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Many thanks to those that responded.  I did not get an answer on which
thyroid test to ask for - but did get several other suggestions on how to
improve the growth rate of a gf child.  Many thanks to the folks at CSA who
offered to send my question to the dietician on their advisory panel that
mentioned this at the 2001 CSA conference in MPLS.  Responses listed below.

Summary Points:  1)  Not all celiac children experience rapid growth once
gf  2)  there are other growth-related conditions that can be considered if
the child is not progressing well  3) additional protein and zinc were
often mentioned as helpful supplements

My daughter at the age of 5 was diagnosed with celiacs also due to her
short stature.  That was the chief complaint that we had.  After 5 years on
the diet
, and she does not cheat, we noticed that she was well but still
thin and short.  She ate alot we just don't know where it went!  Her
endochrinologist suggested testing her for growth hormone deficiency.  That
is the reason she wasn't experiencing the catch up growth that everyone
expected, she was deficient in growth hormone.  She does the shots as
treatment and it has made a huge difference, in the past 12 months on the
shots she had grown 4 inches and 12 pounds.  It is expensive and alot of
people are opposed to treatment.  I do not know why.  It has worked well
for us and she has no side effects.  So, there are many reasons that
children don't always experiece the catch up growth that is expected upon
compliance to the diet.

I hope you'll share your findings with me as this is the number one issue
on my mind lately. My son James, age 11, was diagnosed as a baby as celiac.
Despite a strict gf diet,
despite being on synthroid for his thyroid, and
despite the fact that I'm 5' 8"+ and his father is 5'11"+, he is around 3rd
percentile for height. We had formal growth hormone testing done by an
edocrinologist in late December, and it showed that James produces
sufficient growth hormone (which, in most kids suggests constitutional
growth delay, or being a "late bloomer"). However, he is deficient in the
IGF protein that allows the cells to use the growth hormone. There isn't
much data on this. I am now in the process of learning about all this and
seeing if there are any next steps.

My duaghter has diabetes and celiac. There is a link between autoimmune
diseases. A diabetic child should be tested for thyroid once a year. I
assume the same should be true for a celiac child especially if they have
any thyroid symptoms. Good luck and change doctors if you need to. I
listened to a doctor that act
ually patted me on the back and told me I was
a nervous mother when my daughter actually had celiac disease. Once I found
a doctor that would do the tests she needed, she was diagnosed.

Are you giving your son vitamins. I know thiamine can stimulate the
appetite and I thought had something to do with growth.

Do you think your son gets enough sources of food with zinc. I put in zinc
and short stature in the PubMed data base. There are many articles listed
re zinc and the lack of it and its relationship to short stature. There are
also references to celiac/zinc/short stature.
One of the best sources for zinc is from meat and I think beans. Some
children don't especially like meat. Excess intake of milk, due to the
calcium, can also compete with and interfere with the absorption of zinc.

My son was diagnosed at age 11.  He has been strictly gf for 8 years, and
at age 19 is only 5' 6" tall.  His broth
er who does not have celiac is 6'
2".  My son never cheats on his diet, yet has appeared not to have reached
his full growth potential

My daughter caught up on her growth by growing 12 inches in 1 year in
Jr. High, she's 5' 10" now.  My son was always a "little kid" in his class,
additionally he had a late birthday for starting school.  He didn't
reach his full 6' 2" until he was in college.  Don't give up yet.

My son was diagnosed with Celiac at age 7. Almost 3 years ago.  He was 43
pounds and 43 inches high.  He was always in the 10th percentile of the
weight and height on the charts.  He did not gain much height after he was
diagnosed  and has gained weight slowly.  He now weighs 60 pounds and is 54
inches tall. Compared to other kids in his class he is still short and I
wonder about that myself. I have thyroid problems but he doesn's show any
thyroid symptoms. He is growing in height and ga
ining weight and unless his
GI doctor is concerned or our family doctor I may not worry about it.

Her only symptoms were being a very slow and picky eater, occassional
stomach aches, and short stature and slow weight gain (5th percentile).
Since May, she has gained about 6.5 lbs and about 1.5 inches, but again,
staying on her growth curve at the 5th percentile.  I have been praying for
more dramatic results, but I am happy that she is feeling better and is
eating with more enthusiasm!

My daughter, diagnosed 18 months ago at age 10, short stature got us to the
Endocrinologist but she had many other symptoms for about 3 years. She has
been GF for 18 months, gained about 24lbs and grown 5 inches, not enough
in my book... most of the stories i have heard are that  many children do
NOT make up all the height they lost. But some do. We just had a follow up
with the Endo doc and he did another round of c
omplete blood work including
basic thyroid and full hormone levels. He feels that the 3 years we lost,
due to misdiagnosis will not be fully made up.......i am very disappointed
but am hoping that she will grown enough to be over 5 feet.....I do not
want to be the voice of the negative but i am coming to the conclusion that
i may need to be more realistic.

My daughter was diagnosed because of short stature also -this was at her
regular physical when she was 10. She had no other symptoms but after
several other tests ( bone age scan  and biopsy) the conclusion was
Celiac.  She is now 13 and is still below the 10th percentile for height
and just above for weight.  My side of the family is small though (probably
quite a few celiacs also though).  We went on an extremely conservative GF
diet -no"commercial foods", fast foods, ect-basically whole foods only.She
did "make-up" growth however meaning that when we d
id the bone age scan the
first time she was 26mths delayed (had the bones of an eight year old) and
now her bone age scan is normal -which is good and bad they say.  Good
because she made up growth and is now on target but bad because she is
still so small and already entering puberty so a lot more rapid growth is
not likely and she will probably only be about 5 ft as an adult.  As far as
the thyroid test goes, my daughter was tested for other things like that
but I don't know the test name.  If you can get a refferal to a pediatric
Endocrinoligist, they would test for all of those possibilities and they
would also be the ones to see about growth hormone therapy if that has been
brought up to you.  My daughter's ped suggested we check into that but
after thorough reseach felt that it was not for us. You may feel
differently.  Just remember that children grow at all different
rates and schedules, especially boys...some g
et a growth spurt before jr
high, others don't until they are 18 or 19.  It is a hard thing to
accurately predict.  If you do a search online about "growth hormone
therapy"  it offers a lot of information about how kids grow and also the
different causes for delayed growth -may offer the name of the thyroid test
there also.Best to you and you family.

My 4 year old son now 5 went from the 80th percentile down to the 25th
percentile. He had all of the thyroid tests done - they all came back
negative. He had been gluten free for almost 2 years but we were still
having problems with his growth. We ended up finding a specialized doctor
who put him on vitamin IV's with a multi-mineral as well. We did this twice
a week from the end of August to Dec. He grew 7 inches in three weeks. The
doctor explained to me, that this boost in vitamins and minerals that he so
needed helped heal his stomach faster so he would be able to absorb h
is
nutrients better. He just wasn't getting what he needed to grow. Since
then, he has been taking 1000mg of Calcium per day along with a Vit D pill
as well. (He is allergic to dairy and does not drink milk) We take all
Freeda gluten free vitamins. I know this all sounds strange, but we were
getting no where with his pediatrician, who told us that maybe this was
his "normal" percentage now. I was reading a book that skimmed on all of
this and called the doctor in NY who sent me to a doctor in San Francisco
who sent me to the doctor who we finally went to in our neighborhood.
It really helped and turned my son around.

Genetics count too, and diet. Is he getting plenty of protein
and good fats? Calcium? I'm sure you are watching his
diet well, but the current thoughts on "high-grain/low protein"
diets are not really good if you want to increase his height.
The folks in Asian countries seem to have
 been quite healthy on
their high-rice diets, but also shorter -- the current generation
of Asians in the US, who get more protein, are taller.  He also may have
residual problems with absorption, and/or a problem with casein (which can
also affect absorption and growth) and/or eggs or soy.

Our celiac son is 6 1/2 years old and has been strictly GF since age 15
months. He is still tiny -- 40 pounds and about 39 inches tall. He is
in
1st grade and he is just about the smallest in the school, including
kindergarteners. He has never gone over the 10th percentile as well,
although he has improved since his days on the bottom of the chart.

At his 6 yr. old check up last June, he had grown 3 inches in the
previous year, but that was monumental to the increments he had been
growing. We have talked at length with his celiac MD and pediatrician about
growth hormones, but for now have decided to put i
t off. In talking about
this testing, we were told he would have his thyroid tested as well,
because the results of that test would affect how the MDs look at the
results of the growth hormone testing. The 3" he grew last year was
wonderful, but I'd love to know if there is anything else that we can be
looking at, especially if he doesn't have to go through growth hormone
testing and possibly shots.

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