Hi. My 21 month old son has been having problems for quite awhile with many malabsoption type symptoms. He has had chronic foul smelling fatty stools, along with fatigue, abdominal pain, weight loss, and occasional vomiting. His gastroenterologist has been suspecting a few things including cyctic fibrosis, celiac disease, and pancreatic insufficiency. He had the sweat test done last month and it was a 37. My question is, how accurate are they? We live in a small town and he had it done at a hospital here that doesn't do many sweat tests very often. I heard they are only as good as the person who is doing it. Is that really true? I worry that becuase the lab tech hasn't done many, that it may not have been done right. But I am also afraid to ask to do another one in fear of looking like a paranoid parent. What would you suggest?

Also, I forgoet to mention. My son has recurrent fevers about twice a month that really spike up for a few days or so(102 or higher). Is that common with cyctic fibrosis?

thanks for your help.

rhyanen

As far as I know, the test is accurate. However, my husband and I live in Las Vegas and the hospital that tested our daughter does this test a lot. Our daughter, now 22 months, was diagnosed at 10 weeks of age without any symptoms. I had her tested before she had any symptoms and also felt like a paranoid mother. I had her tested because she wheezed a little after I fed her and I looked up wheezing in babies on the Internet. A CF site came up and I looked at the symptoms. One of the symptoms was salty skin. I licked her head and it was salty...that is why I had her tested.

You may want to test your child’s skin for a salty taste. Hope this helps and wish you the best of luck!!!