{"id":154,"date":"2007-04-16T16:31:35","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T15:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/?p=154"},"modified":"2016-04-21T18:46:24","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T17:46:24","slug":"so-take-a-quick-look-at-this-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/so-take-a-quick-look-at-this-chart\/","title":{"rendered":"So: take a quick look at this chart &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;ve been diagnosed as needing a gluten-free diet, and you&#8217;ve been following the diet for a while &#8211; what follow up tests should you expect?<\/p>\n<p>Our daughter goes annually now to see her paediatrician* for a checkup &#8211; it used to be every six months when she was younger, and newly diagnosed, but we&#8217;re old hands at this now, and she&#8217;s doing well.  <\/p>\n<p>We discuss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>her growth (height and weight) against the standard growth charts, to be sure she&#8217;s growing in all the right places and directions<\/li>\n<li>\nher eating and sleep patterns<\/li>\n<li>\nher general health and her rate of maturation (puberty)<\/li>\n<li>\nand yes, the dreaded poo questions.  Have you all seen the poo chart?  It has 7 photos of different stool samples, and she has to identify her &#8220;standard product&#8221;.  Fun for all the family to play &#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/stoolchart.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"stoolchart\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The aim should be to produce something like number 4!<\/p>\n<p>Then the doctor orders some tests &#8211; usually some blood tests to be sure that she is sticking to her diet and that everything is working OK, and a bone age scan.<\/p>\n<p>This last isn&#8217;t the same as a bone density scan (which I imagine you would need as an older person), but assesses how well her bones are growing against her chronological age.  In the &#8216;old days&#8217;, soon after diagnosis, her bones were several years behind her real age, but they seem to be catching up now.<\/p>\n<p>Then that&#8217;s it for another year.<\/p>\n<p>Other tests you might receive include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>blood tests for vitamin and mineral deficiencies<\/li>\n<li>thyroid screen &#8211; this is because coeliacs have a greater chance of getting an underactive thyroid, with weight gain, feeling tired, cold and depressed.  (An overactive thyroid &#8211; also possible &#8211; can cause weight loss)<\/li>\n<li>a bone density scan &#8211; to check for osteoporosis, a known risk for people who fail to absorb nutrition well.<\/li>\n<li>liver enzyme tests &#8211; just to check everything is working OK<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And of course any other tests that might be needed in your specific circumstances, such as lactose intolerance tests.<\/p>\n<p>Healing progress can be monitored by regular retests.  Children generally recover within a few months; adults may take several years.  I hope your recovery will be swift &#8211; and that you go back to scoring no.4 on the Bristol stool chart!<\/p>\n<p>*Here in the UK, the paediatrician is the consultant your child (0-16) is referred to if there is some specialist problem that your GP (general practitioner) can&#8217;t deal with.  The GP is the frontline family doctor, and the consultants are the secondline health providers based in hospitals.  Healthy children &#8211; or those with straightforward childhood illnesses &#8211; would never see a paediatrician.  My two other children haven&#8217;t, despite having had asthma, a heart murmur and broken limbs &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--adsense--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;ve been diagnosed as needing a gluten-free diet, and you&#8217;ve been following the diet for a while &#8211; what follow up tests should you expect? Our daughter goes annually now to see her paediatrician* for a checkup &#8211; it used to be every six months when she was younger, and newly diagnosed, but we&#8217;re old [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-diagnosis","8":"category-living-gluten-free","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.free-from.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}