Gluten Free Problems

[JenneferJ]

We went gluten free on January 2 to try to help my ds11 M. He didn't gain weight appropriately and his doctor did blood work that showed he likely had celiac disease. Over the month M didn't notice any difference at all. Over the same month ds7 P started having problems getting to the potty on time. Not everyday or every meal, just sometimes. And by sometimes I mean 5 or so times a week. Unignoreable but hard to pinpoint. I didn't food journal his food because he wasn't my target M was. His issues were massively affecting not only his quality of life but everyone else's lives too.

After five weeks of strictly doing gluten free, we did a gluten trial. M had no significant issues. He does say that he is more tired and feels ickier. He wants to go back to gluten free. But P's sudden diarrhea went away as quickly as it started. He doesn't mind the gluten free food, but he really really doesn't want to have potty accidents anymore. For P's sake I really need to not do gluten free.

So any ideas of what to do? One kid needs a certain diet and another need to be NOT on the same diet. EEK! I don't have any idea of what is causing P's issue with the gluten free diet. P absolutely hates beans and nuts of any kind. We thought he was allergic to peanuts for years because of his intense aversion to them. But there was no peanuts in anything that we ate.

I am going to go crazy if I have to choose one child over another one. Wah!

[Emily30]

we do a combined home because my son gets constipated eating all gluten-free. So, I just have 2 different breads, different cereal, different crackers, etc... We do the gluten-free pasta though.

[frieze]

hmm...it would seem to me, if eating gluten alters a persons bowel status, they shouldn't eat gluten.....if they have diarhea gluten free, there is something else in their diet that needs to be changed.

[JenneferJ]

Thank you for the help.

I guess I will figure something out.

[GretaJane]

What new thing are you giving M when he was gluten-free? Beans and bean flour? Try gluten-free without bean products. Maybe its something else that you were introducing on the gluten-free diet.

[Cara in Boston]

I've never heard of something removed from the diet causing issues. It is more likely something different that he is eating that just happens to be in some gluten-free products. I did notice that the amount of fiber we were eating went way down when we went gluten-free (most gluten-free "substitute" products don't have much fiber or even nutrition . . .) We corrected this by eating mostly naturally gluten-free foods and making a point to get fiber from other sources (vegetables, avocado, popcorn, quinoa, etc.) We still buy gluten-free pasta and sandwich bread, but that is about it. It is really just junk food.

I doubt it was the removal of gluten.

I did find that when I went gluten-free, my GI symptoms got WORSE (along with withdrawal symptoms: headache, fatigue, etc.) in the first 10 days, then just vanished. My MD said that was normal and another indication that I should not be eating gluten. Your body wouldn't even notice it was missing if you don't actually have a problem with it.

Did you get the whole family tested? Maybe you should start with that.

Cara