Pregnancy Question

[marcie]

My husband has Celiac, his mother as well. We're trying to have a baby, and I have questons about my diet.

Should I go gluten free? Any one who has had a child with a partner with celiac who could give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it.

[AndreaB]

Marcie,

That's a tough question. My immediate response would be go gluten free or at least gluten light. I am gluten intolerant and probably was during my last pregnancy but it wasn't until my son broke out with eczema around 2 months of age that I started down the road that has lead to that diagnosis from enterolab. He's 9 months now. Have you been gene typed? I would recommend gene testing through enterolab anyway, if not the panel for you, just to see. We did not have any obvious symptoms of intolerance but my husband is the only one that was tested that didn't have an active intolerance. He has 2 celiac genes though. I know it only takes one gene for celiac to possibly manifest itself and a child wouldn't necessarily be affected right away.

Hopefully others will jump in here that have experienced this.

[Guest cassidy]

I would think that if celiac doesn't run in your family you should be fine with consuming gluten. The problem of undiagnosed celiacs eating gluten is that their intestines are damaged from the gluten so their bodies aren't working well. I don't know exactly how babies get their nutrition from their moms but I think it is from the placenta and very far removed from you actually eating food. I don't see how you ingesting gluten if you don't have a problem with it could hurt a baby that may or may not have celiac.

There is a chance your baby could get it from your husband's family, so I would be aware of that when the baby is born. Maybe you will choose to limit gluten when breastfeeding and introducing it later for the baby. I'm pregnant now and I'm going to do research to see what is recommended.

[Michi8]

My husband has Celiac, his mother as well. We're trying to have a baby, and I have questons about my diet.

Should I go gluten free? Any one who has had a child with a partner with celiac who could give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it.

I don't see a reason for you to go gluten free if you aren't personally celiac. It will not affect whether the baby inherits the disease. OTOH, if you were eating a gluten free diet along with your husband already, there would be no reason to add gluten to your diet either.

It would be important, however, for a celiac mother to be gluten free during pregnancy as the ingestion of gluten would affect her body's ability to absorb the necessary nutrients for maintaining a health pregnancy.

Michelle

[MallysMama]

I don't think what you eat will harm your baby in any way. If your baby has the chance of getting Celiac, he could get it whether or not you eat gluten. I have Celiac...and when I was pregnant with my daughter I was in the habit of "cheating" all the time (didn't have strong reactions to it)...and so far, she's two and has no real symptoms of having Celiac. It's all about genetics....she won't get it unless she has the genes for it. How I ate had nothing to do with her chances of getting it later in life. If your hubby has the genes for Celiac...she has the chance of getting it no matter what. That may not be comforting right now... but I think you can eat whatever you feel is healthy for you and the baby (no allergies in question).