Just Sarted gluten-free Diet And Behavior Worse!

[ally123]

we just started the gluten free diet with our 7 year old boy who is ADHD to maybe help his behavior and stomach aches but his behavior is much worse. He is also doing some very odd things that he has never done before like screaming and crying about putting on his shirt because it "feels wierd" . We are only on day 2! Do we need to also cut out milk? Has any one ever seen this type of reaction??

[missy'smom]

His reaction is a little concerning and would indicate to me that something else may be bothering him. Has he been allergy tested? We found that our son has a significant load of allergies so for us that was another piece of the puzzle. Have you stuck with simple unprocessed foods or have you switched over to alot of processed gluten-free repacement products or other products that you didn't use before? Evaluating that may give you some more clues to what's going on. Sometimes symptoms become more noticable to us or others even, when we have peeled back a layer so to speak and eliminated or lessened another symptom/problem.

[CMG]

My daughter had the same issue when we put her on a gluten free diet. We had concerns about ADHD, but put her on gluten-free diet for intestinal issues. Intestinal problems resolved fairly quickly; but her behavior got worse for several days. I would say that by about day 5 behavior was significantly better.

[ally123]

My daughter had the same issue when we put her on a gluten free diet. We had concerns about ADHD, but put her on gluten-free diet for intestinal issues. Intestinal problems resolved fairly quickly; but her behavior got worse for several days. I would say that by about day 5 behavior was significantly better.

Thank you for your time in answering my posting it gives me the hope I needed at this time. He has only been gluten free for two days but I found out that at school he had half of a donut for his friends b-day so technically it's been one day, since we had to start over. Needless to say I have had a talk with his teacher about the diet and she is on board with helping us. The main behavoir issues are temper tanturms that last a while but then when they are over he is totally fine. Thank you again for your response.

[swalker]

Dairy is a similiar protein and should be eliminated too for treating ADHD.

His behaviour is worse because he's suffering from withdrawal and it will improve within a couple of days as it takes four days for a food to completely clear your system.

[missy'smom]

He has only been gluten free for two days but I found out that at school he had half of a donut for his friends b-day so technically it's been one day, since we had to start over. Needless to say I have had a talk with his teacher about the diet and she is on board with helping us.

We have a small box that we put treats in and sent to school for the teacher to keep. Whenever someone brings treats or there is a party with things that Ds can't have he can dip into his treat box. Then he brings it home to re-fill. I had asked the teacher to let me know when the birthdays are so I could send in a cupcake but that's never happened and never will but Ds is ok with his treats and the teacher lets him have whatever and as much as he wants from the treat box-which has it's pluses and minuses. I do therefore limit how much stuff is in it at a time. It includes individually packaged snacks that have a long shelf life-some of which I don't buy to eat for snack at home, since they are expensive and not so healthy, so they are really a treat. I try to include one chocolate thing because there are usually chocolate non-gluten-free things-brownies etc. that are always brought in, and a couple healthier options like flavored unsweetened applesauce cups or natural freeze dried fruit pouches and something salty or not sweet. Enjoylife makes packs of 2 cookies-snickerdoodles and choc. chip that I sometimes include. Ian's makes cookie buttons that come in a box of 4 or 5 bags. Ds likes the Glutino "candy bars" as they call them. They are layers of wafers and chocolate-in between a cookie and a candy bar. They come about 5 per box as well. Envirokids bars are often included. There is one company that makes individually packaged rice krispy type treats too that come in a box of a certain number.

Some people, who have more cooperation from the school than I do, have a stash of cupcakes in a freezer at school.