Wheat Free But Not Gluten Free

[Schatz]

I'd like to have my sons tested with a blood panel. The thing is my son tested positive for a wheat allergy about 2 years ago. He hasn't eaten wheat since....at least not much. He gets a bad stomach ache.

He has not been gluten free though. He continued to eat barley, rye, and oat products. Would he have to eat wheat for awhile before having a blood panel?

[mushroom]

I'd like to have my sons tested with a blood panel. The thing is my son tested positive for a wheat allergy about 2 years ago. He hasn't eaten wheat since....at least not much. He gets a bad stomach ache.

He has not been gluten free though. He continued to eat barley, rye, and oat products. Would he have to eat wheat for awhile before having a blood panel?

Since wheat makes up the greatest bulk of the gluten ingested by the average person (no reference for this, it is just the most ubiquitous gluten ingredient), it is very hard to estimate how much gluten your son would be ingesting with only rye, barley, and potentially cross-contaminated oats (the oats themselves do not contain native gluten). - - probably actually very little. But it only takes a small amount of gluten for someone to react (and get a bad stomach ache) once the bulk of gluten is removed from the diet. It would probably be easier to remove the rest of the gluten and see if his stomach improved - then you would know he was gluten sensitive, not just wheat.

I would hazard a guess that he would be like everyone else doing a gluten challenge - that he would need a full gluten diet for at least two months for an accurate celiac blood panel. The amount of gluten it takes to react to versus the amount necessary to test positive on blood work are not, unfortunately, one and the same.

[tarnalberry]

As long as he's eating a couple servings of barley or rye every day, the testing should be as accurate as it ever is (which isn't saying a lot...).

[Schatz]

He will be tested, and in the mean time I'm having him eat small portions of wheat as well. He ate a grilled cheese with regular bread last night and didn't get a stomach ache. He did have problems sleeping though.