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Hi, this is my first post to the list, hope I do it correctly.

I have a 5 1/2 year old daughter who we think has celiac disease.  She
has been on a GF diet for 5 months now.  Her diagnosis was based on the
blood serum antibody tests. (We decided not to do the biopsy because
when we did it 2 yrs ago it came back negative and our current
gastroenterologist told us the disease is distributed in a patchy
fashion and there is no guarantee you'll get a positive result even if
one has the disease.)  We just retested the antibodies which  are
significantly down (one was not detected at all, the other was much much
lower), she gained weight, she is much happier and less irritable, and
she is making amazing developmental progress.  I have a couple issues I
would like some input on.

First of all, my daughter also has developmental delays (gross motor,
fine motor, adaptive and social skills) and sensory integration
disorder.  I have found some info. linking gluten intolerance with
developmental disabilities but I would like to hear from real families
about this.  I believe that if she does in fact have celiac disease she
has had it since before she was born.  That gives her 5+ years of
malnutrition and 5+ years of gluten proteins in her body affecting her
nervous system.  I'm not surprised she would have developmental delays
as a result.

Second, she has some lingering problems with diarrhea.  She has it much
much less than she did before we started the GF diet, but it still crops
up.  We are very very strict with her diet, so I don't think she is
getting any gluten.  She was negative for lactose intolerance and
negative for other food allergies (dairy, corn, soy, nuts, eggs, citrus,
etc.).  I have heard that it can take sometimes 6 months to a year for
the gut to heal after being on a GF diet.  Any input about this?

Thanks!! I'll summarize my resposes.

Nancy