child...Low Cholesterol, low body weight, celiac?

[amylea77]

I am happy to stumble upon this forum because the topic of celiac disease can be very overwhelming!  My daughter is 10 years old and weighs 53lbs. She has also been diagnosed with "short stature" and basically is not growing, or growing very slowly.  She has no GI symptoms of celiac disease.  Blood testing showed an elevated ttg iga (?) which is what prompted the doctor to send us to the children's hospital for a consultation with a pediatric GI specializing in Celiac, but of course this is over a month away. She also had an elevated ALT (liver test?), her cholesterol is extremely low, and had a slightly elevated TSH.  Anyone have thoughts or similar stories?  Thanks so much to anyone who can offer insight.  I am trying to put the whole picture together with my limited knowledge. 

[tessa25]

She has to keep eating gluten until the celiac testing is done. I read that kids tend to bounce back quickly once they go gluten free. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

[GFinDC]

Celiac disease can damage the lining of the small intestine, making it difficult to absorb nutrients.  So she may be low on vitamins and minerals, making growth slow.  The fat soluble vitamins are hard to absorb with a damaged gut.  Vitamin D, Vitamin B's etc.   So have her checked for those.

Often people with celiac disease have trouble digesting dairy sugar.  So it might be better to limit dairy for her or give her lactaid pills with any dairy.

She can reduce gluten now but not stop it.  So a 1/2 slice of regular wheat bread a day is plenty to keep the immune reaction going.  The celiac testing depends on detecting antibodies to gluten in the bloodstream.  The celiac disease antibodies panel test various types of antibodies cells response to gliaden (a protein in wheat).

The 2nd part of celiac testing is an endoscopy to check the lining of the small intestine (the villi) for damage.

The elevated liver test shouldn't normally be a problem.  The damage from celiac disease can cause that but it should go back to normal after a while on the gluten-free diet.

The low cholesterol is another sign of celiac.  The gut can't absorb fats correctly so they are low.  It might help to feed her higher amounts of red meat or avocados which have a lot of protein in them.  Peanut butter can also help.  But get the natural kind without soy in it.