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[Phoebe]

My daughter (9 months old) has a family history of celiac and food allergies. I'm breastfeeding, so we're both currently dairy-free (otherwise she gets eczema) and mostly gluten-free (she doesn't react to traces in my diet, and there aren't any traces in her diet). We started eliminating wheat and oats when she was 5.5 months old (which cleared up the slimy green poop that I think was allergic colitis, and a persistent anal fissure).

She's otherwise healthy - a skinny little monkey (bounces btwn 3rd and 25th percentile weight for height, but she's always been 95th percentile or higher for height), but cheerful and generally well-looking.

Her pediatrician wanted to do bloodwork for celiac at her 6 month well baby visit, but at that point we'd just gotten the green poop and bloody diapers cleared up, and I didn't want to reintroduce gluten at the same time we were introducing solids.

The current plan is to try barley, and see if she tolerates me eating it. If she does, we'll try her eating it. If that goes well, we'll keep it up for 6 weeks, then do the bloodwork on both of us. If she doesn't tolerate the barley, then we'll stay gluten-free for awhile longer and reassess.

How much barley does she need to eat to get accurate test results?

Is there any point in testing her now, rather than doing dietary challenges periodically and then testing after age 2, to rule out transient gluten intolerance?

Anyone have any tasty recipes for making barley palatable for a baby? She can gum up pretty much anything that isn't a choking hazard, but prefers finger foods.

Thanks!

Phoebe