She Vomited Four Times A Day
Mom shared with me that her daughter, Breanna, was fine up until the last day of February. She was 13 months old. While she didn’t act sick, she started to get sick. Bree would throw up and then get back to what she was playing with as though nothing was wrong. She vomited several times throughout the day.
When diarrhea started a couple days later, in addition to vomiting several times each day, mom made an appointment with their doctor. “He told us that she was just teething,” mom shared. They were told that Bree would be fine in a week or two.
They went home expecting their little girl to get better. But she continued to vomit up to four times a day.
The Doctor: "She has a viral infection; wait it out."
“She sweated profusely, regardless of the room temperature,” mom shared. “She became sad and irritable and lost her appetite.” This continued for the next few weeks. They went back and forth to the doctor. They were told she had a viral infection and to just “wait it out.”
Mom took Bree to the Emergency room at one point. They were given an anti-nausea tablet and sent home.
“At this point, she was literally fading away before our eyes,” mom said. “She spent the days in my arms, or if I wasn’t holding her she would just lay on the floor screaming. Her bones were protruding (you could see her spine, her pelvis, collarbones and ribs etc) and yet she had this huge belly that always looked painfully stretched. Her eyes were sunken and had dark circles under them. She had lost almost 2 kilos in 4 weeks. I had had enough of doctors telling me that she was fine and she would get better. I knew something was wrong.”
Mom Demanded Answers
On April 6th, mom took her baby to the emergency room. She told them she wasn’t leaving until they did tests to find what was wrong. “Up until that day no one had done any tests,” she shared. “She had blood tests, stool samples, ultrasounds and a feeding tube put in so that she could do the Barium dye test, where we had to sit for 3 hours while they injected her with the dye and then took an X-ray. Then she had to lay there for 45 minutes and take another one and so on (horrible experience!)
“Finally, after 5 days in the hospital, the blood tests came back showing she had tested positive for celiac.” The endoscopy was schedule for the following morning. “The Biopsy results showed she had ‘severe and total villous atrophy.’ We went home and I googled like crazy. We purchased a bread maker and re-stocked our pantry with gluten free goods.”
It didn’t take long before their baby girl gained weight and was healthy once again.
Share a Story -- Increase Awareness
The National Institute of Health published this study in 2003. It stated that 1:133 not at risk had celiac. Let me repeat: 1:133 *Not At Risk.* This obviously puts the numbers much higher, doesn’t it, when considering all those who are at risk. Check out the study and just see how many are at risk.
I really thought that this study would result in greatly increased testing and greatly reduced stories like the one above. Far too many, however, are still suffering for months and years before celiac testing is even considered.
Share A Story - Plant A Seed
Check out the Celiac Stories page for dozens of stories.
Be sure to request celiac tests before removing gluten from your diet.
