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Support for families with celiac disease at Seattle Children's

For parents of children who suffer from celiac disease, eating gluten free food is just a small part of keeping their kids healthy.

Now a new program is supporting families dealing with this diagnosis.

Celiac disease is an auto immune condition where gluten (wheat, barley, and rye) stimulates an immunological response causing inflammation and damage to the intestines. The most common treatment for celiac disease includes cutting out gluten out of your diet.

But sometimes that's not enough and recovery can be slow with a lot of learning curves. The Greenstein family said their daughter Kyla was so sensitive she kept getting sick even after they cut out gluten.

The Greenstein's found out that certain hair shampoo's and hand sanitizers caused an inflammation. Even going to a playground could set off a reaction if Kyla met crumbs on playground equipment.

To help families like the Greenstein's, Seattle Children's has developed a celiac disease program. Patients can connect with doctors and dieticians as well as other families to share stories.

"We think there's an opportunity to organize care much better and develop better resources for families and helped develop community going forward," says Dr. Dale Lee, Gastroenterologist and celiac disease program director.

The Greensteen family had to figure out Kyla's issues by trial and error. Now they hope to share their experience with other families through the celiac program at Seattle Children's.

The celiac disease program at Children's is the only one of its kind in the Northwest. It includes clinic visits twice per month, once in Seattle and in Bellevue. Celiac disease is very common and under diagnosed.

If you are concerned talk to your pediatrician about doing a screening test for celiac disease. It's a very simple blood test, it's inexpensive and it's very accurate.


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