How Long Before Child's Symptoms Improved?

[MeganP]

My 3.5 year old daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease through a biopsy about 3 weeks ago. Beginning in August of this year, she was vomiting sporadically, complaining about belly pain, and acting lethargic and moody. She has always been underweight and a very picky/sparse eater, but was otherwise healthy until August. We started the gluten free diet immediately and have pretty much made our entire house gluten free. We've done our best to avoid cross-contamination and have made sure her vitamins, toothpaste, etc. are gluten free. (I haven't gotten gluten free shampoo or new cooking utensils, etc. yet, though).

Since starting the gluten free diet, it seems like our daughter is getting better instead of worse. She has been especially lethargic and moody and thrown a lot of tantrums over the past week and a half. She complains that her belly hurts constantly. Has anyone else experienced this? I understand that it can take up to 3-6 months for her to feel better, but I didn't expect her have no improvement at all and to actually get worse. I'm wondering if it could be some normal withdrawal or healing process, or if something else is going on. Thanks for any advice.

[Roda]

My 6 year old became more emotional and had worse temper tantrums for about 2 weeks after he went gluten free. I think he was having gluten withdrawl. It started to level off after that. It was around the 2 month mark that we realized that the moodiness, temper tantrums, and his obcessive behavior over his shoes were gone!

You may want to go ahead and replace the shampoo and anything else that could be contributing to cross contamination in case that is contributing to the problem. Give it some more time, and see what happens. As far as the belly aches, is she still consuming dairy? A lot of people have trouble with dairy because of the damaged villi. The villi produce lactase to digest the lactose in dairy. You could try eliminating it to see if you notice any difference.

Also, did they check her vitamin and mineral levels? Celiac's are often deficient in some or all. That could be causing problems also. Vitamin D, iron, ferritin, Vitamin B12 are commom ones to be low. There are other ones also. I would request a full vitamin and mineral panel.

[eatmeat4good]

I'm not a child, but my stomach hurt really bad the first month I was gluten free. I was terribly lethargic and slept like 12 hours a day. I was strictly gluten free, but the withdrawal effects of gluten and just the recovery from what all that gluten did to my body...took time to heal. Moody and tired...and nauseous is how I would describe the first weeks. It must be that much more so for a child. Many people have withdrawal effects from gluten. It can be pretty bad for some people. If you are careful about cross-contamination and making sure she gets no trace gluten...it should pass in a few weeks. However, the only way I could handle the stomach pain and nausea was to visualize that it was my "baby villi" trying to grow back. But what can a child do to help themselves through the pain? Be patient, kind and understanding and hopefully her little body will adjust in a few more weeks. It sounds like a really long time...but I assure you she is probably doing her best to cope...moodiness comes from not feeling well. Just wanted you to know it can be common and I have read of it often in posts on here...the withdrawal effects and feeling worse before feeling better. Make sure you double check everything for gluten to be sure that isn't what is effecting her, but other than that just patience and good food. Of course if it doesn't settle down soon, talk to your Dr. but from what I have experienced and read of other's experiences, it sounds fairly common.