A Blantyre mum has urged other parents to be aware of the signs of coeliac disease after her daughter was diagnosed with the condition.
Lauretta Carey says Millie (5) suffered symptoms as a baby, but has only recently received a diagnosis.
She said: “Millie was breast-fed but was always a windy baby, sometimes wriggling around for hours in her cot as a baby with wind.
“She started getting weaned at six months, and I noticed she sometimes had really bad nappies and again really struggled with wind and pain in her tummy.
“When Millie was 17 months old while we were on holiday in July, we noticed she was sick a few times. We put it down to the sun and being in the pool. But when we returned she seemed to be sick every few days. I took her to the doctors and he said it was probably a mix of being away and being in contact with other children at nursery. I accepted this and trusted that this was correct.”
However, Millie, who will be starting Udston Primary School in August, continued to suffer from symptoms.
Lauretta continued: “After another month, I returned to the doctors as the sickness was increasing, they said it might be stomach flu and prescribed her antibiotics. But they didn’t make any difference, I left it another couple of weeks before returning to the doctors again.
“This time they prescribed her a different antibiotic and said hopefully this should clear whatever was in her system. It didn’t make a difference, and the sickness was increasing. Every meal we had she was either sick at the table or shortly afterwards. We were constantly cleaning up sick which was draining us.
“I was constantly getting calls from her nursery at work to collect her as she had been sick. It got to the stage I couldn’t visit anywhere or anyone, afraid she would be sick.
“We actually started carrying a five-litre jug in a bag with us everywhere we went in order to catch the sick, she even held this in her car seat when we travelled.”
After Lauretta, and Millie’s dad Michael, persisted through the doctor, Millie was referred to a consultant at the University Hospital Wishaw.
She was eventually diagnosed with coeliac disease after a series of tests.
Lauretta said: “They tested her kidneys, thyroid, liver and mentioned coeliac disease to me. I had never heard of it, and started reading up on it. Some of the stories were just what we had been going through. Eventually it was confirmed as coeliac disease. I was relieved as at that point Millie was losing a pound and a half a week, she was literally wasting away in front of us and could no longer even lift herself out of bed, she had no energy at all.
“I thought that was it, I could get her straight onto a gluten-free diet but they required a second set of bloods to confirm. I got these done within a couple of weeks but it was heartbreaking knowing that we knew what was wrong, but still had to feed Millie gluten as you need to eat gluten in order to get true blood results.
“The first year we met with the dietician every three months, Millie got blood taken at these appointments which showed the levels were decreasing which meant we were doing our job in keeping her away from gluten.
“Her iron level and vitamin D levels were low so she was prescribed these. Now we meet a couple of times a year with the dietician to ensure she is keeping well.
“I am glad I didn’t take her off any food until we saw the hospital as if she hadn’t been eating gluten I might not have got a diagnosis.”
