Learning Issues From Celiac?

[momof2sn]

Hello Everyone,

I have a five year old silly who was diagnosed at 21 months old. She has been gluten-free since the diagnosis.

My concern is she has appeared to have some difficulty remebering things. Her teacher said some days she is on it gets everything and then other days she appears to have no clue. I noticed memory issues before she started school and have never mentioned it to her teacher for example we have worked on her shapes for several years and she still can not get square and circle right. She seems to be so normal in every other way she just forgets things in a weird way.

Has anyone else experienced this with their silly, or any other learning issues??

Thanks for the help,

Shealey

[Mizzo]

My DD experienced some select memory issues early on , along with it came abrupt anger, crying jags and the inability to calm herself down. It took about 2-3 months after going gluten-free for those things to stop. It still happens if she gets glutened.

good luck

[dilettantesteph]

My son and I both experience memory issues when glutened. Lots of celiacs get what they call "brain fog".

[momof2sn]

My son and I both experience memory issues when glutened. Lots of celiacs get what they call "brain fog".

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I have heard people use that term before, but she is on a very strict gluten-free diet and her levels are always good. She has been gluten-free for over 3 yrs now!! Can some gluten still be sneaking through somehow??

[kareng]

I suppose she could have a learning issue. But I would want to rue a few things out before I jumped to any big conclusions. It's sporadic so some thoughts or things to watch for:

Is it certain types of info she doesn't get? Like letters or math or following a story, or following a list of directions?

Maybe what types or how much breakfast, snack, lunch? Does it happen when her blood sugar might be low or high? The days she eats cheese at breakfast?

How much sleep? The day after dance class she is more or less alert?

A certain subject? My boys w ould tune out a story about a princess unless there was a dragon. Maybe it's something she isn't interested in.

If you can see a pattern, then you can figure out how to help.

[T.H.]

My daughter and son both seem to have memory issues and learning difficulty when they get gluten. From our recent experience, I would say that gluten could very easily still be getting your daughter, sadly. My daughter didn't have symptoms that were recognizable at first (she was tested because I came back positive). When she started to develop symptoms to gluten (gut pain, and then crying, mental difficulties associated with it), we were given more of a clue when she got glutened, and sometimes it was was from gluten-free food that we thought she could eat. We are very strict in her diet, but she was still getting sick.

I think some of the trouble is that 'gluten free' doesn't actually mean 'no gluten.' It's more 'really low gluten.' 20ppm or less if the most common standard in the US, from what I've seen.

The first problem with that is that, just like a low calorie diet can give us lots of calories if we eat too much of it, a 'really low gluten' diet can still give us too much gluten if many of the gluten-free products are eaten. That is something that was causing trouble with my daughter that took us a while to figure out. Like, she could have one piece of gluten-free pizza, but more than that and she'd get sick. And no other gluten-free crackers or cookies, etc... during the day or she'd be ill, too.

The second problem with the 'really low gluten' is that individuals have differing levels of sensitivity to gluten, so some can still react to lower levels of gluten than others. My father and brother, both celiacs, can eat most gluten-free food with no trouble. I thought my daughter could as well, but when she developed the gut pain symptoms, we very quickly realized that foods which contained 20 ppm of gluten or less were still too much gluten for her.

Foods that are 10ppm or less (we had to call the companies to ask every single one what ppm they tested under), she seems to be okay with. We've noticed, however, that some of these foods that seemed okay, that caused no gut pain, she would have other issues after eating: trouble with thinking, understanding, more emotional distress - just at lower levels than WITH the gut pain. So we experimented, and if we drop that food altogether? The mental issues disappear. So even without the gut issues, I am pretty convinced that gluten was causing some trouble for my little midget.

It's possible that even though you are being very strict with the diet for your little one, she may still be getting enough gluten from low levels for it to affect her, if she's a bit more sensitive. The two biggest surprise gluten CC culprits for us were beans and shelled nuts. Processing often gets these CC'd. Both my daughter and I have been sick off of these.

Oh, one last thing? Some people who are celiac seem to either become more sensitive to gluten after they go gluten free, or they develop new symptoms to getting glutened. I don't know a lot about it, honestly, just anecdotal evidence, but it held true for all 4 celiacs in my family, to differing degrees.

[dilettantesteph]

My personal experience is about the same as T.H.'s and she explains it so well. My son and had to give up processed gluten free foods to be symptom free. Your daughter could still be getting gluten. You can keep a food diary and see what she eats when she has more problems. Probably some of her foods are worse than others, or maybe it is the amount of them she eats. You may not have to cut them all out.

[srall]

One of the many reasons I moved my daughter to a gluten free diet was that in kindergarten and 1st grade she'd been placed in accelerated learning groups, and by second grade was put in a remedial spelling group and placed several reading levels behind where she'd been placed at the end of first grade. She was struggling with simple math and just seemed foggy. As I said this wasn't her only symptom, but even one week gluten free I noticed a difference when doing homework with her. She has been gluten free for a very short time so I'm hoping for more improvement in all areas.

I believe she needs to get entirely off the processed food too. That is our next big struggle. For right now I'm trying to be gluten free and keep moving us in the right direction. It's such a huge shift for her. I also noticed she was feeling really well until Halloween and even though I checked all her candy, I think the corn syrup completely screwed up her system again.

It's so hard to get answers for these kids, but I believe the diet of most kids these days is so awful....I'm just hoping I can shape help shape my daughter's approach to healthy eating without causing an eating disorder or have her rebel against me by eating dangerous food.

[taweavmo3]

You might also think about having her evaluated for a learning disability. My daughter has been gluten free since the age of 3, but it didn't clear up all of her learning issues.

She has an expressive/receptive delay. It wasn't overtly obvious, had I not had her evaluated, it would have probably just seemed like she was lazy and didn't want to try. She's been in speech therapy for 5 years now, and although she'll always struggle a bit in school, she has also learned the tools to help her cope.

Hope that helps! Learning disabilities can be hard to detect, even for teachers. I always encourage parents to get a good evaluation to be on the safe side! If caught early, it's much easier on the child. Good luck