<<Disclaimer:  Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

> My question... If the prognosis is that if you don't
> follow a celiac diet you would be a higher risk for long term effect
> ie. cancer, Crohns, etc., does that mean I am likely to get something
> of that nature?

At the American Celiac Society conference last June, Dr. Murray
addressed this point.  As I remember it, he said that it is similar to
the risks of lung cancer for a smoker:  The longer you smoke, and the
more you smoke each day, the larger the risk of cancer.  If you quit
smoking, the risk of cancer eventually goes down until it eventually
approaches that of a non-smoker.

So it is with gluten for a celiac.  If you are a celiac and consume
gluten for a number of years, you are at a higher risk of lymphoma.  Once
you go on a gluten-free diet, your risk of lymphoma will drop off until,
eventually, it approaches the same level as a non-celiac.

My understanding is that your 22-month-old child is not at a very high
risk because you started the gluten-free diet early in his life.  And if
you stay on a gluten-free diet, your risk will eventually drop, too.

I don't think that eating gluten puts you at a higher risk of Crohns
disease, but I'm not a doctor and could be wrong about that.

> One last item.  In reading this list it also seems that different
> countries allow different "gluten containing foods", ie.  wheat starch
> and vinegar.  If the disease is the same disease throughout the world,
> how can there be differences in the treatment of the disease?

As recent postings to this list have shown, there are different
opinions as to which foods are safe, for two reasons:  1) Some people
believe that a very low level of gluten/gliadin intake is okay, others do
not; and 2) Some people believe that all the gluten is removed during the
processing that extracts wheat starch, vinegar, etc. from a
gluten-containing grain; others do not.

Only you can decide what's right for you and your child.  My choice for
my two children has been to not trust anything from a gluten source, and
to strive for no gluten in their diets.  That does not mean this is the
"correct" thing to do, or that anyone else should follow my example.