Accidental Gluten Ingestion

[bridgetsmommy]

Hi Everyone,

My 17 month old daughter has been gluten-free (or at least we've done our best) since early May 2009 after being diagnosed with Celiacs. The first week was very tough and she rejected almost everything we gave her. Slowly, she started to eat better and each week her stools were more formed and we thought she was gaining weight. Overall it seemed like she was doing pretty well until earlier this week when she got a hold of a couple of pretzels from another child at daycare (they think she may have eaten 1 small pretzel before they got to her ). I tried not to freak out about it, since I know gluten happens, escpecially at her age. Well, since then, she hasn't been herself and has had some bouts of diarrhea and projectile vomiting again. She also has not been eating much and seems really tired. Is this what a little bit of gluten can do to her system?

Any similar experiences?

Thanks,

AM

[Lau3turtle]

First off I'd like to say I hope your little one feels well soon.

In my experience everyone responds differently to being glutened. I was glutened on Mother's day last month and I'm still feeling the effects. My dermatitis herpetiformis has mostly cleared up, but I am still in pain, and very fatigued. Another Celiac in the family was glutened at the same time and she started feeling better after a couple weeks.

In my experience digesting much of anything can be very painful after getting glutened. If you think that might be why your daughter is eating less then you might try easy to digest foods that are soft. I don't know what gluten-free foods are available for a child that age, but mashed potato or rice cereal immediately came to mind. I have experienced some relief from drinking cherry juice, which is reported to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Best wishes to your little one and her healing.

[OptimisticMom42]

Hope your baby is feeling better soon.......I just wanted to second the tart cherry juice suggestion. It has a mild aspirin effect. Reduces pain and swelling. I sweeten it with real maple syrup. The syrup aids digestion and has zinc, magnesium and a couple other things in it that help the immune system. I like it best really warm.

You don't want to over do it though, to much might make the D worse.

Hope this helps