**5.2 Celiac disease (Case 7)**

A five year old boy presented to his primary care physician with pallor and was found to have a severe microcytic anemia. Stool was negative for occult blood. He was referred to a pediatric hematologist who diagnosed iron deficiency anemia. He had occasional complaints of abdominal pain but no vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. He had not lost any weight but had grown poorly over the past year, falling from the 60th to the 30th percentile for weight and the 50th to the 40th for height. He was referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist, where further studies were done, including an endoscopy showing villous atrophy with increased numbers of intraepithelial lymphocytes consistent with celiac disease. He was placed on a gluten free diet. Three months later his hemoglobin was normal and his weight had increased to the 50th percentile.
