<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> My twelve year old son has had problems for several years where he got a stomach ache and 1-2 days later developed a cold and then stomach ache vanished. Late November, last year, the stomach ache appeared but did not go away. The pain is centered around the navel and the area is sensitive to pressure. We got an X-ray done and the diagnosis was that he had an ulcer. Several weeks of ulcer medication (cimetidine) did nothing. A number of blood and stool tests were run with no problems found. An ultrasound scan was done to see if there were any problems with spleen, kidneys, gall bladder bile duct etc. No problems were seen. He was then referred to a gastrointestinal specialist at Stanford Children's Hospital. This led to an endoscopy with biopsies. The endoscopy showed an inflamed swollen area of the duodenum. Associated testing ruled out giardia and helicobacter pylori as causes. The biopsy showed diffuse villi with flattening and considerable damage in the area examined. Eosinophilic gastroenteropathy was then considered as a possible cause. He was put on 800mg prednisone (a cortico steroid) in an attempt to reduce the inflammation and hopeully the pain. This did nothing after trying it for a couple of weeks. He was also moved to lactose-free milk at the same time. Next it was found that the wrong blood test had been run and another was done for anti-Gliadin antibodies (IgA I believe). This returned a 90% chance positive so the diagnosis was made for Celiac's. He has been on a gluten free diet for a month now and still on lactose-free milk. We have been quite careful -- avoided all manner of wheat/gluten but we have seen no improvements whatsoever. The specialist also had a CT scan done because some of the symptoms did not fit Celiac but the scan showed no abnormalities. We are frustrated at the lack of progress. Can anyone tell me whether we ought to have seen some improvement in a month of dietary change? So far as we can tell there has been zero change. Also can anyone suggest physicians in the San Francisco Bay Area who you respect and who might be good candidates for a second opinion given all the stuff we have already done? Our current doctors seem to have run out of options and we seem to be getting nowhere. Thanks in advance. Richard Ragan ([log in to unmask])