My Son Throws Up Rice Flour, Could This Be Celiac Disease?

[melf]

My son is 11 monthes old, we started him on rice cereal at 4 monthes, and it made him sick. We initially thought is was the flu and tryed a couple of more times, which ended up with him throwing up. We have tryed oatmeal, same thing. Formula makes him sick as well. I guess I am confused, because alot of the gluten-free food has rice flour in it which I know will make my son sick. I only just found out about Celiac Disease 2 days ago so I am still trying to figure out if this is what he could possibly have. We just tryed cheerios a couple of weeks ago and he got sick on those. He is only eating fruits and veggies at this point and since he can't keep formula down(not even soy) he is strictly breastfed. Does this sound like Celiac Disease even with the reaction to rice flour? Do other people with this disease have problems with rice? Or does my son have another problem? Any help would be appreciated, I would like to be well informed before I take this to my docotor who has dismissed my concerns so far.

Thank You

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Hi,

Celiac disease would only affect your little one if he is eating anything with gluten--wheat, oats (which you said he did try), rye, and barley. Does the rice cereal have barley malt in it?

He is not throwing up the fruits and vegies, right?

There are a lot of possibilities here. He could be sensitive to gluten, and sensitive to rice as well. Or it could be a swallowing/gag kind of thing, especially if you make the cereal as thick as you would for a grown-up (with 9-month-olds, it's best to make it really, really liquidy. And what are you mixing it with? Breast milk would be best, of course.

I think any child under 18-24 months is too young for cheerios--they can be a choking hazard, and it's not like they need cheerios to survive. Rice cereal might be overrated, too! And no 4-month-old NEEDS rice cereal, and most 4-month-olds can't properly digest it , anyway.

Can he keep breast milk down if it's fed to him in a bottle or cup? The reason I ask is that it might be the method of delivery that's causing him to barf up the formula, although it's more likely that he just can't tolerate the formula. Good for you for sticking with the breastfeeding, by the way!

HOw is his growth pattern? Is he staying on track for both height and weight? How often does he nurse? Does he react to foods you eat?

Unfotunately, most of us here have had the same experience of having our concerns dismissed by the doctors. Go with your gut instincts--if you think something is wrong, it very likely is.

Best of luck, and I'm sure others will chime in with lots of advice, too!

[dahams04]

If you are breastfeeding him it could be anything you are eating. Not neccasarily gluten. Try to watch what you are eating and see if it corrosponds with him throwing up. What you eat and drink takes about 3-4 hrs to get to your milk , so gage it by that. Hope you get your answers. just my 2 cents but all 3 of my kiddos started cherrios at about a yr old if not sooner. (broken in half if needed). Anyway good luck to you.

[April in KC]

Are we related?

My third son is 10 months old, mostly breastfed, and is having some of the same problems. He "reacts" to all grains, not just the gluten ones. Rice and corn included. Oatmeal cereal was the first one he threw up, but then he wouldn't touch rice cereal again after that. We stopped trying to feed him cereals, and I started to try to figure it out through MY diet (still nursing), using skin reactions / eczema to guide the way. Through a very (VERY) long elimination trial (with many false starts), I found that gluten was indeed part of the problem, but so were corn and rice. By the way, his total and allergen-specific IgE levels were not elevated when we tested him at 6.5 months. He had a mild positive (they think false positive) skin prick test reaction to rice.

Does your son get skin reactions? Mine gets weepy eczema (sometimes it bleeds). He got hives along with the first oatmeal reaction, and hives with some subsequent rice exposures. I know that hives doesn't really scream "Celiac", but if you read on, you'll see we have reasons to implicate Celiac as at least PART of the picture.

Re. formula - We had the same issue with formulas causing problems (1 oz. trial of various formulas caused skin rashes and bum rashes, but luckily no puking). Corn was in most of them. Now we're still nursing, but he's taking some Neocate formula every day. His dipes aren't as solid as I'd like, but he doesn't seem to be in pain, and his skin is getting as close to "clear" as I've seen it since he was three months old.

My infant son helped me find MY Celiac disease. One of the food rotations I did for him had me eating a lot of pasta, and we both got very symptomatic (you can read about it in one of my first posts). I have positive blood tests. I just had my endoscopy done earlier today. My GI thinks I have it--I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks.

The baby's reactions also helped me suspect Celiac disease in my 6-year-old (since proven by positive blood tests, TTG, AGA, etc.). He is now being seen by a pediatric GI.

It ALSO helped me find gluten intolerance / the beginning of Celiac in my 3-year-old middle son. He tested negative by bloodwork (common for younger kids), but positive by Enterolab stool testing. He also has the common Celiac genetics, HLA - DQ2.

So...while it remains to be seen if my infant son REALLY has Celiac, I think the answer is yes, he does. It's at least part of the picture. I don't know why he is also sensitive to other foods. I have some theories (leaky gut). Did I mention my 6-year-old is highly allergic to peanuts (causes anaphylaxis)? My guess is that the gut was leaky from Celiac (look up "zonulin"), and his leaky gut allowed him to become allergic to other things.

Back to my infant...he does tolerate potatoes -- I use red-skinned potatoes with the skins removed, baked in with a simple pot roast of beef, carrots, potatoes, onions and a bay leaf.

If you're trying to eliminate gluten from his diet (or yours), beware hidden sources of gluten like "barley malt" (it's in almost all the cereals, including corn flakes).

I've rambled too much, but I'll be happy to talk more about what we've tried.

April

[Fiddle-Faddle]

My second son had the weeping, blistering eczema. It was traced to the vaccines he received at 4 months (suddenly appeared within 24 hours of the shots, he got sent to a dermatologist who took one look and said, "this is a drug reaction."). Our pediatrician told me not to give him anything but breastmilk until it went away. By the time he was a year old, I just couldn't produce enough to keep up with him (he was over 20 pounds, and drinking roughly 64 ounces a day, and I was exhausted), so I reluctantly started him on tofu cubes (he was not soy sensitive), oatmeal (didn't know about gluten back then), salmon, sweet potatoes, bananas, etc. HIs eczema got no worse, and gradually improved til it was only affecting the inside of his elbows instead of his whole body.

At one point, I did go off wheat and dairy to see if it was affecting him through my milk, and it didn't seem to. But when I went off gluten a year ago, the rest of the family became gluten-lite--and his eczema finally and suddenly cleared up.

While he never threw up, I can't help thinking we must ALL be related!!!!

Anyway, this is a good opportunity for me to suggest that you only let him have one vaccine at a time, and hold off on whatever ones you think might be appropriate to hold off on until you have some time to do some thorough research on vacccines and autoimmune disorders, if you haven't already done so.

[janelyb]

I would suggest getting some allergy testing done.....I have a friend whose baby is reacting to every grain and a ton of other stuff too. She also reacts to formula and they figured out it was the corn. Pretty much all formulas have corn in them. Is he having any reactions when he gets your milk too???

I would get him into getting skin tested for the high food allergens.

[chrissy]

is he actually sick, or is he just throwing up? kids can have reflux and do alot of throwing up without being sick. it seems strange, (but fortunate) that he would react so badly to these foods, but not be bothered by them in your milk----but maybe you are on an elimination diet??

allergy testing could help, but not necessarily, since the testing is not particularly accurate in a child that young.

it would probably be a good idea to see a pediatric GI.

[melf]

is he actually sick, or is he just throwing up? kids can have reflux and do alot of throwing up without being sick. it seems strange, (but fortunate) that he would react so badly to these foods, but not be bothered by them in your milk----but maybe you are on an elimination diet??

allergy testing could help, but not necessarily, since the testing is not particularly accurate in a child that young.

it would probably be a good idea to see a pediatric GI.

He will throw up about 2-3 hours after he has had something with flour in it. The exception is when we only give him a little bit over time. The first time with the rice cereal he was just getting alittle everyday for about a week and finally he started throwing up for about 24 hours off and on. But every other time it is always within 2-3 hours after eating something with flour, or formula. He does fine with my milk, he doesn't even spit up. When we tryed the cheerios we only gave him 2 the first day, 3 the next and I tryed 4 the third day but he would only eat 3, he didn't throw up until later that night and then he was fine so that indicated to me it was the cheerios.

[Juliebove]

My daughter used to throw up all the time! Turns out she is allergic to wheat, gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts and bananas. I was breast feeding her but not producing enough milk so no matter what formula I made for her, she was allergic to it.

Question about the cereal though. Were you making it with forumula or breast milk? Or did it come prepared in the jar? Could be something else in the cereal and not the cereal itself. As for the Cheerios, they contain a variety of ingredients, so he could be reacting to any one of the things that is in it. I do think it would be a good idea to see an allergist. One problem with him being 11 months though is that there are a lot of things he has not eaten yet. For an allergy test to be effective, he must have eaten the food at least once. For instance, he could be allergic to shellfish, but if he has never eaten shellfish, the test is going to come out negative. So he may need to have the test repeated as he gets older. Rice allergies can happen, but they are less common than allergies to other foods.

[gfp]

If you are breastfeeding him it could be anything you are eating. Not neccasarily gluten. Try to watch what you are eating and see if it corrosponds with him throwing up. What you eat and drink takes about 3-4 hrs to get to your milk , so gage it by that. Hope you get your answers. just my 2 cents but all 3 of my kiddos started cherrios at about a yr old if not sooner. (broken in half if needed). Anyway good luck to you.

Its worth just repeating this... your AgA anti-bodies are transmitted in your milk...