Son, Gluten And Possible Seizures

[regmama]

My husband was noticing that our son was having staring spells where he couldn't get our son's attention (our son is 1). When I was home on vacation they were happening almost every day. I think he had them before and I just thought he was being moody (he always seemed moody). My mom witnessed one of these spells and said that it looks like and absence seizure to her. Needless to say that night I didn't sleep much, just went about looking up absence seizure information on the internet until the weekend was over and we could call the doctor to set up an appointment. Doing this research I came across this site (as well as others) suggesting that some seizures can be a result of gluten sensitivity. So, the next day I thought it wouldn't hurt to try and take the gluten out of his diet (and mine since I still breastfeed him). Since doing that not only is he no longer a clingy moody child, but he has not had a staring spell (possible seizure) but he still sometimes blinks rapidly every once-in-a-while but without the staring that usually followed. We're taking him for an EEG next week, but I never would have connected gluten to any of his issues.

My mom even asked me what happened to him that he has such a different personality now. To me, I'm satisfied having him gluten-free without a diagnosis (why would I ever give him gluten just so that he can be tested and be a complete crab all the time not to mention him not wanting to eat). I should have thought something was up, he's the only child I know who won't eat a Cheerio, will lick the peanut butter off a piece of bread, suck the salt off of crackers then spit them out, pick the chocolate chips out of the cookies or pancakes, etc.

Have any of you gone through something similar without having an official test. Any regrets?

[Lisa]

Hello and Welcome! I have witnessed an absence seizure in a little one in my life when she was around the same age as your son. It's pretty concerning.

You may be on to something. Some days she's calm and content, other days she's hyper. She's not always gluten free at my house, but I'm thinking that will change.

You sound like a great mom. I wish you continued success.

[rosetapper23]

At celiac conferences, mothers have often stated that their babies and toddlers with celiac disease were moody and clingy before going gluten free....and the staring "thing" has also been described. With celiac--and particularly in babies and children--the frontal lobes can be deprived of oxygen, causing neurological problems.

You're a bright mom to have caught this so early!

[Lisa]

At celiac conferences, mothers have often stated that their babies and toddlers with celiac disease were moody and clingy before going gluten free....and the staring "thing" has also been described. With celiac--and particularly in babies and children--the frontal lobes can be deprived of oxygen, causing neurological problems.

You're a bright mom to have caught this so early!

Rose, I'd be interested to learning more about the Celiac connection. If you can find any research or lectures from the conferences, it would be great. Thanks

[Bluemoments9]

I don't have an answer for you but we have had similar issues here. My daughter is 15 mos old and for the last few months has also had absent seizure like behavior. She had an EEG done last week (we don't have results yet) and was supposed to have had her MRI Monday but she was sick so we have to reschedule. We have done testing for Celiac and while we don't have a Celiac diagnosis, she was DQ8 positive and she has shown improvement with being gluten free for the past 5 weeks. The episodes are really hard to catch but I haven't seen any since a week after eliminating gluten. I really believe there is a connection!