Coeliac testing immediate family

I’ve been asked several times now whether there’s any history of coeliac disease in our family, and the simple answer is that I don’t know. DH’s family has the odd member who feels better on a wheat-free diet, but so do lots of people for lots of reasons, it’s not diagnostic. My mum feels better eating less wheat too and I get wierd and wonderful stomach aches but test negative, so I really haven’t got the foggiest if it runs in our family without coeliac testing.

DH reckons he doesn’t have coeliac disease, and I planned to keep an eye on my 7 yr old son to see if he showed any symptoms. He does sometimes say he doesn’t “feel too good”, sometimes feels sick, is pretty skinny and not the tallest in the class, all of which is now starting to sound a bit familiar.

The dietitian told us yesterday that all Tamsin’s immediate family should be tested, so this morning I rang our GP to sort out testing for DH and DS. The receptionist needed to speak to the doctor first, so he called me later. He suggested DS bypasses the GP stage and goes straight for coeliac testing at paediatric outpatients. I was a bit surprised by that, but if it means one blood test rather than two it’s not a bad thing, and I might wimp out and allow DH to take him. DS was fine with his toddler injections but that was a while ago and given Tamsin’s reaction I don’t know how he will take to the whole thing. We just have to wait for his appointment to come through from the hospital now. DH has a blood test at the surgery soon.

Tamsin has a half brother and sister through her dad and they need to be tested too. There’s a chance her sister could have it, taking various things into consideration, so I’ll follow the outcome of that with interest. By coincidence DH’s sister is also being tested, so within a few weeks I should be able to answer the question of whether it runs in the family.