Celiac Disease Symptoms and Treatment

Celiac disease is a condition in which the digestive system does not accept foods containing gluten. Initially, this ailment was considered congenital and transmitted as a hereditary disease. But its exact causes and course are still not fully understood.

Celiac Disease Symptoms

It is generally accepted that there are three main forms of the course of the disease. But in fact, the manifestations of the disease are numerous. Celiac disease can disguise itself as other gastrointestinal diseases, various pathologies of the dermis, hypovitaminosis and some others. This is the reason why celiac disease is not diagnosed in all patients. Others continue to treat the visible signs of non-existent diseases.

But on the other hand, there are many cases when, by all indications, the patient suffered from celiac disease, but additional studies did not confirm the initial diagnosis of doctors.

In children, celiac disease is manifested by the following symptoms:

• The chair can be up to 5 times a day, sometimes more. At the same time, the discharge has a mushy consistency, the presence of fat gives a characteristic shine, a disgusting smell, it is difficult to wash off. Sometimes stools are foamy and vary in color.
• Large, eye-catching belly. Parents may assume that the child is only eating well, and the doctor is more likely to assume that the baby will develop rickets.
• The child is gaining little in height and weight. This most often occurs after complementary foods. Being breastfed, the baby kept up with his peers.

In adults, the symptoms of celiac disease are as follows:

• On the part of the nervous system, there may be depression or migraine.
• Various forms of dermatitis.
• Various problems with teeth- stomatitis, enamel hypoplasia and other diseases of the oral cavity.
• Arthritis and various joint pains of an unexplained nature.
• Nephropathy.
• Incomprehensible changes in the state of the blood - a decrease in cholesterol, an increase in albumin, alkaline phosphatase, etc.
• Infertility.

Celiac disease in children

Celiac disease children very difficult to diagnose. This is due to the fact that symptoms do not appear immediately, but only with age. In babies who are breastfeeding, the first signs usually appear only after the start of complementary foods with foods containing gluten. It is possible to recognize this disease only at the age of 7-8 months. But there are cases when the disease is asymptomatic for up to 2 or even 3 years.

In addition to the main symptoms, the disease causes hot temper, aggressiveness and moods in the child. In this case, nervous excitement can quickly be replaced by bouts of apathy. The child often complains of a dull pain in the abdomen. Due to a lack of calcium, which is simply not absorbed by the body, rickets begins. A child's teeth erupt with a delay, and those that appear almost immediately suffer from caries. The baby often develops swelling and is allergic to cow's milk.

Due to the unpredictability of the disease, it can manifest itself with other completely atypical symptoms. If your child exhibits the above symptoms when adding gluten-containing foods to complementary foods, see your doctor. This will help avoid unpleasant consequences.

Celiac disease in adults

In adulthood, a celiac disease patient usually does not notice his or her illness or mistakenly thinks of its manifestations for symptoms of another disease. In general, it was generally accepted that this disease occurs only in childhood. At the same time, the prescribed treatment usually did not give any result.

The disease occurs in people with a specific set of genes. Outwardly, celiac patients appear normal. But after consuming gluten-containing foods, the immune system begins to destroy the intestinal tissue. In this case, the attack continues all the time while gluten enters the body. With celiac disease, all tissues and organs of a person are destroyed, therefore, the manifestations can be very different.

Celiac Disease Treatment

If celiac disease begins to manifest itself, then it will remain with the person for life. But this does not mean at all that the patient will have to suffer all his life with various manifestations of the disease. Treatment consists in the strictest adherence to gluten-free diets... You will have to throw out pasta and bread, oatmeal, semolina and barley, pastries and pastries, sauces from the diet. In addition, it is necessary to exclude beer, coffee and cocoa, yogurt, cheese, curds, canned food, mayonnaise and ketchup. In general, all foods with more than 1% gluten should be eliminated.

It is allowed to eat legumes, buckwheat groats and millet, as well as corn, natural village milk and eggs, vegetables and fruits. For sweets, you can use chocolate and marmalade.

Babies need to be given special gluten-free formulas based on casein or soy hydrolyzate. Complementary feeding for celiac disease should start with gluten-free cereals.

Once an accurate diagnosis has been established, therapy may be required to address symptoms. In this case, drugs are used that restore microflora, normalize digestion, eliminate bloating, diarrhea and gas formation. Sometimes it is also required to restore the water-electrolyte balance and eliminate vitamin deficiency. In severe cases, treatment of autoimmune diseases, weight correction and elimination of protein deficiency may be required.