Experiencing Diarrhea With gluten-free Diet....help

kymom · October 13, 2009

Hi, my husband has celiac and has been on a gluten-free diet since April. We are still learning but he seems to be doing good. He has gained 20 pounds since his diagnosis and looks so healthy but he is experiencing some diarrhea. We cut out bananas because we heard that they are loaded with acid...something we did not know! That was a bummer cause he loves them! He eats alot of meat and veggies, not much fruit. Could it be that he needs to eat more raw foods like fruit and raw veggies i.e. carrots, broccoli????? I'm confused on what is causing this. It only occurs in the mornings. He goes a few times then he is okay the rest of the day. Please help. Thanks!

KristyUK · October 13, 2009

That is exactly what I am experiencing, although I am barely 2 weeks in to being gluten (and dairy) free. For the first few days, that was all that I got, but now I seem to have settled down into the D in the morning several times, followed by normal behaviour.

I don't know what it is. I don't even feel that I am suffering as I feel so much better than I did before, I have lost weight (I was one of those abnormal people who were overweight with it!), I sleep better and I have tons of energy.

I can't tolerate bananas now - I had one and it made me feel as if I was back on the gluten again. I am eating *a lot* of raw fruit and veg, plus lots of nuts as well, in addition to meat/fish. I have tried cutting back on the fruit to see if that is it, but no, I still get the same thing. I have also noticed that I don't seem to be able to digest tomatoes as well as I could (if you see what I mean). I don't eat any of the 'gluten-free' products you can buy - to me they seem nutritionally poor, so I'd rather just eat unprocessed food (but that's just me).

So in short, it seems as if me and your husband are having the same symptoms, but for different reasons! But then, everybody is different! For me, I think that my insides were coated in gluten and dairy and so all of a sudden, they are now experiencing what it feels like to come into contact with all this good food - plus all of my food intake is 'real' food rather than all the bread/pasta/cereal/dairy I was eating before.

Maybe it just takes time...

I hope your husband continues to do well.

ranger · October 13, 2009

Maybe cut out the dairy -that's a problem for many of us. And, if you're not used to a major increase in fruits and veges, you're not used to a lot of fiber. Try going slowly on that. Good luck to both of you.

Susan

mbrookes · October 13, 2009

I've had to learn that not all tummy upsets are Celiac related. Example: I had diarrea during a course of antibiotics (normal) and too much wine (also normal) It is easy once diagnosed to blame everything on gluten, but that is not always the case.

ENF · October 13, 2009

I take Probiotics, the nondairy types because I don't want to ingest any casein. It seems to help.

KristyUK · October 14, 2009

Yep, I think I can narrow mine down to eating things that I haven't eaten for a *long* time, so my body is going 'what on earth is THAT?!'. I've always eaten fruit and veg, but new things (to me) like avocado and certain types of pate are certainly new kids on the block to my healing insides. As I said though, for me I feel absolutely great, so I'm not too worried.

kymom · October 14, 2009

Thanks for all your responses. I guess we will keep trying things....overall he seems to be doing great considering that when he was diagnosed he was hospitalized with a low blood count of 5! He had to have blood transfusion of 4 pints....felt like a new man after about a week. All your comments are greatly appreciated!