Introducing Babies To Gluten

[HiDee]

I'm sure many of you have heard of the recent research that they did on kids with an increased (genetic) risk of getting celiac disease and their findings that introducing gluten between the ages of 4 and 6 months decreases the risk of getting the disease but introducing it before or after that window increases the risk of getting it. My husband and I are gluten intolerant (enterolab testing, no biopsies or anything) and our house is gluten free. Our 2 year old has never had gluten because we didn't want her to have any problems (especially since she has the double risk given both of our sensitivities) but now I'm wondering if we should have let her have it. And my main concern is whether we should give it to our 6 month old right now before he's out of "the window."

Another concern is this whole AAP recommendation to exclusively breast feed for 6 months which puts them almost entirely out of the window at food introduction time. Also what about all the recommendations to not introduce any of the major allergens until one year old? Why all this conflicting information and how am I supposed to make any sense of it? If I do introduce gluten to my baby should I keep letting him have it or just introduce it a few times now to supposedly lower his risk of getting celiac and then keep him on the diet the rest of us are on? And should I keep my 2 year old gluten free still or do a challenge and see whether it actually affects her? I would still keep my home gluten free but it would be nice to not feel the need to police everything that enters her mouth at friends' houses or other places. So many questions and if anyone has any thoughts or experiences with this type of situation, I'd appreciate any input!

[teacherwheart]

I'm sure many of you have heard of the recent research that they did on kids with an increased (genetic) risk of getting celiac disease and their findings that introducing gluten between the ages of 4 and 6 months decreases the risk of getting the disease but introducing it before or after that window increases the risk of getting it. My husband and I are gluten intolerant (enterolab testing, no biopsies or anything) and our house is gluten free. Our 2 year old has never had gluten because we didn't want her to have any problems (especially since she has the double risk given both of our sensitivities) but now I'm wondering if we should have let her have it. And my main concern is whether we should give it to our 6 month old right now before he's out of "the window."

Another concern is this whole AAP recommendation to exclusively breast feed for 6 months which puts them almost entirely out of the window at food introduction time. Also what about all the recommendations to not introduce any of the major allergens until one year old? Why all this conflicting information and how am I supposed to make any sense of it? If I do introduce gluten to my baby should I keep letting him have it or just introduce it a few times now to supposedly lower his risk of getting celiac and then keep him on the diet the rest of us are on? And should I keep my 2 year old gluten free still or do a challenge and see whether it actually affects her? I would still keep my home gluten free but it would be nice to not feel the need to police everything that enters her mouth at friends' houses or other places. So many questions and if anyone has any thoughts or experiences with this type of situation, I'd appreciate any input!

From experience with 2 kids exactly the same age as yours I gave my baby (now almost 8 months) gluten at 4 1/2 months old and continue to give it to him while breasfeeding too. I did hear about that window and my pediatriacian also mentioned to give gluten while still breasfeeding so I would give gluten to the 6 month old now while you are still breasfeeding. She said as did the research that giving gluten while breasfeeding diminishes the likelihood of getting celiac. Hope that helps.

Oh and I would keep giving it to if he has no rection thats what I am doing, although it is tough with my 2 year old I just constantly expalian to him that he cant have the cheerios or the bread that his baby brother has becuase of the gluten in it. He totally gets it and is very careful not to go near it or eat it. While my house is almost gluten free (both my 2 year old and I have celeiac) my husband still has bread, cereal and pasta occasionally a store bought dessert. I want my baby to have gluten so I can eventually see if he has celieac too. Does that make sense? I would want to see if the 2 year old has issues with celiac too but thats just me. I would want ot know for sure. Have you spoken with a GI doctor? My sons GI said its always best for parents of kids to know for sure if their child has issues with gluten thats why I will continue to give my little one it.

[Mother of Jibril]

Do you have any links to articles about this?

Biologically, I just cannot imagine why there should be a certain "window of opportunity" to introduce gluten. That's not how hypersensitivity disorders work.

Plus... who were the people that waited until after 6 months to introduce gluten? Probably the ones with a family history of hypersensitivity! My son was two months old when we figured out that he's extremely sensitive to casein. Once I took it out of MY diet he returned to normal (no more colic, projectile vomiting, or diarrhea with streaks of blood). We thought it was better to wait on solid foods until at least six months and our pediatrician agreed. I've never given him gluten and I don't plan to anytime in the near future.

Based on my genes, I know 100% for certain that my son has inherited at least one gluten-sensitive gene. Why wait for damage to occur? Just my perspective

[HiDee]

Do you have any links to articles about this?

Here is a link to the journal article of the original study. I don't know if any follow up studies have been done to confirm their findings.

Open Original Shared Link

Here are a few other articles summing up their findings.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

I only just started my baby on rice cereal when he turned 6 months and he's now had a few vegetables also. Since none of the rest of us eat gluten, I'm leaning towards not giving it to him at all. The problem of introducing it now would be in the difficulty of ascertaining any potential problems that he might have that aren't extremely apparent. Because gluten reactions seem to be different for everyone and not always stomach or bowel related I'm a little wary of giving it to him now. And for that matter, I'm still wary of giving it to my toddler as well. But I'm still not convinced either way...

Any one else have any thoughts??

[shayesmom]

Any one else have any thoughts??

Personally, I take a lot of these studies with a grain of salt. It's one thing to be able to determine the presence of gliadin in breastmilk within x amount of hours after ingestion. It's quite another to ascertain the risk of developing celiac disease when feeding gluten to 6 month old children. There is no mention of where these children now stand as far as being diagnosed with celiac. The participants in the study could be followed up on in a decade only to find that the complete opposite is true.

If I were to do it all over again with my child, I would wait until the age of 2 to introduce gluten. Why? Because research indicates that children don't produce amylase (the enzyme to break down gluten and other grains) until their first molars come in. So to me, introducing grains before that adds a decent amount of strain to the digestive system. And it seems to me that an inherent deficiency in enzymes is part of the celiac problem. I also think that an older child has potentially less risk for developing serious malnutrition issues if they wait a bit longer on eating gluten.

Plus, there really seems to be a problem with accurate diagnosis of celiac disease in infants and toddlers. To me....this is a major confounding factor in studies such as this.

[HiDee]

If I were to do it all over again with my child, I would wait until the age of 2 to introduce gluten. Why? Because research indicates that children don't produce amylase (the enzyme to break down gluten and other grains) until their first molars come in.

That's really interesting, I didn't know that. I wonder why they recommend rice cereal and other grains as babies first foods? I'd be interested in reading those studies. Thanks for your reply.

[Kibbie]

There is a new study out that took children who had 1st degree relatives with Celiac disease and introduced 1/2 of them to gluten at 4-6 months just as recommended and the other kids were not introduced to gluten until after their 1st birthday.

Some of the kids that were introduced to gluten at 4-6 months have developed Celiac Disease

100% of those who waited have not yet developed Celiac Disease.

So it looks like delaying introduction will at least delay the onset of Celiac Disese and may even prevent it (but the jury is still out on that the study is new and needs years more to come up with those answers).

As for me I have a 4 month old and I am not going to introduce gluten at all. We are gluten free at home and I don't plan on making special stuff just for him.

[shayesmom]

That's really interesting, I didn't know that. I wonder why they recommend rice cereal and other grains as babies first foods? I'd be interested in reading those studies. Thanks for your reply.

It's been a while since I went through the studies. Some of the information is mentioned here: Open Original Shared Link. You can then backtrack from the article and find the information from there.

And not all countries recommend cereal as a first food. Other cultures introduce meat first, or veggies. Some do fruits. It all depends on the culture. What's interesting is that the cultures who do introduce cereals first are also the ones with the higher rates of Celiac. Is it truly genetic? Are other countries just not screening for it? Or are they avoiding the problem by not introducing the food until later? I think those questions need to be answered before any definitive answers are given to new parents on this.

[alamaz]

This topic is of great interest to me as I have a 10 month old. Today I found out he had been given a few Cheerios but that's the only gluten he's ever had. I do not plan on giving him gluten until it becomes an issue. We are a gluten-free house. He also has very limited grains. A few gluten-free "cheerios" here and there but he's never had rice cereal or anything of the sorts.

My friend who is from India said the typical first food there is a cereal gruel made from.....wheat. And she said there are virtually no wheat allergies in India. So who knows.