It's November!

Well, it's November 1st, which means the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge is over. It was great to do and I hope y'all learned a lot :). I'll still try to keep the blog updated with a post a day if possible, but may miss a day every so often.

Thought I'd post a message here that I posted on the ES website list regarding the recommended blood work and some explanations for why.

This list below is taken from Dr. Leichtman's website.

    * CBC every 6 months until 6 years of age. (Looking for leukemia)
    * T3, T4 and TSH every year for life. (Thyroid testing)
    * Atlantoaxial X-rays at 2 years of age especially in active children.
(Looking for atlantoaxial dislocation)
    * Metabolic Testing:
          o If working through a local lab only: Obtain serum levels of Vitamin A, iron, ferritin, zinc, selenium, and homocysteine, IgA tissue transglutaminase anitbody, endomyseal antibody.

I think the first several are pretty obvious as to why you would get them tested. The other ones though...

Vitamin A - to make sure it isn't too high, since it's a fat soluble vitamin.

Iron & Ferritin to make sure iron levels are good.

Zinc & Selenium to make sure there are no deficiencies.

Homocysteine to make sure it isn't too low. Although this can be a tricky thing to test, because you may not even be able to get it to a good level even though you test. It's so hard and so Dr. L isn't even routinely doing homocysteine testing anymore.

IgA tissue transglutaminase antibody & endomyseal antibody are for Celiac Disease screening.