When To Introduce Gluten To Baby? Is It Still Recommended At 4-6mths And What Is That Study?

[imagine22]

I was diagnosed with celiac disease (blood & biopsy) when my DD1 was 9mths old and she was getting diarrhoea from something on and off... so we took her off gluten and she was fine then but we reintroduced gluten when she was 2yrs and she has no symptoms this time (she is now 2.5yrs ) (we will blood test her at some point whilst on gluten).

DD2 is now 4 months and i recall there was a study saying 4-6mths is the best time to introduce gluten to babies? is this still the most current advcie and can someone please direct me to the details of this study so i can look into who conducted it and how big it was etc.

Im inclined to hold off until DD2 is 2yrs (due to unknowns with wahat it does to the susceptible developing brain and the potential vitamin and mineral deficiencies which result from celiac) but I dont want to INCREASE her risk of celiac if there is a real advangtage to being introduced at 4-6mths.

thanks very much

[AndreaB]

There is an old thread about something like this from maybe 1 1/2 or so ago. I don't remember the study that was mentioned in that one, but if I remember correctly they recommend 9-12 months.

With the possibility of celiac though it certainly sounds like a good plan to hold off as long as you can. My baby broke out with eczema after he was 2 months old and after ELISA testing I went gluten light. He didn't clear totally up til I went gluten free. I waited until he was 8 months or so before I introduced him to oat cereal and he didn't do well with that. I never went to the multi grain cereal.

[AndreaB]

Open Original Shared Link

This talks about the gluten introduction.

[cruelshoes]

DD2 is now 4 months and i recall there was a study saying 4-6mths is the best time to introduce gluten to babies? is this still the most current advcie and can someone please direct me to the details of this study so i can look into who conducted it and how big it was etc.

Here is the study you are asking about. It is the latest one that I know of. It indicates that the proper time to introduce gluten into an infant's diet may be between 4 - 6 months of age. You can check the May 15 issus of the JAMA out of the library if you want to see the full text - Open Original Shared Link. It may be available online somewhere, but I don't know a link offhand. We introduced gluten to our youngest at 5 months after consulting extensively with our pediatrician. We kept it up until 9 months and then made out house gluten-free again. She is almost 2 now, and gets occasional gluten outside of the house. I'm sure you are going to get opinoins that run the gamut, but here is the study for your consideration.

Open Original Shared Link

The Findings

Fifty-one children (3.3%) developed evidence of celiac disease. Twenty five of these children had biopsy confirmed cases. Major findings included:

Children exposed to wheat, barley, or rye in the first three months of life had a five-fold increased risk of celiac disease autoimmunity compared to those exposed at 4-6 months. Children not exposed until their seventh month or later were also at increased risk, but only slightly.

Among the 41 children who were at the greatest risk according to their genetic markers, those exposed to wheat, barley, or rye in the first three months of life had nearly an eight-fold increased risk of celiac disease autoimmunity compared to those exposed at four to six months.

No protective effect of breastfeeding was observed.

These findings were consistent even when the researchers limited their analysis to only the 25 cases of biopsy-confirmed celiac disease.

How Does This Affect You?

These findings indicate not only that it may be unsafe for genetically predisposed children to receive gluten-containing foods when they are too young

[Pattymom]

I was at a CERP session for Lactation consultants 3 years ago where this topic was discussed. It seemed that is was better to introduce gluten while a child was still getting breastmilk b/c on the antobodies in the breastmilk to reduce or eliminate an immune response. What I asked and didn't get a good answer too at the time was the breastmilk eliminating a response or just masking and healing the damage or response as it happened.

I went gluten free when my dd was 2months old with stinky mucousy diarhea and rashes, we kept her off until she turned 2, fed it to her for a few months, she had no noticable symptoms, blood work was negative. At 3, she was slipping on the growth charts, by 3 1/2 totally off the charts, she has now been gluten free again since February and has gained weight and some height (though very slowly after an initial burst, so we still need to see the endocrinologist again)

It's a tough call to decide when to give something that could potentially harm a perfectlly healthy baby.

Patty

[tweetykl]

This is really interesting. I am not on these board because of celiac but because my son is allergic to wheat. I wonder how this affects children who are allergic to wheat. I just had my 2nd child and the allergist had me go off wheat, milk, fish, seafood, eggs, nuts, and tree nuts for the third trimester and the first 6 months of breastfeeding. I am then suppose to introduce foods slowly.

[B'sgirl]

The most recent information I read were the studies reported above about doing it between 4 and 6 months, but I think that doesn't work so well if you are not nursing. But in addition to that I read that if you really want to be safe wait until at least 12 months. Those studies just said between 4 and 6 is better than 7, but didn't mention older than that. My plan is for me to be off gluten while nursing my upcoming baby and not introduce it until she is at least a year old. Then take it really slowly. I am also going to delay immunizations until my kids are 2 because autoimmune diseases are too common in my family.

[dbmamaz]

I was allergic to wheat and milk as an infant and had read to put off introducing allergen foods to kids with a high chance of food allergies until they were 1 year old. In fact, thats why they no longer make infant cereals with wheat in them - farina used to be a common first food for babies. I introduced all common allergy foods to my kids very carefully (1 bite the first day, 2 the next, then a bit more but watching for a week) and not until 8 mo, and delayed wheat and milk until 11 months (i wanted enuf time to test so I could do cake and ice cream for the first b-day!).

The studies about celiac are interesting . . .but of course, if you NEVER introduce gluten, the child wont develop full-blown celiac . . . since you have to have villi damage for that . . .they would just be gluten intollerant. Right?

[Annaem]

My gastro says regular children should be introduced at 8 months and since i am celiac my little one should wait till at least a year old. At 2 years old they can do the celiac test to check. Before that they can't. So i have made the personal decision to wait till my baby is 2 years old.

[Lizz7711]

I would really advise against introducing gluten at 4-6 mnths! First of all...in general you're supposed to wait til 6 months for any solid foods. But more importantly, every recommendation i've seen (and i'm studying maternal nutrition right now) says to wait till 12 months to introduce any of the common food allergens such as wheat, nuts, eggs, soy etc.

If a baby has inherited gluten sensitivity...giving it earlier is not going to help in any way.

Regarding the comment below...I think the definition of "celiac" will change in the coming years to include those without any villi damage as they are beginning to finally understand the scope of gluten sensitivity. "full blown celiac" is no more damaging than "full blown gluten sensitivity" that has caused other autoimmune diseases not affecting the digestive tract.

Liz

I was allergic to wheat and milk as an infant and had read to put off introducing allergen foods to kids with a high chance of food allergies until they were 1 year old. In fact, thats why they no longer make infant cereals with wheat in them - farina used to be a common first food for babies. I introduced all common allergy foods to my kids very carefully (1 bite the first day, 2 the next, then a bit more but watching for a week) and not until 8 mo, and delayed wheat and milk until 11 months (i wanted enuf time to test so I could do cake and ice cream for the first b-day!).

The studies about celiac are interesting . . .but of course, if you NEVER introduce gluten, the child wont develop full-blown celiac . . . since you have to have villi damage for that . . .they would just be gluten intollerant. Right?