Extreme Sensitivity To Sounds?

[Nads]

I am gluten intolerant and suspect my teenage daughter is as well. She has a lot of anxiety and depression. In the last six months she has become so sensitive to sounds that she gets upset whenever someone opens a door, chews loudly or even just clears their throat. I am wondering if any of you have kids with this issue? She doesn't have a lot of GI issues but I read that children don't always have them as a symptom. Wondering if this has been your experience with any of your kids?

She is trying a gluten free diet (2 weeks now) but haven't see a huge difference yet. She may be slightly less anxious but hard to tell. I want her to take a multivitamin supplement but she has trouble swallowing pills. She eats hardly any veggies and I can't figure out how to make them so she will like them. Any ideas here also appreciated.

Thanks

[T.H.]

Both my daughter and I have sensitivity to sound more when we get glutened, yeah. It's most noticeable in crowds, but I've had low music, a squeaky door, or even someone whistling feel like an assault on the eardrums. My daughter also tends to get the same thing with her skin, where the slightest touch is perceived as uncomfortable or painful.

I haven't seen these ever listed under traditional symptoms, though, so I can't swear to the following, but I think they would fall under the 'neurological' symptoms category. For those, sometimes it takes a while to heal up, months, sometimes.

What is she having on her gluten free diet? If she's having a lot of processed gluten-free foods, she might still be getting enough gluten to make her not heal (if she's gluten intolerant). Because 'gluten free' is really 'gluten extra-lite.' Kind of like low calories food - you eat enough, and you still have problems, ya know?

Also, with my daughter, we took her off all 8 major allergens along with gluten, kept a food journal and slowly added them back in, and THAT was when we really noticed a difference. She has trouble with a few other foods, too.

[stillpine]

  On 3/22/2011 at 5:10 AM, T.H. said:

Both my daughter and I have sensitivity to sound more when we get glutened, yeah. It's most noticeable in crowds, but I've had low music, a squeaky door, or even someone whistling feel like an assault on the eardrums. My daughter also tends to get the same thing with her skin, where the slightest touch is perceived as uncomfortable or painful.

I haven't seen these ever listed under traditional symptoms, though, so I can't swear to the following, but I think they would fall under the 'neurological' symptoms category. For those, sometimes it takes a while to heal up, months, sometimes.

What is she having on her gluten free diet? If she's having a lot of processed gluten-free foods, she might still be getting enough gluten to make her not heal (if she's gluten intolerant). Because 'gluten free' is really 'gluten extra-lite.' Kind of like low calories food - you eat enough, and you still have problems, ya know?

Also, with my daughter, we took her off all 8 major allergens along with gluten, kept a food journal and slowly added them back in, and THAT was when we really noticed a difference. She has trouble with a few other foods, too.

I'm a 40 y.o. male and have been extremely sensitive to sounds, touch, even light when things are going bad for me. Since having kids, about 7 years ago, I've kept earplugs with me almost all the time.

It's so tough because I hate having my boys be so quiet just for me, and my wife is supportive, but I love them so much and try to find every way to let them play free without feeling "wrong" or stifled for making normal kid noises.

I didn't know about having celiac until about 7 yrs ago, but looking back, I used to get bothered when my mom would clear her throat and chew her food. Just felt like ever sound grated on raw nerves and got worse with age.

I'm thinking of getting a device for the hearing impaired that you wear and used headphones so that I can put those "ear buds" that plug noise out in my ears. Then turn the device up a bit when I need to hear or down when I need peace. Tight earplugs get irritating on the ears and hold in moisture, so it I want a change. I may try "piping" in some white noise with an ipod or something using a 'Y' jack just to stabilize the sound ambience. I've also considered hunters' or sportsmen's sound cancelers that block loud bursts of noise. I just have a feeling they only block real loud noise and not the ordinary noise that bothers folks like us with nerve damage/sensitivity.

Sorry to hear the trouble. Gotta be creative sometimes...

[eatmeat4good]

My son had extreme sensitivity to noise. He always told me to stop yelling and I would be talking in my normal tone of voice. I was so concerned for so long since his personality changed. Short tempered and gluten ataxia too which we just thought was family clumsiness. Right. He wouldn't be able to go to those kids places with lots of games and noise since he simply couldn't tolerate it. Later the depression and brain fog. It was totally and definitely related to gluten. Did NOT figure this out until he was 16 though. But his improvement has been rapid and miraculous. He now listens to his music loudly like every other teenager whereas before he would literally beg me not to play music in the house.

It has got to be neurological. He is only 6 months gluten free and almost all of the hearing sensitivity is gone. He is thrilled and so am I. I hope it improves for you.

On another note, hearing sensitivity is also a salicylate intolerance symptom. It can also cause other symptoms. Some people have to limit their intake of fruits an vegetables because of it, in addition to coconut oil, wintergreen, almonds as they are very high in sals.

I can also say that my son and I both couldn't tolerate the tastes of some foods, mostly vegetables, but the sense of taste is very much improved for both of us in the six months being gluten free.

It is very strange the wide myriad of symptoms gluten can cause. No wonder we never figured it out for years. But now all sorts of things are disappearing and it is just amazing.

I hope your symptoms improve as well as ours did.

[mommida]

I had taken a decongestant and it raised my blood pressure. Sounds were unbearable, I felt like crying. I did end up in the ER with chest pain and a rapid heartbeat three days after taking the medication. About 2 months after that I had a gallbladder attack and had it removed.

Seriously, go to a doctor to find out what the underlaying cause could be.

[Mizzo]

My girl has a hard time eating veggies also. I have slowly worked upto a spoonful of peas or 2 asparagus spears or a couple of broccoli stems cause she won't eat the florettes etc.. you get the picture. this has been a slow process over the last 9months to get to this amount.

Applesauce , Ranch dressing , ketchup and mustard help. : )

She has had a tendancy to gag and throw up her food if she THINKS it doesn't taste good, and in her mind all green veggies are yucky.

I process mushroom, eggplant, zuchini, carrot. peppers , onion etc.. whatever I feel would taste good and hide it in my meatballs, meatloaf, burgers (works really well with Turkey burgers cause they need flavor added anyways) I have even added carrot and eggplant into my spaghettie sauce with no one the wiser.

I process the veggies not dice them cause that didn't work, she would taste the bits and spits them out. She will eat carrots willingly so I give her a couple at lunch and a green veg at dinner. She should be eating 2x as much as she is but we are a mile ahead of where we were last year so I am happy with the progress.

I supplement with Fiber gummies and leave the skin on fruit etc.. whenever I can. Also, I add Zuchini to muffins .

good luck

[gf-soph]

I had had problems with noise sensitivity, though for me I think it is more related to other food intolerances than to gluten, as it has actually been worse since i've been gluten free.

When I am having a food reaction I am very sensitive to noises, I will literally jump at a small thing. I think it's related to FODMAPS, though there is a chance it is related to salicylates. I have to continue testing to find out.

I have also found that food reactions can cause sinus swelling, which block my eustacheon tubes and causes ear pressure, which also causes noise sensitivity.