Starting To Regress

[Ruth Talbott]

Hi all!

I've been having a lot of trouble lately with pain returning in my stomach. I was diagnosed in March of 2010, and I was really improving on the gluten free diet (4 months gluten-free).

However, lately I'm having lots of pain at night and it only seems to get worse each passing day. Now during the day I have this constant ache. I'm almost certain it's a gluten problem, but I watch my diet very closely, checking labels, etc... The only place I could be getting it is from cross-contamination, but why is it all of the sudden effecting me so badly. And how do I avoid it if I react so badly to it? It's almost impossible to avoid it all, especially living with a family member who has IBS and eats gluten like it's going out of season. I also have a handful of people who cook for me who are extremely cautious, but could be cross-contaminating. I've begun to lose my appetite again because I'm afraid of anything I put in my mouth.

Any helpful ideas, suggestions would be great.

[dilettantesteph]

I got more sensitive to smaller amounts of gluten as time went on. I have read about others too. Can you do all your own cooking so that you can be really careful yourself? Some of us have problems with grain cross contamination. Some of us have problems with things made on shared lines. It sounds like you need to clean up your diet a bit. Maybe first try cooking for yourself. If that doesn't do it, then avoid the shared lines, then the shared facilities, then processed grains. I hope you feel better.

[starrytrekchic]

If you had blood tests before, you should have them again--to compare and see if you're still getting gluten in your diet. It could be from shared cooking equipment, products that were cc'd in factory, pet foods, beauty supplies/shampoo, etc., craft or home improvement material, drinks (like flavored coffee), medications and supplements--if you're still getting gluten, you have have to look outside of food to find other sources.

It's common to get more sensitive in the early stages of the diet. If you continue to have problems, you'll need to revisit your doc to discuss other things (it may not even be celiac-related.) It may also be that you're reacting to other foods (other temporary allergies and intolerances will crop up as you heal.) In that case you may want to have testing done to rule out these.