View Full Version : Still anemic


OwensMom
10-19-2006, 08:46 AM
Hello,
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions here.

My son is almost 18 months old and has been on a multivitamin with iron for at least 8 months now. He still drinks about 10 oz's of Alimentum a day, eats one bowl of rice cereal in the morning. He is on tablefoods mostly and eats a variety of fruits, veggies and also meats.
He has some foods that he doesn't tolerate very well, he is on a gluten-, dairy- and soy-free diet. He has been gluten-free since the end of July and we have seen great improvements with him, no more loose stools, no more diaper- or skin-rashes, he sleeps better and his mood is a lot better as well.
He now weighs 22lbs and is 31 inches tall, within the last 1.5 months he has gained a little over 1 pound and grew 1/2 inch. Before it took him over 4 months to gain not even 1lbs.
I just wonder how he can still be anemic when he is taking vitamins with iron, cereal with iron and actually eating a bigger variety of food than he did before. Is there anything that we are missing? Could it still take a while for his intestines to heal and absorb the iron better?

He was never tested for celiac as the german hospital didn't follow through with his pediatricians instructions and only tested for milk and egg allergies. We had him tested through enterolab, they tested his stool and it came back positive for both casein and gluten.

Dr. Olson
10-19-2006, 08:34 PM
Hi,

The screening test for celiac disease is a simple serum transglutaminase with a serum IgG. Rather than have a presumptive diagnosis, get a confirmatory one. The stool diagnosis of celiac disease is meaningless.

Why anemia? I really depends on what type of anemia we are talking about, either a blood loss or a failure to make red cells or a destruction of red blood cells by some mechanism. Your doctor can do further tests to define this. If this is celiac disease, anemia continues unless one is slavishly following a GFD.

Good luck, Dr. Olson