Growth issues

January 23, 2006

I just joined this group last week and have already learned so much! My son

was diagnosed this summer at the age of 15 with CD. I had asked his

pediatricians since he was less than 2 years old why he was not growing as

he should be. Their answers were always that my husband and I are small and

he just wasn't going to be very big. At 14, I finally was able to get him

referred to an endocrinologist at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. We

started the diet in August, 2005 and hope we are following it well. The

only symptoms that he had was lack of growth and lack of weight gain. He is

now 15 yrs. 7 mos., 4'9 " , and 65 lbs. He has had no remarkable growth or

weight gain since we went GF so he will have a growth hormone test done in a

few weeks. Whether it shows that he is deficient in GH or not, he will

probably be put on GH shots daily for the next 3-4 years. As he absolutely

hates needles, I do not look forward to this.

Those of you whose children have been diagnosed young are so lucky. The

endocrinologist and GI both say they wish it had been caught before he was

12 so he would have time to grow. Right now, we are fighting time and

praying he doesn't start in puberty so he will have time to grow. But, can

you imagine being 15 and a high school freshman and being 4'9 " , 65 lbs., and

haven't started puberty? Most of his friends are 5'10 " and above and

shaving. He was scheduled to take driver's ed this semester and dropped it

as he was afraid he would be too short to be comfortable driving.

I hate to write so much but I do want to say that he has been wonderful

about staying with the diet and being open with other kids about CD.

Unfortunately, I have noticed that he is not getting included at many of the

parties and outings now and I'm afraid it's the parents who are encouraging

this. I think they may not know what he can eat and are worried that it

will be difficult to feed him. Rather than talk with me about it, I think

he is just getting left out. If he was invited, I could offer to take some

GF foods but if he is not even invited, I have no way to counteract this.

Anyway, thanks for all of the good info. I'll keep reading and adding when

I can. I'm sure I'll be asking too. If anyone has a good cinnamon roll

recipe, I'd love to have it.

Judy

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