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Hi everyone,

I'm a mom with a celiac 5 yr old boy.  My son has been gluten free for
11 months.  I do everything that I know to do to strictly adhere to the
diet.  I either make it myself from scratch, find it on a list, call the
companies, and check labels or my son doesn't have it.  He is very, very
good about his diet too.  I'm very certain he isn't "sneaking" or
anything.  His teachers and other family members have all said how good
he is about asking before he eats things, and I have very good
cooperation from him.  (I'm blessed with that, I know.)  I also have
separate butter dishes, jam, peanut butter, toasters, etc., anything
that could be cross-contaminated, we're careful with.  Now, having said
all that, here's my question.  We had a follow-up visit with the
pediatrician to see how he was doing, and she did the gliadin blood test
to see if we were doing good enough with the diet.  He was initially
diagnosed with the endomysial antibody test, so I have no way to compare
what he was from diagnosis.  But I'm at a loss as to why his IgG
antibodies were still "weakly positive".  This is what the results say:

GLIADIN Ab IgG        1.2
                                Unit: GIV

GLIADIN Ab IgA        0.2
                                Unit: GIV

Reference range:    Less than 0.9 GIV . . . . None Detected
                            0.9 - 1.1 GIV . . . . . . . . Indeterminant
                            1.2 - 1.6 GIV . . . . . . . . Weakly =
Positive
                            1.7 - 3.0 GIV . . . . . . . . Positive
                            Greater than 3.0 GIV . .  Strongly Positive

The doctor is telling us that she thinks he's still getting gluten from
somewhere for the IgG to still be "weakly positive" after 11 months.
However, I've visited with another mom of a celiac who said that the IgG
antibodies can stay in the system for up to 2 years, and she wouldn't be
concerned with a weakly positive result, especially if the IgA was
basically zero.

So, for all you parents out there who feel as responsible for your kids
health as I do, tell me what you know about this.  Did you have followup
blood tests after diagnosis, and what about these antibodies?  I feel
like I need to get to the bottom of it.  Either these antibodies are
"residual" antibodies, or my son is getting gluten from somewhere, and
I've got a lot of detective work to do.  The thought of that has brought
me to tears.  What have your doctors told you?

Thanks for your help,
Jan in Idaho