The International Celiac Disease Symposium 2019 was held in early September 2019 in Paris. A bunch of super smart celiac scientists and doctors got together in Paris to talk about celiac disease. I’m glad that celiac disease has reached high enough profile that people will come from all over the world to talk about it and potentially look for solutions.
There a lots of articles they discussed and here is one about Infants and Celiac.
The first talks about whether or not someone can tell if an infant will develop celiac disease based on their metabolic profile or specific amino acids in the blood. The study included 230 children from four months old and followed them until they were 8 years old. All children carried one of the two celiac genetic markers and had at least one first-degree relative with celiac disease. By the end of 2014, thirty-three or 14% of the children were diagnosed with celiac disease at a mean age of 3.4 years old. The conclusion of the study the scientists could not tell based on the children’s metabolic profile who would develop celiac disease or not. So, prior to introduction of solid food, scientists cannot tell if a child will develop celiac.
As a parent, I understand the fear that parents have of passing on celiac disease to their children. Having celiac disease is hard enough on an adult, but I imagine is exponentially more difficult for a child. I know there is a great deal of concern about feeding young children gluten and will it cause them to develop celiac disease. I know the science is not clear on this. I know the science is clear that there is some sort of “trigger” for celiac disease to start – a rotavirus or other gastrointestinal disease, a stressful event, pregnancy, or something that causes celiac to turn on.
For me, and this is my opinion so take it with a grain of salt, I think that you can’t stop celiac from developing. I also don’t think that it is fated that celiac will develop, even in genetically susceptible people. If over 40% of the population carry the genetic markers, but less than 1% of people develop celiac, there has to be something else that is the “trigger”. Eating gluten or not eating gluten isn’t enough to cause this disease to start. So, I would say, eat the gluten until you can’t. Also, if you are really concerned, please talk to your doctor, because I’m just a gal posting on the internet about what I know.
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