Suddenly Craving Veggies After Going Gluten-Free?

[kaismom]

Hello, new here. My name is Bridget. My son is 4 and a half I suspect has celiac. He weighs 32 lbs now but stayed the same size from about 12 mos to three years old at 20lbs. He's been right around 30 lbs for almost a year. I've switched pedis about 6 times but they all tell me he is fine. He actually was tested for celiac at 3 with a very traumatic, failed 3 times, blood draw that has left him terrified of drs. But no one mentioned to me at the time that a test would not be accurate at that age. I recently began a general food allergy research mission since he is not growing, dark circles under his eyes, general malaise and lack of energy, just "off". My search led me to Celiac so we are going to try gluten free as a family to see if it helps him.

So we've been gluten free for 2 weeks now (with a few missteps along the way. It's a learning process!) He normally is an extremely picky eater and the only thing I could get him to eat on a regular basis was my homemade whole wheat bread and oatmeal. It's all he wanted sometimes 3 times a day and since I want him to grow I just made it as healthful as I could and let him at it. How disheartened I am to learn that possibly I was making everything harder for him! Oh, the guilt!

I have read that sometimes people who cannot tolerate gluten actually crave it which would be the case with him. Now I wonder if the cravings were drowning out his bodies ability to crave what it actually needs. For the past week he has eaten more vegetables than I have ever seen him eat. He will ask me for raw veggies if he sees me chopping them to prepare soup! He also at two salads at dinner tonight! I cannot even begine to describe how crazy it is for him to do that.

Do I chalk it up to coincidence or is this something that could reasonably be a result of the diet change?

[GFSAHmom]

My son was a very picky eater before going gluten free. He craved Cream of Wheat all time! ( that's if he would eat) After going gluten free, He'll eat anything! And he's more willing to try new things. I think it's because they are learning they can trust food. And it's making them feel good:) I dont know the science of it but i bet that's not a coinsidence!

[Cara in Boston]

My son was diagnosed at age 6. He was an average/picky eater and within weeks he completely changed. He will eat/try anything. He even LOVES food he used to complain about (same recipe, different kid?) It is not like he slowly grew out of it, it was seemingly overnight. He is the best eater in the house now.