Celiac Disease And Breastfeeding

[taneil]

I read a study that said that a baby that is breastfeed for more than 2 months has 2/3 less chance of developing Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance. I would like to find out what everyone's experience on this is.

[mat4mel]

My 2 yr old dd with Celiac was breastfed until just recently, only because I am 27 weeks pregnant and it is uncomfortable. She never received any formula. We introduced solids around 6-7 months but she never ate MUCH until 1 1/2 or so (just preferred to nurse). I have two other kids, the first was mostly bottlefed b/c of my ignorance and my 2nd was breastfed until she was 2 1/2, but was supplemented with formula between 6 months and a year because I was pregnant and had a decreased milk supply. Anyway, the 2 yr old is the only one I am sure has celiac, which is funny b/c she is the one that had the MOST breastmilk! But I wonder how much worse she could have been if I didn't breastfeed her. I am definitely breastfeeding my next child, due in August, and am now gluten free and will stay gluten free atleast while I am breastfeeding (maybe longer, since we don't know where the celiac gene is coming from-- me and/or dh)

Mel

[Connie R-E]

My first son was 100% breastfed and that was how we discovered celiac!

He had such bad colic, I had to find out what was wrong. I heard he would outgrow it, but no one could tell me why he was colicky...

So, thinking what was going in was coming out and why?, I omitted wheat and then gluten from my diet and he stopped being colicky-period! Also, his ear infections stopped.

Now, he is anaphylactic to wheat and has celiac reactions to gluten.

Our second is also breastfed and won't have gluten for a very long time as we don't keep it in the house!

Connie

[kaylee]

I am currently in the process of weaning my 19-month-old toddler with celiac. He, too, as in the previous post, was incredibly irritable almost from birth. And, unlike what kept being said, he did NOT grow out of it.

Looking back, two things stand out: first, the lack of help from the pediatrician was quite extraordinary, really. I went to her a number of times very distressed for not understanding my son's virtually constant bad mood and progressively worsening bouts of screaming after we introduced solids. Her systematic response was that he was teething and that babies cry. She clearly took me for a highly neurotic, fussing first-time mother (She finally agreed there was a problem when he reached about 15 months, and suggested acid reflux medication, which helped a bit with the screaming).

The other thing is, that unlike you, Connie, I did not think to eliminate gluten, but I did try eliminating just about everything else. How did I miss it?? That's like what we hear about craving what's worst for us in food allergies. I stopped dairy, soy, oranges, peanut butter, caffeine, and various other things and saw strictly zero change in his symptoms.

When it finally dawned on me that we should try eliminating wheat and we saw immediate spectacular change, it still took me a few days to realize I had to stop it too. Now that we've both been gluten free my son is almost constantly happy - a pure delight to be around. This changes dramatically with ingestion of the slightest trace of gluten now - including when I have it and it passes through the breastmilk. I made a real mistake last week and ate some (well, quite a bit, I'm afraid) dried pineapple rings. We paid for that for a good five days of nonstop whining. Dried fruit I think is often dusted with wheat. I just thought, and I will no longer "just think" this, that the amounts present would be so small that once metabolized through me they would be inoffensive. So much for that idea....

I don't know yet if I have celiac myself. I have a number of symptoms and related conditions, but I've been off gluten for several months now and can't be tested until I've stopped breastfeeding and gone back to eating gluten for the 6 weeks required. In the meantime, we all feel pretty good on this diet and I don't regret this prolonged breastfeeding experience at all. My son went through the wringer with what I now know was constant pain for months and the close contact has been a beautiful part of our relationship. If the breastfeeding while eating gluten was a bad thing - well, obviously I feel badly about that, but I didn"t realize, no one else realized including the doctor, and I guess I'm mainly just glad that we did figure out the problem quite early on, that we went through several months but not years of unexplained symptoms.

Wow, that feels good to say all that!

Best,

Kaylee

[mpeel]

Samantha is still nursing at 4 years old. I am not completely gluten-free but she does not react to the gluten I ingest. However, I am not sure she is still getting milk. She was tentatively diagnosed a year ago.

Michelle

mom to Beth, 7 1/2 and Sam, 4

[gf4life]

I breastfed all three of my children between 17-19 months each. They did not seem to have any delayed growth or diarrhea problems during this time, but once they were on solids and getting gluten in their diets their growth suddenly dropped from the 95th percentile to the 5th percentile. My daughter had some projectile vomiting and until going gluten-free this last spring she had reflux problems. My middle boy had a severe bout of diarrhea that caused him to severely drop weight, and he has had skinny legs and thighs ever since, and is very short for his age. They all did seem to be a little gassy during their infancy, but they certainly couldn't have been described as colicky, since I've seen babies with colic who were much worse than mine were...

I know that the doctors never would have tested them, had I not insisted. I am so glad I did. Everyone is thriving now that we are all gluten-free!!

God bless,

Mariann

[TrixieMom]

My son is 14 months and has been diagnosed with celiac disease for a month. I breast feed until he was 12 months old - but he had symptoms from birth - with bm etc.(I ate gluten never thinking.) It was only at about 8 months that he started dropping in the weight chart - he is just below the 10% now - down from about 75%.

Trixie

[eternity]

My son is 16 months old and still breastfeeding. He was diagnosed with celiac last week. He is gluten-free and I am eating a gluten-free diet also so that he can continue nursing.