Headaches & Moody

[adena]

My 10 year old daughter with celiac often gets headaches and is quite moody...her diet is completely gluten free so it's not coming from that...does anyone have experience with this? I was thinking of consulting a homeopath for a remedy to help her with this, as a better alternative to motrin/tylenol all the time! Hoping to hear some similar experiences and hopefully success stories...

[dilettantesteph]

Moodiness is both of my children's biggest symptom of gluten cc. Is she eating a lot of processed foods? Getting cc somewhere else? At home? At school?

[weluvgators]

We found relief for our dd's frequent headaches by doing another round of diet evaluation. We had to eliminate the gluten free processed foods to see improvement, and we implemented more stringent food sourcing and washing protocols. For our DD with headaches, it seemed that eliminating the remaining gluten free processed food was enough to give her relief from the headaches. We also have mood regulation disruptions when we get into gluten, even if it is only ridiculously low levels of trace gluten. I never did figure out any other effective headache relief for our DD, and I would love to hear if you figure something out! We did try to make sure that she was staying well hydrated, and we also did another rundown in her room of addressing any potential allergen issues, including purchase of all new pillows. Reevlauating the diet is what finally worked though.

Are there any particular foods that your DD craves? Is she in a shared household? If so, how are you managing CC potential? Is any gluten based baking or other activity happening at home or in school? Airborne gluten exposure is a huge trigger for me and headache/sinus pain. Are these allergy type headaches? or some other type of headache?

Good luck!

[Mizzo]

Ditto for us with the cc issue's, headaches and moodiness and red under the eyes are a pretty clear indicator of getting gluten. I know it's not coming from home but mostly from school. Particularly in the classroom where they still snack at their desks.. and the other day she came home with a clay model that contained gluten. No matter how many times you say something things still get missed. My girl is in 2nd grade and these things are still an issue.

I also am growing concerned over processed foods. I may have to do an elimination of her favorite (no gluten containing but does not specify gluten free) snacks. sigh!

[srall]

My daughter is also in 2nd grade and I also ditto the above posters' responses. I feel like we have such a delicate balance of having to eat the exact right foods and vitamins or mayhem ensues. We just had a round of tantrums this weekend and I think it's a different brand of vitamins, but now we have to tear the diet down AGAIN and start over. Just today I had the new pastor at our church ask me about "what the issues with my daughter were...and is there a name for it?" He was talking about behavior issues, not diet. I think if she were in another family she'd be trotted down to the pediatrician for some medication, but after all the research I've done the past year there is no way we're going that route. So I know it's a challenge when YOU know what they need to be eating, but making that happen is so hard, and the smallest amount of something can unravel all the hard work. I guess I'd get the processed foods out and make sure the house if gluten free just as a starting point.

[seezee]

There's also the added twist that most 10-year old girls are moody. I can never tell if it's regular 12-year-old hormones which they all seem to get or gluten.