Father just dx with celiac... | Autism PDD
Have you had your son tested for celiac disease? That might be somethig you want to do in the near future. I have a cousin (by marriage) and her son have celiac disease. They have done well with a gluten-free diet.
my 75 year old father was just dx with Celiac disease... i've been researching and wonder about the genetic side of this...
they state that if you have a first-degree relative with Celiac, you have a high chance of having this disease...
now... my son is 5, we have heard about GF/WF diet... heard it's helped some... not helped some... how many people/kids (with autism) with relatives with celiac has it helped??
sorry about the rambling... i just am kicking myself for not checking into the diet sooner... not having my son tested sooner... it may have helped and i haven't been doing... now there's a guilt
My son appears to be a diet responder. He has made incredibly rapid improvements since being gfcf. There are no diagnosed celiacs in my family, but there are many relatives with bowel/gut troubles. A couple diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I am wondering if these relatives actually have undiagnosed or early stage Celiac Disease.
However, supposedly autistic children who respond to the diet are not usually celiacs. The science behind the diet is a bit different, as you've likely read. So... I don't know!
Has anyone read about a connection though to the gluten intolerance? I suspect my younger son may have it. A friend of mine whos older daughter has autism younger daughter has celiac. Just curious. I am not aware of anyone in my family with celiacs.Celiac is a life threatening glutin allergie. You can right off the glutin free foods on taxes but you need a dr.'s letter with this.Fred -
It is actually not true that children who grow well can't have celiac. Two of my neighbor's children were recently diagnosed, and while one of them was very skinny and short for his age, the other was well grown and his pediatrician was discussing the possibility of having him go on a diet. Since going gluten free, the "skinny" child has gained 12 pounds (in 4 months!), while the "heavy" child has lost about 10 pounds.
Unfortunately, many dr.'s are still under-informed about celiac and its symptoms. If you want them to be tested, get on pubmed to find some articles about the currently recognized symptoms of celiac disease. You can also look on the National Institute of Health website. They have created a celiac awareness program, so hopefully doctors will continue to learn more about it.
As far as the connection between autism and celiac . .. celiac runs pretty strongly in my family. Among other relatives who have it, so do my mom and sister. We've seen autistic tendencies in my sister's son for a while now, but he was just recently re-evaluated. It looks like he's definitely got asperger's. He's been gluten-free almost since he went on solids because my sister is aware of celiac and realized that gluten agravated his bowel issues. He is now almost 6, and when he accidently ingests gluten, it affects him negatively for at least a week - he just bounces off of the walls. However, he is the only child in our family who has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS problems, in spite of the heavy percentage (15% or more) of people in the family with celiac.
Don't know if that helps, but I hope so.
Wow, you're right. THe NIH awareness flyer says that no symptoms may be present. Interesting. The girls don't really have *any* of the symptoms that they do mention, so I can see why our doc didn't see a need to screen them for it. The NIH article doesn't mention any link to autism - just vagaries like "failure to thrive" and "personality change". Lots of the GI stuff they mention as symptoms is similar to some of the GI stuff that lots of our kids seem to have, though.
What happens if this disease remains untreated throughout one's lifetime?
Well, there are a variety of long-term possibilities, ranging from problems with depression and anxiety to osteoporosis and anemia, and including things as serious as stomach or intestinal cancers and repeated miscarriages. Which is not to say that everyone with undiagnosed celiac will deal with all (or even any) of these issues . .. but they are more likely.
Another thing to be aware of is that celiac is genetic - so if one of your children has celiac, your other children have a 1 in 10 chance of having it as well. And if 2 or more siblings have celiac, the other siblings have a 40% chance of having it.
My ped. neuro didn't test for Celiacs. I asked her why, and she said that the girls were growing too well (they are tall for their age and are at a healthy weight) - she implied that a young child with Celiacs wouldn't be growing so well.Hi,
I have some information for you, but it's too much to post. However, it is valuable for this issue. Email me and we can chat more. My email is otelizabeth@sbcglobal.net Lots of great results with Celiac disease.
Elizabeth
Well, aside from the costs and time required for a GF diet, it certainly can't hurt anything. It's been shown that humans are not meant to eat/digest wheat OR milk, due to the gluey texture of gluten and casein. It causes all sorts of problems, even in those without celiac disease, as these proteins are very difficult to digest. If you are going through with a gluten-free diet, you should also eliminate milk and other casein-containing foods, as people who are sensitive to one are usually sensitive to both. Many people experience no improvement until milk is eliminated along with wheat. I recommend getting your son tested for Celiac disease, not by a blood test, but through an intestinal biopsy, as this is the only truly reliable method of testing. (Blood tests often give false negatives). Hope this helps!Copyright Autism-PDD.net