Gluten Free For A Week

[Melissa312]

I have been off gluten for a week but this morning I woke up with more severe abdominal pain and an inability to go to the restroom. My major symptom lately has been that I wake up at night every couple hours and feel my stomach rumbling. Then I have to run to the bathroom. I hate to be gross but since I started getting really sick a couple months ago that has been my main problem. My bowels are really loose and floating. I am just wanting to see if this is typical of celiac because I am still trying to pinpoint exactly what has caused my villi damage.

Someone suggested cutting out dairy and I have done that for the last 3 days. Yesterday I had an apple, almonds, and gluten free pretzels for lunch. For dinner I had eggs with soymilk, bacon, and a gluten free waffle. I have been very careful to avoid cross contamination. I am just worried that what if I don't have celiac and this is something else. I know its only been a week, but I thought I would feel much better by now. Any advice?

[dbmamaz]

Have you noticed any change in symptoms at all? For me, the tapioca flour in most gluten-free products acted just as bad as gluten on my stomach. Some people also need to cut out soy.

My stomach issues improved in a few days. Did you go to a doctor at all for this? Get checked for parasites, perhaps?

[Melissa312]

I originally just thought I had a stomach flu and went to the hospital because I was dehydrated and have no appetite. They gave me some pain medicine (I was also having severe lower abdominal pain) so I would quit complaining. I then ended up back because I woke up on saturday night and I couldn't take the pain anymore. Once at the hospital I was checked for EVERYTHING. I had 2 ultrasounds, a CT scan, upper GI, endoscopy, colonoscopy. After all the tests my doctor gave me Nexium for acid reflux and said to try that. I felt better for about a week but then ended up back in his office. They had suggested a parasite but they ordered another upper GI and this time the tech noticed the malabsorption. I then had a blood test and biopsy of my small intestine. The bloodwork says no celiac, but the biopsy shows damage.

I haven't had any soy until yesterday. I had some soymilk in the eggs. Could it also be the eggs?

My symptoms have improved since I stopped with the gluten but I am thinking maybe I am just not being careful enough about cross contamination. Maybe my reaction last night was worse because I haven't had any gluten in a few days?

Have you noticed any change in symptoms at all? For me, the tapioca flour in most gluten-free products acted just as bad as gluten on my stomach. Some people also need to cut out soy.

My stomach issues improved in a few days. Did you go to a doctor at all for this? Get checked for parasites, perhaps?

[home-based-mom]

It looks to me like the gluten free foods you are eating are still rather hard on the stomach. Raw fruit and nuts I would think could cause discomfort in a system that needed healing. Fatty fried bacon sounds really tasty but probably isn't easy to digest, either. Were the pretzels salty? Too much salt can cause discomfort.

Try apple sauce instead of apples. Minute Rice is easy to digest. Cooked veggies instead of raw ones. Baked chicken instead of bacon. You get the idea.

Hope you feel better, soon!

[Melissa312]

Thanks. The hard part is I get tricked into thinking I feel a lot better and then, boom, I feel bad again and get discouraged. I had some applesauce for breakfast. Up until today I didn't have bacon or anything like that, so maybe that was just too much too fast.

It looks to me like the gluten free foods you are eating are still rather hard on the stomach. Raw fruit and nuts I would think could cause discomfort in a system that needed healing. Fatty fried bacon sounds really tasty but probably isn't easy to digest, either. Were the pretzels salty? Too much salt can cause discomfort.

Try apple sauce instead of apples. Minute Rice is easy to digest. Cooked veggies instead of raw ones. Baked chicken instead of bacon. You get the idea.

Hope you feel better, soon!

[April in KC]

Hi there! This may not be it, but when I read your list I immediately spotted many foods we had to stop feeding to my SOY intolerant Celiac son:

gluten-free pretzels (check, but the Glutino kind he used to eat contained soy flour)

soymilk

gluten-free waffle (if it's vans, it also has some type of soy flour)

Did you replace the toaster you used to fix that waffle? If not, get a new one. You're probably going to become more sensitive to gluten cross contamination.

If you're not in a gluten-free kitchen, it could also be your dishes/pans. Give a careful scrub to anything you use, especially anything used to bake cookies, or forks used to eat pasta that went through the dishwasher.

By 'inability to go,' do you mean that you suspect you have constipation? Or just that usually when you feel like that, you do go, and last night you didn't?

I agree on cutting dairy out for a period of weeks until you heal a little more. You can try it later and see if you can tolerate it. I cut it out at first, but now I eat a little cheese from time to time.

[Melissa312]

Hi there! This may not be it, but when I read your list I immediately spotted many foods we had to stop feeding to my SOY intolerant Celiac son:

gluten-free pretzels (check, but the Glutino kind he used to eat contained soy flour)

soymilk

gluten-free waffle (if it's vans, it also has some type of soy flour)

Did you replace the toaster you used to fix that waffle? If not, get a new one. You're probably going to become more sensitive to gluten cross contamination.

If you're not in a gluten-free kitchen, it could also be your dishes/pans. Give a careful scrub to anything you use, especially anything used to bake cookies, or forks used to eat pasta that went through the dishwasher.

By 'inability to go,' do you mean that you suspect you have constipation? Or just that usually when you feel like that, you do go, and last night you didn't?

I agree on cutting dairy out for a period of weeks until you heal a little more. You can try it later and see if you can tolerate it. I cut it out at first, but now I eat a little cheese from time to time.

I actually put the waffle into the oven for a few minutes because I haven't been able to buy a new toaster yet. I think that maybe it is the soy that made me have the problem. I am going to have only the basics for a few days until my allergy testing.

I feel constipated and my stomach rumbles while I am sleeping. Sometimes I run to the bathroom and have a bowel movement but other times like yesterday I was unable to and then I had trouble sleeping all night long.

I already cut out gluten, soy and dairy. I suspect problems with corn also so I haven't really had much corn either.