionist for help. Cindy at Vitamin Cottage is very good and offers free consultations.

S. Seastone, CHTP

My son has Celiac disease...stomach ache and rash???? Well,
celiac is USUALLy quite a bit more violent than that until you control your diet.
Dr. Yazdi in COlorado Springs is the BEST...give him a call.
There is blood work then a lower Gi series.
Good luck.

Hello S.,
Alot of Skin rashes can be caused by environment. Toxic ingredients in everyday household products which can also weaken the immune system.

If you would like to know more about inhome toxins I would be happy to share with you what I have learned and how I got them out of my home.

You can also take the healthy home quiz I have posted on my blog: http://W.-adventures.blogspot.com/search?q=healty+home+quiz

You can email me at ____@____.com

Blessings,
C.
www.AHomeCareer.com