Digestive Health Celiac Disease Symptoms Can Celiac Disease Cause Short Stature? By Nancy Lapid twitter linkedin Nancy Ehrlich Lapid is an expert on celiac disease and serves as the Editor-in-Charge at Reuters Health. Learn about our editorial process Nancy Lapid Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Robert Burakoff, MD, MPH on March 23, 2020 linkedin Robert Burakoff, MD, MPH, is board-certified in gastroentrology. He is the vice chair for ambulatory services for the department of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, where he is also a professor. He was the founding editor and co-editor in chief of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Learn about our Medical Review Board Robert Burakoff, MD, MPH Updated on October 21, 2020 Print Should every short stature child be tested to see if he or she has celiac disease? The answer, according to many medical researchers, is a resounding "yes." Andrew Rich / Getty Images People are considered to be of short stature if they're among the shortest 3 to 5% of the population. Short stature can sometimes be normal, but sometimes it can be related to a medical problem — and it's increasingly being recognized that short stature can be a symptom of celiac disease. In fact, it can sometimes be the only symptom of celiac disease. In the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, doctors in India who studied children with short stature reported that 15% of the children had celiac disease. Indeed, the doctors discovered that celiac disease was the single most common cause of short stature in the children in this particular study. In the 1990s, Italian researchers who studied a group of children with short stature found that 59% of them had celiac disease. Celiac disease had already been linked to short stature in earlier studies of children in Italy, as well as in studies in Brazil and Iran. None of the children with celiac disease and short stature in any of these studies had any gastrointestinal symptoms of celiac disease. What This Means for You In every study on this topic, researchers came to similar conclusions, namely: Short stature can sometimes be the only symptom of celiac disease in children.Short children should be tested for celiac disease, even if they have no gastrointestinal symptoms. If your child is of short stature (or you are yourself), talk to a doctor about getting tested for celiac disease. Although confirmation of celiac disease would require a biopsy, a variety of blood tests (including genetic screening) can be done first to help decide whether a biopsy is called for. Encouragingly, it's been found in some cases that when celiac disease is the cause of short stature, a gluten-free diet can be successful in improving a child's final height. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Following a gluten-free diet can be challenging. We're here to help. Sign up and receive our free recipe guide for delicious gluten-free meals! Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Cacciari E, Salardi S, Lazzari R, et al. Short Stature and Celiac Disease: A Relationship to Consider Even in Patients With No Gastrointestinal Tract Symptoms. J Pediatr. 1983;103:708-11. Bhadada S, Bhansali A, Kochhar R, et al. Does Every Short Stature Child Need Screening for Celiac Disease? J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2007 Dec 13 [Epub ahead of print] Bonamico M, Sciré G, Mariani P, et al. Short Stature as the Primary Manifestation of Monosymptomatic Celiac Disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1992;14:12-6. Queiroz MS, Nery M, Cançado EL, et al. Prevalence of Celiac Disease in Brazilian Children of Short Stature. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2004;37:55-60. Salardi S, Cacciari E, Volta U, et al. Growth and Adult Height in Atypical Coeliac Patients, With or Without Growth Hormone Deficiency. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2005;18:769-75.