Celiac Disease Symptoms

Celiac disease symptoms in children include poor appetite, diarrhea, painful or bloated stomach, difficulty gaining weight, or weight loss. Celiac disease symptoms in babies can be seen when the baby is between 6 and 24 months. This is usually when the child starts eating food that contains gluten. Some relatively uncommon celiac disease symptoms in kids include slow growth, skin rash, and skin changes. Iron deficiency is one of the most common Celiac disease symptoms in toddlers.

Celiac disease symptoms in children who are older include diarrhea or constipation, abdominal bloating, oily stools, and gas.
Older children have a problem gaining weight and problems such as thinning and anemia. Some other complaints include tingling and numbness in the feet and hands and migraine headaches. In case you notice celiac disease symptoms, a diet plan should be followed after testing your child for celiac disease. It is generally found that children who have celiac disease have nutrient or vitamin deficiencies. Check with your doctor or pediatrician about giving your child a multivitamin nutrient. Celiac disease symptoms in teenagers may not be seen until the time the teenager is going through a physically or emotionally stressful event. Teenagers whose celiac disease is not diagnosed may go through a very late puberty.

Celiac Disease Testing

Celiac disease test results let you know for sure if you have the disease. The symptoms are not enough to tell if you have celiac disease. Before the celiac disease testing, the doctor will ask you about your medical history. He/she will also conduct a physical examination. Based on his observations, the doctor will order a blood test to determine if you have celiac disease. Celiac disease test cost varies. If you are covered by insurance, check the details with your insurance company. There are a number of celiac disease test kits available today. In fact, new and improved celiac disease test kids allow one to check for gluten in the comfort of their own homes. Celiac disease test results, if positive, call for a drastic change in the person’s diet. The person has to avoid gluten completely. If small amounts of the substance get into the system it causes intestinal damage. Following a gluten free diet plan is quite a challenging task, and it is best you take the advice of a dietician to help you design a gluten-free diet once your celiac disease test results are known.

Celiac Disease Diagnosis

Celiac disease diagnosis in adults sometimes takes long because the symptoms of celiac disease are sometimes believed to be caused by other gastrointestinal problems such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, stomach ulcers, and inflammatory bowel disease. As a result of this, celiac disease is either misdiagnosed or under -diagnosed. In some cases, celiac disease diagnosis in adults takes long as the person may not exhibit any obvious symptoms at all. Celiac disease diagnosis in children is based on tests that are ordered when your kid exhibits delayed development, gastrointestinal symptoms, failure to thrive and/or short stature. Intermediary or positive results are then confirmed with they help of a biopsy. A celiac disease test kit can be ordered at home to conduct the test. These celiac disease diagnosis tests are quite easy to use and certain kits require a wait of just 10 minutes to know the results. It is important to follow celiac disease diagnosis guidelines and make sure that the celiac disease diagnosis code is correctly interpreted to get accurate results.

Celiac Disease Treatment

The only celiac disease treatment for children is that they have to completely avoid all drinks and foods that have gluten. In case your child is malnourished due to the disease, you may need to give him/her some nutritional supplements (vitamins or high-calorie drinks). There are only two celiac disease treatment options for children. Let us have a look at the celiac disease treatment guidelines:

There is no cure as far as celiac disease is concerned, so it is very crucial that you avoid gluten.
Learn to accept a gluten-free diet as a standard treatment.
It is important that patients stay away from foods prepared from barley, wheat and rye. This includes various types of wheat such as farina, durum, semolina, and gram flour. Examples of gluten products are cereals, breads, baking mixes, crackers, cookies, pies and gravies.
It is important that you meet a dietician who will help you decide which foods are good for you.
The dietician will also help you understand food labels better and whether a particular food is safe.
You also need to know where you can find gluten-free substitutes.
Researchers are evaluating treatments available for celiac disease and a celiac disease treatment pill could be on the anvil.

Celiac Disease Diet

People who have been diagnosed with celiac disease have to follow a celiac disease diet menu. As celiac disease is intolerance towards gluten, any products that contain gluten have to be eliminated from your diet. Gluten is found in barley, wheat and rye. Make sure your celiac disease diet menu includes the following foods:

Fruits such as cranberries, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries, are gluten free. Other fruits such as apricot, cherries and apple are also gluten free.
Vegetables that are gluten free include cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potatoes, lettuce, pumpkins and onions.
Meats that are not breaded or fried are gluten free. This includes meat like beef, chicken, pork, and poultry.
Grains such as rice as well as corn starch, corn flour, flaxseed, millet, and almond flour are also gluten free, and you can prepare you celiac disease diet recipes using these flours.
In the initial stages of treatment, the celiac disease diet plan should leave out oats. This is because there are chances of them getting contaminated with wheat during processing.
Following a celiac disease diet plan in the initial stages is quite difficult. You can, however, with the help of your dietician, learn how to avoid processed foods as they may contain gluten in a hidden form. Wheat flour may be used in products which you may not have dreamt of such as canned soup, candy bars, canned meats, ice cream, lunch meat, pastas, mustard, instant coffee, ketchup and sausages.

Submitted on April 15, 2011