I Have Celiac, Keep My Baby gluten-free Until 1 Yr. Old?

[CeliacMommy73]

I have Celiac Disease, and have a 4 month old. My pediatrcian wants to keep him gluten-free until 1 year of age. I don't think she fully understands Celiac Disease... Should I keep him gluten-free for a year? If so, why?

[dbmamaz]

There is some indication that exposing kids to allergy-prone foods too early can increase the likelyhood of allergy. While its true that celiac isnt an allergy, your baby has a good chance of developing celiac, since its genetic. Why would you WANT to risk that before age 1? Of course, i've also seen in here that exposing them before the age of 3 mo decreases the likelihood of celiac . . . but I had a lot of allergies and was just super-careful to only feed the safest foods to my kids when they were tiny, and to introduce foods slowly to watch for reactions.

[cruelshoes]

Here is a study for you to discuss with your pediatrician. 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, 2005 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. She cautioned us against introducing wheat, becasue it is hightly allergenic (apart from celiac concerns), so we used barley and oat cereal. We kept it up until 9 months and then made our house gluten-free again. She is 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

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

[Amyleigh0007]

We are keeping our 10 month old gluten free, along with the rest of the family. Not only is it more convenient for our family (no CC issues, only one meal to cook) but I don't want her to go through the same health issues our son did. I would rather keep her healthy but not know for sure if she has Celiac then "experiment" with her health and have her possibly get ill. I bought a food grinder and she eats almost the same things we eat. So far it has worked. She has not even had a cold yet and is already starting to walk a bit. When my son was her age he was on his 5th ear infection and didn't walk until he was almost 2. She also sleeps through the night and takes great naps. My son was a terrible sleeper and never took naps. I don't know if there is a gluten connection with all of that but I'm not willing to take the risk.

[kbtoyssni]

Seems reasonable to keep your son gluten-free for at least a year. You've got a kid who's genetically predispositioned to have celiac. He's doing a lot of growing and developing in his first few years; if he were one of those kids who would develop active celiac soon after introducing gluten, seems like the developing years would be one of the worst times for a kid to not be absorbing nutrients properly, etc. Wait a few years and the potential health consequences could be lessened.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I think the interpretation of that study is ridiculous.

It's not a well-controlled study. "No protective effect of breast-feeding was observed," but they didn't track whether or not the mother was on a gluten-free diet at the time of breastfeeding, which means that the baby could have been exposed to gluten from the first day of life.

I am starting to learn that studies can be interpreted and manipulated any way you like.

I read in Discover Magazine that in clinical trials of the drug Lipitor, it was considered successful if the patient's cholesterol was lowered--whether or not the patient survived. (That part wasn't published int he study, of course.) It also said that OFTEN in these studies, patients whose adverse reactions (to the drug being studied) are so severe that they need to stop medications are listed in the study as "noncompliant," and their reactions are not reported as adverse.

Back to introducing babies to gluten: most pediatricians still advise that highly allergenic foods NOT be given to babies before 12 months. This study doesn't convince me to try it any earlier. Why would you WANT to try to give your baby something that, with your health history, stands a fair chance of being toxic? You wouldn't give your less-than-a-year-old baby peanuts, would you?

[Guest cassidy]

I'm in a similar situation. My son is 14 months and he has never had gluten since I have celiac. My holistic ped said he recommends that no child have gluten before one year. I'm still nursing and I did a lot of research and there wasn't a clear cut answer on the best way to do things. I'm going to introduce it while I'm still nursing and just try a little bit. He will still be primarily gluten-free since it is easier on me but I would like to know that he can have a taste of DH's food without worrying.

[CeliacMommy73]

Very good points. My son had his 4 month check-up today- Pediatrcian and I decided to keep him gluten-free until he is old enough to tell me "what hurts"... I'm also interested to see if he will be healthier all around- ear infections, etc. Interesting thing is that I contacted a GI specialist's office (specializes in Celiac Disease) at Boston's Children's Hospital and they recommend introducing foods as one normally would- and watching for symptoms. I guess there isn't much research out there proving that it's beneficial to wait. Interesting... I still won't take the chance.

[Anya78]

After researching and finding no official guidelines on this topic, I can tell you what I decided to do personally for my son. He's almost 2 now and hasn't had any gluten. We did a genetic test (thru enterolab) and my husband and I both passed on genes that make him more susceptible than the average person (or a person with only one predisposing gene) to developing Celiac or gluten intolerance (I'm a Celiac, hubby isn't). Because I worry so much about stunted growth or cognitive development if I give him gluten and he has Celiac, I decided to wait until he is closer to 3 to give it to him. I;m hoping at that age he will more likely be able to tell me if his stomach hurts etc. There's not much rhyme or reason to my plan, but that's what I decided to do.

[B'sgirl]

There are too many differences in different studies to be able to base a decision off of them. I have seen ones that recommend introducing gluten between 4 and 6 months (although the current "trend" says that you should not even introduce solids until 6 months), 7 and 9 months, after 13 months, after 3 years. So go with your gut. I personally am not going to introduce it to my daughter until after a year because I had so much trouble with my son.