Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Celiac - And Small...does This Go Together?

alison h

Recommended Posts

alison h Newbie
alison h
Posted

my daughter was diagnosed 7months ago. doctors said she would start to grow and gain weight, but it

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


chrissy Collaborator
chrissy
Posted

my children are on the small side.

Guest lorlyn
Guest lorlyn
Posted

My 10 year old daughter was on the small side and we have been on the diet about 6 months and latley I have noticed she has gotten taller. I do not know anything about growth hormones so I can not help there. May be its the diet or she is just going thru a growth spurt. Good luck on your decision <_<

happygirl Collaborator
happygirl
Posted

has your daughter had the Celiac panel re-run? I wouldnt' recommend taking further action until you have ruled out an active gluten problem. She might still not have healed, or is getting gluten....

sarah ruth Newbie
sarah ruth
Posted

my kids are on the smaller side of average, but they're still pretty young. 'Small' and my increased inability to tolerate gluten is actually what helped me figure this all out. I noticed that of our circle of kiddo friends the ones who were similar sized to our kids ALL had grandparents who had been diagnosed celiac (except mine). That said, none of the parents or kids had been tested..

anyway, 7 months seems like time she'd need just healing from damage to her ability to absorb nourishment. Have you tried going gangbusters on the nutrition front (I use www.westonaprice.org for ideas and direction and would recommend it to any human!) before entertaining your Dr.'s ideas about hormone therapy? My kids do/act/grow markedly different when they are fed nutrient dense foods. A lot of the Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions research is actually about how diet affects our bodies abilities to produce hormones and balance our endocrine system. There is a great Traditional Foods forum at mothering.com full of practical applications.

sarah ruth Newbie
sarah ruth
Posted

...hit the button too many times..

sarah ruth Newbie
sarah ruth
Posted

oops!

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


JennyC Enthusiast
JennyC
Posted

My son was just diagnosed a couple of weeks ago, and he is also small for his age. He was a large baby, but after I quit breastfeeding him at 9 months, his growth rate began to rapidly decrease. Now at 3 1/2 yrs old he only weighs 31 lbs and is 37 in tall. (He's only gained 1 lb since his birthday in August.) I am desperately hoping that he goes through a major growth spurt! He's eating like crazy now, so hopefully it won't be long.

alison h Newbie
alison h
Posted
  • Author
my kids are on the smaller side of average, but they're still pretty young. 'Small' and my increased inability to tolerate gluten is actually what helped me figure this all out. I noticed that of our circle of kiddo friends the ones who were similar sized to our kids ALL had grandparents who had been diagnosed celiac (except mine). That said, none of the parents or kids had been tested..

anyway, 7 months seems like time she'd need just healing from damage to her ability to absorb nourishment. Have you tried going gangbusters on the nutrition front (I use www.westonaprice.org for ideas and direction and would recommend it to any human!) before entertaining your Dr.'s ideas about hormone therapy? My kids do/act/grow markedly different when they are fed nutrient dense foods. A lot of the Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions research is actually about how diet affects our bodies abilities to produce hormones and balance our endocrine system. There is a great Traditional Foods forum at mothering.com full of practical applications.

alison h Newbie
alison h
Posted
  • Author
my kids are on the smaller side of average, but they're still pretty young. 'Small' and my increased inability to tolerate gluten is actually what helped me figure this all out. I noticed that of our circle of kiddo friends the ones who were similar sized to our kids ALL had grandparents who had been diagnosed celiac (except mine). That said, none of the parents or kids had been tested..

anyway, 7 months seems like time she'd need just healing from damage to her ability to absorb nourishment. Have you tried going gangbusters on the nutrition front (I use www.westonaprice.org for ideas and direction and would recommend it to any human!) before entertaining your Dr.'s ideas about hormone therapy? My kids do/act/grow markedly different when they are fed nutrient dense foods. A lot of the Weston A. Price and Nourishing Traditions research is actually about how diet affects our bodies abilities to produce hormones and balance our endocrine system. There is a great Traditional Foods forum at mothering.com full of practical applications.

alison h Newbie
alison h
Posted
  • Author

thank you for your tips. I live in portugal, and i am not sure any of these mail order companies deliver to europe.

i will lookat the websites you gave me. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

RiceGuy Collaborator
RiceGuy
Posted

Well, I was very small for my age until my teens, then suddenly I shot up like a weed. Unfortunately, the gluten issue wasn't yet discovered. If it had I'm sure I would have been closer to average height. I actually had a five year period where I remained the exact same weight, and barely grew at all. Yet I always ate way more than others my age/size.

I do have a relative who got the growth hormone therapy (undiagnosed Celiac). It seems to have done nothing more than close the "growth window", permanently stunting her growth. So now she's stuck at the size of a dwarf.

Since you know the true cause of your child's short stature, I don't see any reason to mess things up with hormones. IMHO the body tends to do the right things at the right time given the proper nutrients/opportunity. Plus, seven months just doesn't seem long enough to me. If it were me I'd wait. Especially with malabsorption issues, how would the body grow if it doesn't have the nutrients? The hormones alone aren't going to do it.

How is she feeling on the gluten-free diet? As happygirl mentioned, perhaps there is still some hidden gluten in her diet. Don't overlook skin/hair care products too!

I agree with sarah ruth about the nutrients. I'd start with the common Celiac deficiencies, like magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and iron. There may be others but those are the ones I'm aware of.

Hope you get all the answers you need!

gfp Enthusiast
gfp
Posted

Unless I'm missing something why does being small matter?

Great if she starts growing but if not what would it matter...

If its indicating not being 100% gluten-free then its one thing, if there are other complications its masking another but being taller/heavier just to fit into a statistical percentile seems pointless.

taweavmo3 Enthusiast
taweavmo3
Posted

Well, we are in a similar situation. My daughter is 5, and she is below the 2nd percentile for height. She is 38 inches tall, she is tiny. She's been gluten free for 2 years, and initially she grew quite well, but things have slowed down. We've had her blood levels checked again, and that was fine.

We are now doing a complete blood workup to check her thyroid, kidney function...the whole nine yards. I should add that she also has urinary reflux, and this may be playing a part in her slow growth. I wish the urologist would just do the surgery to fix it, but that's another topic, lol. Anyway, we are with a new pediatrician who is being very thorough in getting everything checked out. In another six months, if she hasn't had a major growth spurt, we are going to see an endocrinologist to have hormone levels checked, and then he said she'll also get a bone scan. He said if everything comes back okay, we'll just assume she's going to be small.

My brother had growth hormones, and it did actually work for him. His projected height was less than 5'0, but now he's 5'6". But, I truly believe he's an undiagnosed Celiac....he still gets very sick, but refuses to believe that's not normal, lol.

I would give the diet a bit more time before considering growth hormones really. And then get everything else checked out as well. My dd put weight on first, her growth spurt didn't come until months later. Even though she is small now, it's nothing compared to what she would have been if she wasn't dx'd. At age three, she was the size of a 12 month old baby. Good luck to you!

girlfromclare Apprentice
girlfromclare
Posted

I dont think anyone means being small is a problem other than their concerns that their child might not be growing or gaining weight healthily. My son was two stone four pounds until he was five.... hadnt gained a pound in two and a half years... then out of the blue, after about two months on the gluten-free diet, he gained five pounds.... we were thrilled! We had never worried about him being short or skinny, but we wanted him to be healthy!!

Ursa Major Collaborator
Ursa Major
Posted

Yesterday I came across an article that talks about vitamin D (which actually isn't a vitamin at all, but a steroid hormone precursor). And in children, a vitamin D deficiency can lead to stunted growth! Here is the link to the article: Open Original Shared Link

So, I suggest for all parents with very short kids, due to celiac disease or otherwise, to have their children's levels of vitamin D checked. It is easy to fix that with cod liver oil. I know, because my levels were very low in the fall of 2005, and are perfect now, thanks to taking cod liver oil every day.

Just getting sunshine and eating foods high in vitamin D isn't enough to bring your levels up to the acceptable range, never mind being optimal, if they're too low.

sarah ruth Newbie
sarah ruth
Posted

there is NOTHING wrong with being small! But if our intuitions are telling us something is off with our kids then we should listen. Ursa Major, thank you for your helpful post on my question about my kids, I agree that cod liver oil is a very powerful food - my kids LOVE it in those plain gelatin capsules. My mission lately is to increase the nutrient density of the foods we eat. The Weston A. Price foundation recommends bone broths, soaked grains, animal fats and organs, and fermented foods like saurkraut, kefir and good yogurt for optimum human health. It is such a learning curve from my previous diet of humous and bagels and pasta, but it feels correct. I hate that it's taken watching my kids falter to learn this. Best wishes to us all!

mouth Enthusiast
mouth
Posted

Hi,

I don't know. I am the shortest in my family. I am negative... My daughter is 13 and looks like she is 7. All I know is that she had positive blood work since 4 and negative biopsies until 12- when she did a major weight and height gain. All I know is that since she began the diet, that growth/height spurt seems to have slowed down!!!! Visit the GI next month.. The only thing I have noticed is that her chest has spurted a little, and she has put on a belly since the start of this diet.

bchapa Newbie
bchapa
Posted

I agree, if our kids are meant to be small then great, but if there is a health problem effecting my child

alison h Newbie
alison h
Posted
  • Author

Thank you all for your comments...I have just had the results of my aughter's DNA tests. Doctors suspected she has hypochondroplasia - a rare genetic disorder - a kind of dwarfism. Luckily it came back negative!

So now we will concentrate on this gluten-free diet and hope she will start to grow.

By the way, do any of you know of a good web site where you can find out what common foods are gluten-free...like marshmellows, baked beans, gelatine, etc...

Thank you! :rolleyes:

UNCHeel Rookie
UNCHeel
Posted

I hate to be the pessimist on hormones but aside from Rice guy's very intelligent and logical comments on the subject, hormones are now popping up in so many areas as being cancer inducers that unless my life depended on it I wouldn't touch them with a 10 ft pole. I'm not an MD but I saw first hand the cancer my Mom suffered and died from and now the med. folks are saying HRT has a hand in it. I would definitely try nutrition first.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):

  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      133,106
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Maggie1349
    Newest Member
    Maggie1349
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):

  • Who's Online (See full list)

    • There are no registered users currently online

  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • knitty kitty
      Insomnia help

      By knitty kitty · Posted

      @cristiana,  I react the same way.  Dairy consumption flushes out my digestive system within an hour, too! As casein is digested, it forms casomorphins that bind to opioid receptors in our bodies.  This is similar to digested gluten peptides being able to attach to opioid receptors in our bodies.   We have opioid receptors throughout our bodies including lots in the digestive tract. Casein raises tTg IgA antibodies just like gluten consumption does, which leads to further intestinal damage and continuing inflammation.  No wonder our bodies react to it by pushing the "emergency evacuation" ejection seat button! The mother of my childhood friend was British and introduced me to drinking tea properly with milk or cream.  I miss it so much.  And chocolate ice cream.  Not worth the after effects, though.  I've found taking Omega Three supplements (flaxseed oil, sunflower seed oil, evening primrose oil) helps shake those dairy cravings.   Green leafy veggies like broccoli, kale, and greens (mustard, turnip, collards) are great sources of calcium.  Avoid spinach as it is high in oxalates that block calcium absorption and may cause kidney stones.  Yes, more leafy greens are needed to reach the same amount of calcium in a glass of milk, but the greens have other benefits, like increased dietary fiber and polyphenols that act as antioxidants, reduce inflammation, and promote health.   Exposure to gluten (and casein in those sensitive to it) can cause an increased immune response and inflammation for months afterwards.  The immune cells that make tTg IgA antibodies which are triggered today are going to live for about two years. During that time, inflammation is heightened.  Those immune cells only replicate when triggered.  If those immune cells don't get triggered again for about two years, they die without leaving any descendents programmed to trigger on gluten and casein.  The immune system forgets gluten and casein need to be attacked.  The Celiac genes turn off.  This is remission.   Some people in remission report being able to consume gluten again without consequence.  Another triggering event can turn the Celiac genes on again.   Celiac genes are turned on by a triggering event (physical or emotional stress).  There's some evidence that thiamine insufficiency contributes to the turning on of autoimmune genes.  There is an increased biological need for thiamine when we are physically or emotionally stressed.  Thiamine cannot be stored for more than twenty-one days and may be depleted in as little as three during physical and emotional stresses. Mitochondria without sufficient thiamine become damaged and don't function properly.  This gets relayed to the genes and autoimmune disease genes turn on.  Thiamine and other B vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are needed to replace the dysfunctional mitochondria and repair the damage to the body.  
    • TheDHhurts
      need help understanding testing result for Naked Nutrition Creatine please

      By TheDHhurts · Posted

      Hi, I bought Naked Nutrition Creatine. It lists itself as gluten free but is not certified. (It used to be, but they dropped it in the past year or two apparently.) I wrote the company and asked them what testing results they had for creatine and they sent me the attached, which says the test result for gluten is <0.025MCG. I'm used to seeing test results as ppm, so I'm not sure what <0.025MCG means. Can it be converted to ppm easily? I want to confirm that it is safe to use.
    • cristiana
      Insomnia help

      By cristiana · Posted

      When I was still recovering my gastroenterologist suggested I bought lactofree product as I was very bloated.  So I bought some from the supermarket and from memory, I drank a nice big glass of milk - and it went right through me literally within an hour or so, if my memory serves correctly.  I came off dairy completely next and it worked like a charm, but started to reintroduce quite gradually it as I missed it! To this day, if I overdo dairy products, they work like a mild laxative.  I've never wanted to give up milk completely as I like it so much, and my mum had osteoporosis and it's an easy way of getting calcium.  But it doesn't really 'sit' well with me.   You may need to experiment a bit as when I was healing certain dairy products were worse than others - I could cope with one brand of Greek yoghurt, but I got extremely and painfully bloated with another brand of live British yoghurt.  
    • wellthatsfun
      nothing has changed

      By wellthatsfun · Posted

      i have been strictly gluten free for 7 months. this includes avoiding anything that may contain gluten and making sure surfaces and appliances are clean. i am 18 years old in australia and my tTG-IgA results were 69U/mL, pretty low compared to most people's, for reference. i feel the exact same as before. sure, i was pretty much asymptomatic/silent. the worst i'd get was occasionally bad stools and pitting of the nails/brittle hair since early childhood - and i was diagnosed with low iron and vitamin d which checks out due to easy bruising and such. but those symptoms have remained. maybe i'm jumping the gun, sure. i know it can take years to fully heal. but being over half a year in, i feel that i should be, y'know, healing. i'm nearly at my wits end and wondering if i should have a piece of bread or something to see how i go - to see if i possibly have refractory? my mental health is declining as i feel myself wanting to bang my head against a damn wall out of frustration every day. cravings haven't gotten better. look, i love the stuff i still can have, like salads and such. OH! i haven't lost any weight, which is mind boggling considering i eat very healthily now! i've always been on the chubbier side which is atypical of coeliac. i just don't know what's going on with me. i try to remain hopeful but i'm just so sad all the time. thanks for reading  
    • trents
      Severe severe mouth pain

      By trents · Posted

      @Charlie1946There is a PM (Personal Message) tool built into the forum website that allows you to send a private message to other forum users. Just hover over their name with your mouse cursor and the menu containing that tool will pop up. This is useful if you want to communicate with an individual without everyone else involved in the thread seeing it.  Are you realizing that in my PPI taper down recommendations in an earlier post above, I was responding not to your posts but to @Caligirl57? If you must use a PPI, I certainly would advise taking the lowest dose that is effective for you.  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.