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My Neice Is Two Years Old And 20lbs...

hannahp57

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hannahp57 Contributor
hannahp57
Posted

My neice is going to be two in about two weeks and she only wieghs 20lbs. She has been having diahrrea in the mornings for a while now and has been exhibiting some aggresive tendencies. My sister wants to get her tested and i told her i would get on this forum and gain some insight from those with more experience Both me and my sister (neice's mother) have been diagnosed with Celiac disease and so we have had our suspicions for a while now. So i guess my question is: are these symptoms typical for other children with celiac disease? and what steps should be aken for a child to get tested? (an endoscopy seems so invasive for such a small person

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Genna'smom Apprentice
Genna'smom
Posted

Hi and welcome - just part of my sotry. My almost 2 year old jsut decided to stop eating and drinking and was down to 18 lbs. After 2 hospital stays her GI dr who we used for acid reflux decided to do an endoscopy and says she has celiac's disease. She has no symptoms except not sleeping through the night, clingy, whiny...... At that point they decided they needed to put her on a feeding tube as she would not eat to sustain her life and we went gluten free. I would say that given your family history you are probably right she has it and you have choices to make - either go gluten free and if she is better than you know or do the biopcie to find out. My daughter did just fine with it and it is a personal prefrence. Blood work is unreliable at this age. Mine had tested negative.

Good luck with your neice.

Bonnie

hannahp57 Contributor
hannahp57
Posted
  • Author
Hi and welcome - just part of my sotry. My almost 2 year old jsut decided to stop eating and drinking and was down to 18 lbs. After 2 hospital stays her GI dr who we used for acid reflux decided to do an endoscopy and says she has celiac's disease. She has no symptoms except not sleeping through the night, clingy, whiny...... At that point they decided they needed to put her on a feeding tube as she would not eat to sustain her life and we went gluten free. I would say that given your family history you are probably right she has it and you have choices to make - either go gluten free and if she is better than you know or do the biopcie to find out. My daughter did just fine with it and it is a personal prefrence. Blood work is unreliable at this age. Mine had tested negative.

Good luck with your neice.

Bonnie

Thank you for that. it is encouraging just to hear others who already have been through it. my sister has been debating for a while. she doesnt have access or time for the internet because she has three kids. the youngest is the only who has had any symptoms. i worry about the procedure being done on such a small girl. but i look forward to seeing her be able to eat and not get sick. if it'll help her feel better i am sure it will be worth it

taweavmo3 Enthusiast
taweavmo3
Posted

I think she definately should get tested. My little girl stopped gaining weight at 12months of age.....she was 3 years old and 20 pounds. Yet it still took a while to get a doctor to test her, every symptom could be explained away by something else. She was always irritable, but everyone said it was just terrible two's. She was so skinny and small, but so was I, so everyone said it was just genetics. I finally googled all of her symptoms out of frustration, found Celiac, and finally found a doctor who would test her.

My daughter is the first in our family to be diagnosed as Celiac, so we didn't know what to look for. Since then, we've found undiagnosed Celiacs all over the place in my family. I don't know the ins and outs about the genetics of Celiac like many on here do....but just based on our family alone, I have to say this disease has a STRONG genetic component. You won't find too many families who have only one Celiac. And really, since both you and your sister have it....all kids and family members should be tested regularly anyway. Good luck!

valeriek Apprentice
valeriek
Posted
My neice is going to be two in about two weeks and she only wieghs 20lbs. She has been having diahrrea in the mornings for a while now and has been exhibiting some aggresive tendencies. My sister wants to get her tested and i told her i would get on this forum and gain some insight from those with more experience Both me and my sister (neice's mother) have been diagnosed with Celiac disease and so we have had our suspicions for a while now. So i guess my question is: are these symptoms typical for other children with celiac disease? and what steps should be aken for a child to get tested? (an endoscopy seems so invasive for such a small person

My son is 5 and weighs 40 pounds which is right where he should be according to the Dr. There are so many over weight kids out there because there parents let them watch tv and eat all day instead of playing out side so when people see a child at a healthy weight it is weird to them. Her weight is fine.

taweavmo3 Enthusiast
taweavmo3
Posted
My son is 5 and weighs 40 pounds which is right where he should be according to the Dr. There are so many over weight kids out there because there parents let them watch tv and eat all day instead of playing out side so when people see a child at a healthy weight it is weird to them. Her weight is fine.

Well, children's weight can vary, but you also have to look at the child's history. Weight alone isn't the only factor to consider. Red flags should go up if the child continues to fall behind on the growth chart. You can have a small child who is consistantly in the 20th percentile (like my very healthy 2 year old), she is small, and I won't worry unless she starts to fall lower and lower on the growth chart.

That's what happened in my dd's case....she was 22lbs at 12 months old, and actually dropped to 20lbs by the age of 3. Her growth chart percentiles became lower and lower, until she wasn't even on there anymore.

Celiac is tricky though, there isn't a one size fits all description of a Celiac child. Not all kids are failure to thrive....so I would really have all the kids in the family tested since there is a history of Celiac. The earlier it's caught, the better!

Alex J Apprentice
Alex J
Posted
My son is 5 and weighs 40 pounds which is right where he should be according to the Dr. There are so many over weight kids out there because there parents let them watch tv and eat all day instead of playing out side so when people see a child at a healthy weight it is weird to them. Her weight is fine.

I see your point - my son, who will be six in a week, weighs 36 pounds so I'm certainly familiar with smaller healthy children - but I don't think you should minimise her concern. There is a real difference between 40 pounds at 5 and 20 pounds at 2 if you look at the CDC charts. At just turned 5, 40# is a very healthy and average 50th percentile. Even my son, at almost six and four pounds less, is still clinging to the bottom of the chart (3rd percentile, ish). On the other hand the 20# two year old is well under the growth chart, which means considerably smaller than almost all children her age. At that point you really have to take a long hard look to figure out why, and to make sure there is nothing going on which is also going to affect other areas of development.

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B'sgirl Explorer
B'sgirl
Posted

I had the same concerns about having my child tested because he was so young (not even 1 1/2) when I suspected Celiac. He had many symptoms though and so I figured it wouldn't hurt to just put him on a gluten-free diet and see what happened. He improved a great deal with the diet change and I later had to eliminate milk as well. After awhile I had him tested through Enterolab which showed he was also sensitive to soy, egg, and yeast. He made the most improvement after we cut out soy and his symptoms are pretty much gone. We never did any invasive testing.

So what I would recommend for you is, (and this is just my personal opinion), just do a trial diet. It won't hurt the child (even if it's hard on the parent) and it might actually help. This is such a critical growing period and the wait to get in for testing is so long. In the meantime he could be deprived of much needed nutrition. I would try the diet and wait until he is older to do the testing if it still concerns you.

Danesmommy Newbie
Danesmommy
Posted

My son was also just under 20 lbs when he turned 2. He just turned 3 and is now 24 lbs. For some perspective, he was 15 lbs 2 oz at 6 months of age. Then I started feeding him Cheerios and Rice Crispies and when he turned 1 he was 15 lbs 8 oz. That was when we had him tested. Once we put him on a gluten-free diet he started gaining weight nicely, but he was already small from the lack of growth during a crucial growth phase. So while 24 lbs is small for a 3 year old, it's fine for my son because he has been steadily gaining weight. As long as she grows consistently and appears healthy she probably is, but it's important to have regular checkups with the doctor.

Amyleigh0007 Enthusiast
Amyleigh0007
Posted

My daughter is 20 months and weighs 24 pounds. She has never had gluten and is extremely healthy. My son, on the other hand, is a different story. When he was 8 he weighed 41 pounds. He started dropping off the growth charts when he was 4 and had completely stopped growing by the time he was 6. He was diagnosed when he was 8 and has since gained 13 pounds. He is still the smallest child in his class but it is not so painfully obvious now. Trust your mom instincts. If something seems odd for your child or you just have a gut feeling something is wrong go with that feeling. You know your child better than anyone.

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