Question:
After diagnosis, how can I tell if my child’s ongoing symptoms are from celiac disease?
Answer:
Identifying the cause of on-going symptoms can be confusing because other conditions can coexist with celiac disease or result from it. Generally, if symptoms persist first seek the confirmation of the celiac disease diagnosis and have follow-up antibody blood tests done. If these are positive, consult a registered dietitian (RD/RDN).
To determine recent gluten ingestion consider using the Gluten Detective stool or urine test. The stool test will be positive if your child has eaten as little as 50 mg of gluten (equivalent to a crumb of bread) within the previous 2-3 days or 500 mg of gluten (equivalent to a couple bites of bread) within the previous 24 hours using the urine test. One slice of wheat bread contains about 2500 mg gluten, so the test is sensitive enough to pick up much smaller amounts.
If the stool test results for gluten are consistently negative when assessing ongoing issues, your child’s symptoms might be the result of other conditions, including lactose intolerance, FODMAP intolerance, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and small intestinal fungal overgrowth (SIFO).
Best,
Nancy Patin Falini, MA, RDN, LDN Nutritional Graces, LLC Private Practice.
Consultant/Author/National Speaker.
Conducts both face-to-face and virtual nutrition and wellness education and counseling.
