3 Yo Has Been Gluten Free For 3 Weeks And Still Has

[jamibrit]

a big round hard belly. How long will this take to go away? I'm feeling like maybe he's getting glutened somehow but can't figure out where.

[dandelionmom]

We noticed some improvement pretty quickly but I think the belly took at least a month to look all better. We've been gluten-free since July and we still are noticing improvement; healing takes a little while.

Have you cut out dairy too? If not, you may want to consider doing that to give him a chance to heal.

[NewGFMom]

It took over 4 month for my 3 (now 4) year old to tell me his tummy stopped hurting. It also took that long for the poops to look more (but not completely) normal.

some things that helped us get over the final healing hump were:

• Handwashing. Assume everything in the outside world is contaminated with gluten, and do not let your kid eat so much as a gluten-free pretzel without wiping his hands with a Wet One, or if possible wash his hands under a tap.
  
• If he's eating with other kids at school, he can't share food with them. Even gluten-free stuff when they're eating gluten. My son was taking fruit off of a common plate at snack time, and the gluten-eating kids would touch his fruit on their way to their chosen piece, and Voila! he would get D the next day.
  
• The whole family eats gluten free in our house, and unless we're in a restaurant where he is fairly contained, we don't eat any gluten foods around him. If you or another kid eats a cookie and grabs your child's hand and he scratches his nose... Well, you get the picture. I have to grab my son a lot to keep him safe, and I can't have gluten on my hands when I do that.
  

Hope these help!

Margaret

[shan]

my daughter has been gluten free for approx 8 months and still has that belly... Now i am thinking that she is just fat (or is that just dreams?!)

[Juliet]

My son has been gluten free for nearly 2 years (diagnosed at 2, now 4), and every time he's full from eating or about ready to poop, he has the big, hard round belly. It doesn't hurt him, and it's not constantly round and hard, and he can suck it in and it looks flat. But the belly hasn't completely gone away yet. He's actually a pretty fit kid with very little fat in the normal weight range for his height (he's also tall for his age). What did go away within a month after going gluten free was the super emaciated arms and legs. In fact, he got chunky at first since he hadn't built up the muscle yet but was eating like crazy!