Celiac disease (gluten intolerance)

What is...
Symptoms
Home treatment
Prevention

What is...

What is Celiac disease?

Celiac disease (also called celiac sprue or gluten intolerance) is a digestion problem of the small intestine caused by gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains like rye, barley, and oats.

Hypersensitivity or intolerance to gluten triggers inflammation in the mucosal lining of the intestine. This damages the mucosa so that it does not work properly, which means nutrients are not being absorbed well. In turn this can lead to nutrient deficiencies and malnutrition.

Wheat is found in many common foods, including bread and pasta, and celiac disease may affect 4 out of every 500 people. The cause is unknown but the disease tends to run in families, so hereditary factors do play a part.

Symptoms

Symptoms and signs

Symptoms of celiac disease often appear in early childhood, but they can look like those of other conditions, so the disease is not always diagnosed right away.

The first symptoms may appear when the child begins eating solid food in the form of wheat cereal. He may not gain weight, have changes in bowel movements, and possibly even diarrhea, abdominal pain and pale skin due to anemia. Symptoms often appear gradually and need not be dramatic.

If the condition remains undetected and untreated, a child with it will lose weight, develop a bloated stomach, and become generally weak and listless.

The symptoms may vary from person to person in severity, and in fact some children may not be diagnosed until adolescence or adulthood.

Complications

The most common complication of celiac disease is malabsorption, meaning that the intestine is unable to absorb nutrients normally.

This happens when the mucous membrane is damaged and the fine intestinal bumps responsible for absorption of nutrients inside the intestine do not work.

When the malabsorption goes on for a long time, it leads to weight loss, poor growth, anemia, and vitamin deficiency.

Home treatment

Treatment / What you should do

If you suspect that your child has celiac disease, you should contact her doctor.

In order to diagnose celiac disease, the doctor may first order a blood test for your child to see whether she has antibodies to gluten.

To confirm the diagnosis, it is necessary to take a sample of the mucosa from the small intestine (biopsy), which is done with a special tube inserted into the intestines (endoscope or gastroscope). This examination usually takes place at the hospital, with the child under general anesthesia during the procedure.

Microscopic tests will be able to show whether or not the child has celiac disease. The treatment for celiac disease is a strict gluten-free diet. When the intestines are not exposed to gluten, the damaged mucosa can heal and the child gets better in the course of a few weeks.

Because gluten is such a common ingredient in so many parts of an American diet, adjusting to a gluten-free diet can be very hard. A consultation with a nutritionist may help to make these dietary changes easier.

Fortunately, there are many foods that do not contain gluten, including fruits, vegetables, meats, rice, potatoes, and most dairy products.

In addition, many special products that are gluten-free, such as gluten-free bread, crackers, pasta and flour, are now made.

Prevention

If your child has celiac disease, it is important that you make certain that your child does not eat any gluten.

You should make lists of what kinds of food your child can eat and what foods should not be eaten because they have gluten in them.

It is believed that people with celiac disease must avoid food-containing gluten for the rest of their lives.

Be sure everyone who might offer your child food knows of his gluten intolerance.

Older children must be taught to take responsibility for what they can and cannot eat.

It is important that gluten is removed from the diet completely. Eating even one food containing gluten can cause a flare up of symptoms, and it will take about 2 weeks on a gluten-free diet to heal the intestines.

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About Child Health Guide

Child Health Guide (CHG) is a health web site for parents that uses actual video examples of how children look and act during illness and traumatic injuries.

The CHG helps parents by providing clear, easy-to-understand, accessible, actionable information about their child’s condition.

The Child Health Guide is a major advance in the delivery of healthcare information.

The CHG includes video clips of more than 100 of the most common childhood illnesses and injuries. Organized by symptoms and cross-referenced by disease, the CHG enables parents to easily find the information that is most useful to them.

It also has an important section about home-accidents and how to prevent them.

The video clips show children with symptoms at various stages of a disease – both more and less serious. The accompanying “narrative” explains the symptoms, the illness, and what a parent should do.

The CHG is not a substitute for a physician’s advice or a doctor’s office visit.

Rather, it is to help parents better understand and articulate their child’s condition, making visits to the doctor – and follow-up care -- more effective.

Both the videos and supporting text are vetted by physicians at the Harvard Medical School and Dartmouth Medical School.

Terms and Conditions

The "Child Health Guide" is intended to provide helpful, informative material on the subjects addressed. The material reflects the more common circumstances related to a symptom or a condition without any attempt at being all-inclusive. The material is not intended to be a substitute for consultation, evaluation, and treatment by trained medical professionals.

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Celiac disease (gluten intolerance)

What is...

What is Celiac disease?

Symptoms

Symptoms and signs

Complications

Home treatment

Treatment / What you should do

Prevention

Prevention

Images

Related topics

Partners