Catch-up growth after the introduction of a gluten-free diet in children with celiac disease.

The rhythm of nutritional recovery in 11 children with celiac disease after the introduction of a gluten-free diet was studied. The mean age of the patients at the moment of the diagnosis was 2.8 +/- 1.2 years and they were followed up for a period of 3.4 +/- 1.9 years. The nutritional status was evaluated by the utilization of the following parameters: the weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height. It was verified that none child was well nourished at the moment of the diagnosis and during the evolution 9 of them reached a complete recovery of their nutritional status for the weight in a mean period of time of 5.8 +/- 2.7 months; 5 of these children remained well nourished during the follow-up, 3 for 33 months and 1 for just a month. The other 2 children were initially classified as PCM II and turned to PCM I. The height-for-age index revealed that only 6 children had recovered from malnutrition and only 4 remained like this during all the follow-up. The other 2 children suffered nutritional aggravation and turned to be PCM I, but after a mean time of 18.4 months both resumed the rhythm of growth. Nutritional dwarfsism in 45.45% and chronic evoluted malnutrition in 54.55% were the patterns of malnutrition observed in this group of patients.