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Varied Symptoms of Celiac Disease
Posted: April 1, 2006
Celiac disease affects people differently. Symptoms may occur in the digestive system, or in other parts of the body. For example, one person might have diarrhea and abdominal pain, while another person may be irritable or depressed. In fact, irritability is one of the most common symptoms in children.
Symptoms of celiac disease may include one or more of the following:
- Gas
- Recurring abdominal bloating and pain
- Chronic diarrhea
- Pale, foul-smelling, or fatty stool
- Weight loss / weight gain
- Fatigue
- Unexplained anemia (a low count of red blood cells causing fatigue)
- Bone or joint pain
- Osteoporosis, osteopenia
- Behavioral changes
- Tingling numbness in the legs (from nerve damage)
- Muscle cramps
- Seizures
- Missed menstrual periods (often because of excessive weight loss)
- Infertility, recurrent miscarriage
- Delayed growth
- Failure to thrive in infants
- Pale sores inside the mouth, called aphthous ulcers
- Tooth discoloration or loss of enamel
- Itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis
A person with celiac disease may have no symptoms. People without symptoms are still at risk for the complications of celiac disease, including malnutrition.
The longer a person goes undiagnosed and untreated, the greater the chance of developing malnutrition and other complications. Anemia, delayed growth, and weight loss are signs of malnutrition. Malnutrition is a serious problem for children because they need adequate nutrition to develop properly.
Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
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