Do We Go Gluten Free?

[4blessings]

Hi

I am wondering how long you go on a gluten free diet to determine if gluten is actually a problem? Also what type of grains need to be cut out? Doing this for our 14mo daughter she has had little gluten to begin with...how long does it take to see results?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Lizz7711]

Hi

I am wondering how long you go on a gluten free diet to determine if gluten is actually a problem? Also what type of grains need to be cut out? Doing this for our 14mo daughter she has had little gluten to begin with...how long does it take to see results?

Thanks for any help you can give.

I don't have experience with little ones with gluten sensitivity, but from what I understand you should notice improvement fairly quickly with younger kids, like within a couple weeks up to a month. It's usually recommended to go off dairy as well. The gluten proteins and dairy protein casein, as well as the soy protein, are all very similar in structure, so often if a person has a problem with gluten, they also have problems with the other two. So you could try going off all three for a few weeks, then gradually introduce one (I'd do soy first), wait several days as some reactions take a few days, and then if it's ok, introduce the next one (dairy), again wait several days, and then you could try gluten. You may find the reactions are stronger than before, because once the body starts to heal, it reacts more strongly to the antagonist. (people also sometimes eliminate corn products as this is a common allergen as well)

You'd want to eliminate gluten that is in wheat, rye, barley, and oats (many people avoid oats although they do not have gluten in them--I personally still eat gluten free oats, but have only been doing this 3 months so that could change).

Here is a link to a good website that lists alot of info about gluten free casein free diets...it's on an autism website, but I found the info to be so helpful I refer to it often, there are also good links to more info and recipes etc : Open Original Shared Link

Good luck!

Liz

[4blessings]

Liz.

Thank you for the GREAT web site!! and the great info.

Ok I have some more questions...Is flax a gluten containing grain? Is spelt ok to eat I've heard it can sub for wheat.

Thanks for the great info.

Amy

[Lizz7711]

Liz.

Thank you for the GREAT web site!! and the great info.

Ok I have some more questions...Is flax a gluten containing grain? Is spelt ok to eat I've heard it can sub for wheat.

Thanks for the great info.

Amy

Your welcome! I was thinking that alternatively to the elimination plan I mentioned, you could just first eliminate gluten, because if you notice improvement off gluten, you don't want to go back on it to challenge it as that will just continue the damage. Then after that you could test the dairy and soy. Just another way to go about it. I'd personally recommend asking the doc for a blood test for IgG and IgA and antitissue transglutaminase antibodies before you go gluten free. Howver, that said, many people test negative on blood tests, so you could then try the diet if the test is negative. There's also stool testing which is good because it finds antibodies before they get in the blood, I used www.enterolab.com It's not covered by insurance, but you get gluten and casein testing, malabsorption testing, and gene testing (cheek swab) for $369.

Anyway! Flax is fine, spelt is not. I can't remember what the issue is with spelt but I know it's not acceptable on a gluten free diet.

take care,

Liz

[kbtoyssni]

Spelt is a derivative of wheat. So it's got the same gluten protein in it.

[shelland]

Doing this for our 14mo daughter she has had little gluten to begin with...how long does it take to see results?

We recently went gluten free for our 15 month old. By day 3 she was pooping less. By day 5 she was sleeping through the night. After a few days more her poops are normal smelling. I think it helpd that we cut out the oatmeal she was eating in the morning. They were probably cross-contaminated with gluten.

We're all happier now.

Good luck to you- hope you see results soon.

[4blessings]

Thanks for all the great advice!

We did have celiac panel done and it came back neg. she was also tested for CF and that was neg. We recently found out that my husbands (paternal) uncle and cousin have celiac so with symptoms I am thinking lets rule this one out.

My hope is that she will start gaining weight...she looks like we starve her. But we don't!

We also have a son with ADHD, hoping gluten free will help him. The med he takes is terrible!!

Thanks again all

Amy