Daughter Has Tummy Aches While gluten-free

[kbidarch]

When you begin a gluten-free diet, is it normal for there to still be tummy pain, or should I assume my daughter is allergic or intolerant to something else in addition to gluten? I feel like we've seen a huge difference in her behavior, sleep, and overall well-being these past 2.5 days. This a.m. she ate gluten-free yogurt for breakfast, and some gluten-free cheese. She's been complaining of stomach pains ever since. To my knowledge she hasn't consumed any gluten.

She is one of the kids whose inital symptoms included extreme constipation. I wonder if it's possible that it's still constipation leaving her uncomfortable? Or whether tummy pains happen as you're getting off gluten, or whether there's a lactose issue. The thought of eliminating milk products doesn't thrill me, but we'll do what we need to do! Any thoughts on belly pain, shortly into the gluten-free diet?

[ciavyn]

She will probably have to cut out dairy, too. Most of us are dairy intolerant in the beginning. In a few months, she can try dairy again and see how she feels. For some, it takes closer to a year to be able to eat dairy (though for others, they can't have it period). For me, it took about 4 months.

[Looking for answers]

I had the same issues, and also had to cut out dairy and soy.

[weluvgators]

We had to adopt a gluten, dairy and soy free diet to get better. Even with all of that, we still struggled with bellyaches often. We seem to have gotten on top of it by really digging into gluten cross contamination issues and home testing of our food for gluten. But our super silly girl has quite a sensitive belly.

Our pedi gi says that many of her patients need to be dairy free in the initial healing stages, but many are later able to add dairy back. Good luck figuring it out!