Not sure if my daughter is becoming wheat intolerant

[tsr2]

For the last week my daughter has been complaining of stomach pains, particularly when eating bread, pizza and biscuits (US: Cookies).

I'm not sure how she/we came to notice the association with wheat, but when eating packed lunches at school, she said she was fine until she started a roll, but after a couple of bites of the roll she felt unwell. When eating regular cereals she didn't have her usual appetite and felt unwell, but she was fine with porridge.

She doesn't seem to have any issues other than nausea or stomach pain, where I would have expected more symptoms if it's a wheat/gluten allergy. I also wouldn't have expected quite such a sudden onset, but I don't really know if that's common or not. I've tried to find out what the onset of these allergies is usually like, but none of the fact sheets seem to cover that.

In the short term we're adapting, so she can have a gluten free diet for a while. If we reintroduce wheat later and it seems to make her ill again, we'll have to go for a full diagnosis, but I'm hoping it turns out not to be an issue with wheat/gluten.

[GFinDC]

Hi,

The onset of celiac symptoms can vary with people.  Actually, people may have no GI symptoms when diagnosed.  But they may have neurological, skin, or joint issues.

All celiac disease testing requires the person to be eating wheat daily for 2 to 8 weeks before the test.  The blood antibodies take the most time. the endoscopy takes less.   Stopping gluten before testing is a bad idea because symptoms can be worse when restarting gluten for testing.  Instead a doctor should be consulted for an immediate blood test while she is still eating gluten.

If she is celiac she may have trouble with dairy also.  Celiac destroys the villi lining of the small intestine that makes an enzyme called lactase that digests diary sugar.  That results in lactose intolerance.  She can go off dairy now as it it doesn't change the celiac test results.

Celiac tends to run in families so if she has it there may be other people in the family tree who have celiac or another AI (auto-immune condition).  The genes for celiac are near other IA condition genes.

[Scott Adams]

Yes, it’s time to get her a blood test for celiac disease, this article may be helpful. There are also inexpensive home test kits available.

 

[tsr2]

I've been resisting the notion that it's really linked to wheat. I was hoping that the apparent link was just coincidence but after a week without gluten, as soon as she ate a regular cookie, she was feeling poorly again.

I don't think it's celiac, but I could be wrong. It's time to start doing some tests and see what we can learn.

[Scott Adams]

Just keep in mind that she needs to be eating gluten daily for 4-6 weeks before blood tests, and continue eating it for any other tests.