8 Month Old, Possibly W/ Celiac Disease?

[Rainphire]

This is something that has come up on two threads. and one poster wrote on another thread

Isn't it true that breastfed babies often have a delayed onset of celiac.

This is exactly why I'm here.

I'm a mom to three boys ages 6, 2, and 8 months. I breastfeed all of them until 2+ and am still nursing the two littlest ones.

I didn't have any issues with DS1 that I knew of but I didn't know anything about allergies then.

We started practicing elimination communication with our 2nd son at birth (responding to babies cues to go potty when they need to go and taking them) and we use cloth diapers as backup.

It was this practice that first clued me in to Darling son #2's dairy allergy, that along with spit-up issues. So at 3 months of age I went dairy free with DS2 and it made a *HUGE* difference with his spitting-up after nursing as well as changing his poo from greenish to mustard yellow (healthy breastmilk poo) but *I* hated it. As he started eating food around 6/7 months he broke out in hives once when he got some yoghurt and also broke out in hives when he ate bananas. (That I couldn't believe at first! a baby allergic to bananas??!)

As he got older around one/ one and a half, we re-introduced dairy to my diet and it didn't *seem* to bother him, so then around two we let him have dairy and again it didn't *seem* to bother him but now we've noticed that it makes him congested and leads to ear infections so he's back off the dairy.

No with my 3rd, I noticed right away as a newborn that he didn't spit up like my 2nd had but he did have really runny poo, which caused him to get slight diaper rash, (diaper rash would have been much worse if we had been diapering full time or using plastic diapers.) and so having learned a little about allergies I started again with eliminating all dairy from my diet. (it was already much reduced so it wasn't as difficult this time around) It didn't help. So then I went wheat free for a few days and like magic the baby's diarrhea cleared up and so did the diaper rash. But even though I was not eating wheat he still had a touch of diarrhea now and then, so I stopped eating eggs, and blueberries (we made banana/ blueberry shakes for breakfast). Now it's seems normal.

I started eating eggs again although I'm still not eating blueberries. And when I thought it wasn't dairy I started drinking milk and eating ice-cream and last week stopped again after noticing he *does* spit up when I have dairy....

sooooooooo.

I'm pretty much 100% sure just from the dietary reaction that it's the wheat, but now I'm wondering if it is really gluten hence his occasional diarrhea.

My breakfast cereal is normally oatmeal....which I *thought* was gluten-free but I've read conflicting things about oats being gluten-free and it doesn't seem to bother him.

My reason for posting is this:

If I've noticed already that ds3 reacts to my breastmilk when I eat wheat should I go completely gluten-free ?

Should we keep him wheat free or gluten-free free as he starts eating food. (which he is *very* interested in)

As a family, our main dairy substitute is rice dream (which i just read is not gluten-free) although recently I began making sesame seed milk. Our main food staples are oatmeal, eggs, corn tortillas, beans, and bananas.

I'm just worried that if he already has that kind of reaction just through breast milk what should I be anticipating? and should I be worrying about cc?

and could that have cause a lower birth weight? (although his was completely within the normal range and he has a very healthy weight now.)

or am I just looking for problems?........

arghhhh...

oh, and my paternal uncle and one of his son's have been or are in the process of getting dx for celiac disease.

Thanks for reading

[AndreaB]

Lara,

If you are happy with a dietary response with your little one and don't want to pursue testing then definately go gluten free.

My youngest broke out with ezcema just after two months of age. I did intolerance testing on myself and found I was intolerant (among other things) to gluten and soy. I had gone soy free before testing and went very gluten lite as I wasn't intolerant to oats or barley. I was eating granola occasionaly as well as rice dream.

His eczema got better but wasn't completely gone. I then did the enterolab test for my family (not the baby though). All of us but my husband came back a little positive for gluten and all have 1 or 2 celiac genes. We went totally gluten free and haven't looked back as far as that is concerned. My baby's skin cleared completely up when I dropped the oats and barley.

If you buy the gluten free oats they should be fine for you. It's the cross contamination issues you have to worry about with the regular oats.

BTW, my oldest son is the only one in our family of 5 that can eat bananas.

[EmmaQ]

If he does better w/o the gluten in your system, then do it. If you want a firm dx, you will have to find a Pedi GI who is willing to test an exclusively bf baby or wait. My pedi GI stated he would not test until 9 mo old and exposure to wheat for at least 3 mo - that would mean feeding a 6 mo old wheat right out the door into solids

Given we have 1 Celiac, who IMO did have a negative reaction to gluten that I ate while bfing. I am gluten-free and DF after nursing siblings. I found that I feel better gluten-free, amazing really.

I think there are more of us out here in this position than what doctors know about b/c we are put off by them telling us it can be possible.

If dairy proteins can affect a bf baby, so can any other food protein material including gluten.

Just my opinion...