Newly diagnosed celiac help

Hugs to you! This is a life-changing diagnosis and for all of the work you're putting into it, you should now feel good, right??  Sigh...you'll get there, really you will!!

Your villi are damaged, and likely other parts of your gut are inflamed/infected. This doesn't go away quickly.  You'll have to give it 6months +/-. My son was very much improved around 4 months and was still improving for months after that.  Your villi are where lactase is produced, the enzyme that breaks down lactose.  If you haven't already, you should eliminate foods with lactose or take a tablet (called "Lactaid" here in the US) with the enzyme you're missing. When your gut heals, this problem should go away - it's just temporary. Give it another few months of a strict GF diet and then try dairy with lactose again.

I'm not sure what the specialist is for - we were referred to the nutritionist right away and her office is in my son's GI doctor's practice, we just paid another co-pay at that appointment and she gave me more information.  If there are support groups in your area, please join!  Tell people about your condition and they may know others who have the same...it helps to connect with others! I've even found help in specialty grocery stores as some have CD or gluten intolerance. Stay on the strict GF diet and look for possible accidental ingestion and/or cross contamination. See about changing doctors if this one maintains his position while you continue to feel worse and not better...

Good luck to you! Please, keep us posted!

I've not got a diagnosis- currently doing a gluten challenge for an endoscopy. But from my own experience of going gluten free for 10 months prior to this and from all the reading I've done, I think it's fairly common to have an initial period where you may feel a bit awful, just while your body adjusts and repairs. I cannot see any rationale behind doing a gradual reduction in gluten- it's all or nothing with coeliac and the only way to get rid of your symptoms is a complete irradication of all gluten from your diet. 

My advice is...

1. Make sure you are 100% gluten free. This is bloody hard- every time I thought I'd nailed it, I'd get caught out again. But check everything. If in doubt, leave it out. Alcohol doesn't need to list whther it contains gluten so avoid anything that's not clear or has any has anything added to it like spices or flavouring (I got caught out with a spiced rum). I'd also advise you to just avoid eating out just now as people just don't know what they're doing. If you eat out- you're running a high risk of being glutened. Even when they say it's gluten free (e.g. my 'gluten free salad' contained couscous!). Also look at any supplements your taking- so many contain stuff they aren't supposed to. It might be worth stopping for a week to see if it's that? Also, a big thing to watch out for is cross contamination- are you getting gluten from preparing food in areas that have gluten? Shared toasters, butter, chopping boards etc..

2. Your body is repairing from gluten damamge so go easy on it. It's pretty delicate just now so give it lots of nutritious foods to help it heal. Things like bone broth, fermented cabbage and mineral rich veg can be great for your healing gut. I think eating as naturally as possible is a good way to help your body get itself back together again.

3. Have you considered other food intollerances? When I went gluten free, I had an initital massive improvement in my health but my stomach issues continued until I also cut out dairy. Apparently it's quite common to have a dairy intollerance at first as your stomach is healing. Maybe try cut it out for a while and see if it helps? Lots of people eventually managage to reintroduce dairy once their gut has healed. 

Good luck with it all. I hope you find some good health soon!