Though you may not have really given it any thought before, if you have a child with Celiac Disease one thing doctors feel you should be looking out for are the symptoms of Depression.  This is because according to About.com, children with Celiac Disease are more vulnerable to depression.

I suppose if you step back and think about it, this totally makes sense. Growing up is difficult enough as it is, but not being able to eat with your friends would certainly make things worse. The important thing is that the depression gets diagnosed and the proper treatment is given to your child.

It is believed that 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac disease, but a very small percentage realize it. Unfortunately, lack of proper treatment can cause some very big problems, and Mentoring-UK has written a post detailing Celiacs effect on your body when untreated.

Here is an excerpt:

There is growing evidence that celiac disease affects more than your digestive system. Through nutritional deficiencies it can impact your entire body. Even more serious, though, is the toxic effect that gluten can have on your brain.

In one study, researchers found that many epileptic patients had strange calcifications in the brain. Upon further investigation, the researchers found that it was present in many of these strange cases. They also found that sometimes this disease was actually mistaken for epilepsy. Often these patients showed the classic symptoms of epilepsy, but did not respond to normal treatment. If their celiac disease was diagnosed and treated soon enough after the diagnosis of epilepsy, the epileptic symptoms were eliminated.

Celiac disease can create many different neurological complications, usually by damaging nerves. It can damage the optic nerve, it can damage the casing of the spinal cord, it can cause weakness and numbness in the extremities and it can cause dementia.

In fact, researchers have found that more than half of people with undetermined neurological conditions have celiac disease.

If it sounds interesting to you, I recommend you check it out.

As Celiac continues to get diagnosed more and more often, we are finding a lot more children with the need to live on a gluten free diet.  If you find yourself in this situation, Free From has some Gluten Free School Tips including a sample letter you can use, which is designed to help you explain to the school your childs needs. 

If Celiac runs in your family and you have children, at some point the question will come up.   When should you test your baby for Celiac Disease?  Because I have two young children myself (though neither would be considered a baby any longer) and Celiac runs in my family, this has naturally been a concern in our home.

In order to answer this question, your best bet is always to check with a qualified doctor.   Sure Foods Living recently asked Dr. Aron, and here is the response:

There is a strong possibility that your baby has celiac genes, but, with a lack of exposure to gluten, it is unlikely that this is a cause unless you have been ingesting gluten during breast feeding. Switching to formula is a good idea: be sure that it is gluten-free. Testing the baby for celiac should include HLA DQ2 DQ8 genes, and be done very soon.

Now, it’s important to note that this baby is being raised in a gluten free home, but Dr. Aron brings up an important point about breast feeding and the mother (who does not have Celiac).