How Long Before Symptoms Begin To Go Away?

[Michelle2012]

My 4.5 yo son was diagnosed with celiac last week. Since November he has complained of chronic abdominal pain. His blood test came back positive and a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. He has been suffering from severe headache, abdominal pain and bloating and constipation (although I didn't realize it was from the celiac until recently).

He has been gluten free for only 4 days and still complains of a horrible belly ache every day. He doesn't want to eat and I can't tell if it is because he finds gluten-free food boring or if its because he is still in pain.

How long before your children started to show signs of improvement?

[Mizzo]

For us it was a few days for the first signs of improvement but up to 2 months for all her symptoms to go away. Lactose was a problem for us as well we had to strictly reduce it.

[Avalon451]

I agree, you might want to go very simple, whole foods for awhile-- plain chicken, plain veggies and fruits, no dairy. Dairy especially seems to mess us up the first few months while we are healing.

Have him help you fix his plate. Cut up his food into bite sized pieces and let him arrange it into a pattern. My kids used to make smiley faces, flags, etc. with their foods this way, when they were picky eaters at that age. Then they gobbled it up because it looked cool.

My kids have only been gluten-free for 3 1/2 weeks, but then they didn't have a whole lot of stomach issues, before, anyway. My youngest had the occasional belly ache. But I've also heard that they can have gluten withdrawal symptoms; and this did happen with her. She felt flu-ey with a stomach ache and feeling alternately hot and cold for a couple of days, at the end of the first week. Then she perked up, and I haven't heard anything more about tummy aches since then.

Hope he's feeling better soon!