Is Your Reaction To Being Glutened Always The Same?

[bluewhitesky]

My 6 year old son might have DH. I just wrote a novel about it here:

 

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/106990-possible-dh-6-year-old/

 

He has been gluten-free for 3 weeks and after about 10 days we noticed that his older lesions finally started healing and he even went a few days with no itching at all. We got a dermatologist appt much sooner than we expected (April 14 ) and we have decided to give him gluten again so the derm will see the rash as it truly is. We weren't sure how long it would take to flare up again. This is how it has gone so far:

 

Day one - out for dinner ate a hot dog with bun around 5:30pm, itching by 7:00, including itching on his irritated area that I iodined last week (see my original post...still feeling a little guilty for doing that to him). It hadn't itched at all since the initial day.

 

Day two - no gluten in am, afternoon extremely emotional crying at a birthday party because the game was "too hard", clingy and weepy for a good hour. Unlike him...but could have been the situation, who knows. Dinner, 2 pieces of bread, bedtime, itchy and scratching until his pj's were bloody

 

Day three (today) - 2 pieces of bread at brunch and no reaction. No itching, his body looks good, nothing angry looking. He says he forgot all about it today. Which is great of course, but I was surpised.

 

Could I be mistaken about the whole DH thing or is it normal for reaction times to vary?

[squirmingitch]

Thankfully, I have not been glutened since going gluten-free so I can't tell you about reaction times.

I can tell you that dh can ebb & flow eating gluten or not eating gluten. The stuff has a mind of it's own! Before I went gluten free, in the "early" days of the rash, I didn't know I had dh & therefore was eating gluten every day. Some days I got what I now know to be dh, & some days I did not. I can say that if someone with dh continues to eat gluten, then one day the rash will present & go nuts, bonkers, insane! I can also tell  you that even if one is strict gluten-free, the rash can come & go at will. It will flare whenever it darn well feels like it & it ebbs whenever it darn well feels like it. And this is what is so vexing about dh. You're stuck between a rock & a hard spot & it will drive you mad. I will flat out bet though that before his appt. on the 15th, he will flare again.

[dilettantesteph]

My reactions seem to be different depending of the amount of contamination I ingest.  With smaller amounts, it takes longer and the reactions are less severe.

[bluewhitesky]

Well, the itch is definitely back in force tonight. And the stinky gas has made a return. And some wild mood swings and anger that we haven't really seen before. 

[squirmingitch]

Sounds like you have your answer. Now you just have to get through it until the tests are done. Not an easy task for parents or your son.

 

(((((HUGS)))))

[bluewhitesky]

Sounds like you have your answer. Now you just have to get through it until the tests are done. Not an easy task for parents or your son.

 

(((((HUGS)))))

Thanks for the hugs, squirmingitch. Yep, I'm feeling really crappy about glutening him but it's making it all quite clear now.

[squirmingitch]

If it gets too, too bad then call the doc & ask to be seen right away. Perhaps the doc will dx on reaction as he's seen how your son is off gluten & now on gluten. Sometimes docs will dx that way when the gluten challenge makes the person so sick they deem it wise not to continue on the gluten. And there are quite a few people who never make it through the gluten challenge. Reactions to gluten being re-introduced after having been gluten-free even for a short time tend to be much worse than when the person had never stopped eating gluten. Once the body knows how things can be off gluten, the body then says Whoa!!!!! when given gluten again.