Fell Off The Wagon And Feel Sooo Bloated And Icky

[norahsmommy]

I have been gluten free for about 3 months since I am nursing a gluten intolerant child. She is mostly weaned now and I was out and about and didn't want to cook so I picked up McDonald's, then today I ate regular Christmas cookies. I feel sooooo icky, bloated and quite frankly passing gas that would knock an elephant over. Its sooo very stinky it repels ME. I have had diarrhea and floaty greasy stools too. I was wondering if this is because I ate garbage or because I ate gluten? I had summer sausage about a month ago at my mom's house and the same thing happened. I don't know if summer sausage has gluten in it. Oh and right after going off gluten for a couple of weeks my dh took me to pizza hut and I had a beer that night as well, the same thing happened. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if I am also gluten intolerant since my daughter most likely is. I say most likely because we haven't had her tested for celiac yet because the doc keeps making us do skin scratch tests at the allergist. Not really sure what he is trying to prove with those. THey always come up negative. However the allergist said to keep her gluten free until the next visit.

[Skylark]

It sure sounds like you have gluten intolerance. All the symptoms you describe really fit. Some sausages have grain fillers. You might test one more time with something really simple like French bread or Triscuits if you're not convinced it wasn't just a dose of junk food.

I don't know about the scratch tests. I scratch tested positive to wheat as a child, but didn't test as celiac because I wasn't eating wheat. (It made me colicky.) On the bright side, my "wheat allergy" meant I was kept off wheat for my childhood and I am normal height because my gluten exposure was relatively low.

You know that you can't test your daughter for celiac if she's gluten free, right? The tests look for antibodies that gluten triggers and usually only work on people eating a full gluten diet. Even then, they have a 20% false negative rate in adults and my understanding is that they're worse for kids.

[GFinDC]

The scratch tests are for food allergies. Celiac is not a food allergy though, it is a food intolerance. No harm testing for both, but you need different tests for celiac. The celiac tests are done by checking the blood for antibodies to gluten. They usually call it a celiac panel. You do have to stay on gluten until the blood is drawn though or the antibodies probably won't show up. Another test is an endoscopy to take biopsy samples from the small intestine. IMHO if you have the antibodies in your bloodstream the endoscopy is not needed. The tricky thing is the antibodies are not always present in the bloodstream but you can still have celiac or gluten intolerance. So a diet trial for 3 to 6 months is a good idea even if the antibodies don't show as positive.