[mamatojackn]

hi there-<br>
my son and i have been diagnosed as gluten sensitive since he was a newborn. we have never been tested for actual celiac disease as my understanding was that the blood test is inaccurate and i didn't want to put my son or myself through a biopsy when we are simply off gluten and feeling great. however, there is a pretty big history of autoimmune disease in my family that i'm feeling like we should know if we are simply sensitive to gluten or truly have celiac disease. then i learned about the stool test through enterolab online.<br>
has anyone tested through them or have any opinions on viable options for celiac testing as opposed to a gluten intolerance test- other than the biopsy.<br>
thanks!<br>
jen

 

[chlobo]

Enterolab testing cannot diagnose celiac. It will only tell you if you are reacting to gluten. The only way to dx celiac is through blood tests & biopsies, for which you need to be eating gluten.<br><br>
Since you know you & your son are sensitive I'm not sure the actual dx would make a difference.

 

[mamatojackn]

thanks for your reply- good info to know about enterolab- i thought it was for celiac disease.<br>
my only reason for wanting to know if it is an intolerance or true celiac is say when jack is older and he wants to make the decision to have a pizza and a beer with his buddies (or i do for that matter when i'm not nursing anymore!)- it would be nice to know if it is something we could slip up with once in a while and suffer some minor inconveniences for 24 hours, OR if we do have celiac- we would not even take the chance for an "indulgence" now and then. get what i mean? or the need to be more aware than we are now of certain remnants of gluten in appliances, etc that we haven't worried about to this point just treating it as an intolerance.<br>
thanks again-<br>
jen

 

[bigknitwit]

We have a similar predicamment, only I actually got the stool testing done on ds1. He is gluten free, but sloppily (same toaster as dh's toast, still eats oats, etc). All his labwork (except the malabsorption test) point to celiac. Dh wants to get an "official" diagnosis if he indeed has it, so we can know if gluten is permanently gone, or if cheating can occur every so often. But he is allready off gluten, so we're going to have a difficult time getting a diagnosis without reintroducing it.<br><br>
All that said, when I spoke with the Enterolabs folks, they said their test would detect antibodies if gluten had been consumed as long as 5-6 months ago (if I remember correctly). However, the IgA values might be a lot lower since exposure has been removed.<br><br>
My other issue with Enterolabs is that apparently they refuse to be peer reviewed - makes me wonder a little about their credibility.

 

[chlobo]

Unfortunately, gluten sensitivity doesn't work that way. Think of it as a continuum. Celiac is just a more severe form of gluten sensitivity. However, they are peas from the same pod. So if you have gluten sensitivity and eat gluten you are doing damage to your gut just as you are when you are celiac. The difference is that a person with celiac already has diagnosable damage to their gut. The treatment is the same - lifelong avoidance of gluten.<br><br>
Also, I've heard that once you've been off gluten for a while and have a "misstep" the effects are usually much worse than when you were eating gluten all the time. So instead of just feeling midly bad, you feel really bad. We haven't been off gluten long enough yet to tell, but that is what I've heard.<br><br>
You can learn more here:<br><br><a href="http://www.celiac.com" target="_blank">www.celiac.com</a>

 

[2bluefish]

Hmmm, I've heard the opposite - that once your gut heals, then an occasional cheat might not give you symptoms at all. I was off gluten for almost a year, and then got stressed and ran back to all my comfort foods. I've noticed a few little things, but I don't feel as bad as I did before I gave it up. I want to at least gets some blood testing before I go off of it again, and so I will know if I should worry about my kids or not.

 

[chlobo]

Just because you don't feel symptoms doesn't mean its not doing gut damage. There are many celiac's who never have symptoms until their guts are irrepairably harmed.