D-borealis

I'm sure each kid is different but when we put our 2 and a half year old on a gluten free diet, her vocabularly actually doubled within weeks. With her the celiac disease has expressed itself almost entirely as neurological symptoms and I am certain gluten was delaying her speech. Best wishes!

Yes this also happened with my daughter. Unfortunately it hasn't improved and it's been 6 months. 

We found out our daughter has celiac disease about 6 months ago and have made all the necessary changes in our diet. Eating gluten free has been a positive change for our whole family and we've enjoyed finding new foods to eat instead of bread, pasta, etc. Unfortunately I am having trouble keeping our grocery budget under control (especially difficult during holiday season) and still keeping everyone happy and fed. Specifically I am looking for any ideas as far as affordable protein foods. Would love any advice on how folks shop and specific food ideas that are celiac-friendly but will allow us to continue paying our mortgage.

I wouldn't rule it out! I am still amazed at how many annoying behaviors in my 3 year old have been resolved since going gluten free. Alot of them were behaviors that I just thought were "due to her age" but they have completely gone away (and come back if she eats something she shouldn't have!) An example that relates to your situation is that my daughter was incredibly, incredibly picky about the clothing she would wear before, and literally we had a meltdown about it every single morning because we'd be unable to find a SINGLE ITEM OF CLOTHING she would agree to. That stopped probably after a month of gluten-free eating. So, you never know.

we saw improvements with our 2 year old within 2 days 

Wow!! Even Gluten Free oats huh? Good to know! What brand are they? I am glad to hear you figured it out!! 

I've used two brands one is prOatina and one is the Bob's red mill, both are certified gluten-free however apparently 20% of celiacs react to oat protein in and of itself and I think that is what's going on here.

Sounds exactly like my daughter, she also never complained of belly aches. Most of her symptoms were behavioral as well as her not having any appetite (perhaps nausea) and the dark circles/sleeplessness. I am so glad you may have found out how to help your son! It will change your life.  The biggest struggle for our family is realizing and accepting that we cannot eat out (or if we do, we must prepare a seperate meal for our daughter) and learning that foods that say "gluten free" are not necessarily gluten free. Alot of trial and error there but it's getting better and better.

Purely by accident, I believe I have discovered what was causing my daughter's drunken symptoms explained in a previous post. OATS.  We had been having certified gluten free oatmeal every morning for quite some time, and then just happened to run out. 3 days after not eating it for breakfast I realized the loopy behavior seemed to be diminishing. We are going to give it more time to see if things continue to improve, but I am quite hopeful that this is the ticket, and my daughter is one of those 20% of celiacs that also reacts to oats. I hope this discovery can help someone else that someday might experience the same, so I wanted to update.

 Certain gut bacteria produce alcohols as a byproduct, and you end up with drunk giggles. 

 

 

I was wondering about this possibility too and I think I am going to bring it up at our next appointment with our naturopath. We have her on probiotics currently. 

We got the results back from the urine analysis: everything was completely normal. Not sure whether to be sad or happy, the weird behaviors are still happening daily. 

The only other symptom besides the "loopiness" is that she is literally constantly hungry (or says she is). I mean, she will eat a meal, and then 5 minutes later ask to have breakfast again (or whatever) and eat a whole bunch more food.  ALL DAY LONG. Which is completely opposite of how she was with food before we found out about the celiac: back then she would go days eating nothing but tiny pieces of banana. 

Went to see another doctor today and she suspects it is blood sugar related. We are going to do urinalysis over the next few days to see if anything turns up 

I brought her in to our doctor a few days after it started happening and he didn't seem too concerned. He suggested hypo-glycemia related or due to exhaustion. After reading everyone's comments I feel like I ought to get a second opinion however.  It does seem to always be worse in the morning, and then again it comes back before bedtime. Will keep everyone updated as I find out more.

My daughter has been gluten-free for almost 4 months. For the most part her previous symptoms of clinginess, refusal to eat, frequent crying, etc. have resolved. There has been alot of trial and error as far as learning which foods are REALLY gluten free and which just say they are  but we are getting better and better at eliminating all sources from her diet. Her health is improving more and more. However, a new "symptom" has popped up in the last week that we didn't experience before. She has started to appear and act "drunk" or heavily drugged for long stretches of time throughout the day. She isn't in a bad mood per se, but just acts very loopy and uncoordinated, and even slurs her words. She also plays in a much more destructive and haphazard way during these times, and her speech is not only slurred but doesn't make sense. In her normal state, it is possible to have a mostly reasonable conversation with her (for her age) and her sentences mean something. During this "drunken" state, she will say things that make no sense, and repeat them over and over, sometimes just talking to herself.  The drunken state seems to switch both on and off quite suddenly, however once it has started it typically lasts for at least a few hours. Then suddenly it will be done, and she will be back to her regular self. 

She hasn't been sleeping well at all and I wonder if it is possible that she is just so exhausted at times and this is causing her to be slap-happy. But part of me wonders if I am STILL missing some gluten somewhere (we have been SO scrupulous, it seems impossible!)  or if this is a symptom of something else altogether. 

Any insight?

I am trying to pinpoint what has been causing reactions in my daughter over the last 2 weeks and I am down to Adam's peanut Butter. Our home is gluten-free so no chance a glutened utensil was double dipped into the jar. Apparently adam's doesn't have wheat in their facility but now I'm driving myself crazy wondering if the peanuts themselves were contaminated in the first place. Anyone?

UPDATE:  we have now successfully had a tuesday that wasn't terrible!   What did I do differently? Well, normally when I am working I drink loads of water and after scrutinizing every aspect of my job to find out where the gluten was coming from, realized I always:

1. drink water out of cups owned by the bakery, washed in the bakery's sinks, dried right next to the dough mixing area, and 

2. leave my cup of water uncovered all day in a bakery filled with airborne flour.

So this week, i took my own water bottle filled with water from home, kept the lid on at all times unless I was having a sip.

tuesday passed without a hitch. I think my water glass sitting out all day was just getting film after film of wheat flour on the top and I was nonchalantly slurping it up for 12 hours. 

Just wanted to update on this situation: the last two weekends I have showered and changed clothing (leaving contaminated clothing outside of the house)  before coming near my daughter, unfortunately with no improvement. Both weeks we still had the same intense behavioral and physical symptoms from monday night through tuesday evening. Was really hoping this would make a difference! It really does seem as though my breastmilk is somehow becoming contaminated just by my being in such a glutinous environment.  A mask is not an option for me as I work customer service and much of my job entails making a favorable impression on customers and speaking on a phone. So now? Either 100% wean from breastfeeding or quit my job. 

I think that it could happen.  Can you take the day off next Sunday and see what happens?

I would love to but they are short staffed right now. This would really be the ultimate test though and I plan to arrange this as soon as possible.  If it turned out to be the culprit I would probably consider quitting my job or fully weaning my daughter. The terrible tuesdays are truly awful and probably not worth the basically minimum wage $$ I make on sundays. 

My daughter and I have been gluten-free for about a month now and overall we have seen gradual but significant improvement in her health and mood. However I have noticed something odd - perhaps it is just a strange coincidence of some kind - but it seems as though every Tuesday she has a really bad day (as in, very crabby, won't eat anything, clingy, rash behind knees flares up) It is happening again today (tuesday!). The only thing I can think of that could correspond to a specific day of the week is that on SUNDAYS I work all day in a bakery. There is alot of airborne flour there however I do not eat any of the food that is made there including so called "gluten free" baked goods. Obviously, I also do not bring any of the food home from the bakery for my daughter to eat. 

My question is (and this sounds crazy to me, but it's all I can think of): is it possible that just by BREATHING in airborne flour it is somehow entering my breastmilk? She does still nurse quite often, and it is the lone connection I can think of between the flour at the bakery and what she is consuming. Can tiny particles of flour entering the lungs affect the composition of breastmilk? Any other ideas on this are welcome. Until I figure it out, I guess I will plan on "terrible tuesdays".

Hoping someone else has had this happen: My 2.5 year old was 99% potty trained 3 weeks ago (and had been for quite some time, can't remember when we last used diapers)...we then went gluten free and in the last two weeks she has completely un potty trained. Random pee accidents especially , sometimes right after she says she doesn't have to go.  Very confused about this, trying not to be too frustrated as I'm guessing it is somehow tied in with the diet change. Anyone else?

Thanks again everyone so great to hear your personal stories and challenges. Progress has continued to be 2 steps forward, 1 step back, over and over again..  We have bad days here and there and I can't tell if it is because she is still working things out of her system or if I accidently exposed her to gluten somehow. She has unfortunately un-potty trained over the course of the last week. It seems as though her brain is "reprogramming" in some sense of that word Overall, she is much happier though. I have also gone gluten free and feel much more alert. I feel a bit overwhelmed about all the possibilities for cross contamination, and the confusion of eating out. Still getting the hang of it.

About a week ago I posted about my toddler daughter and being exhausted by her behavior and various health problems. 

Well, we have now been gluten free for 2 weeks and after that absolutely horrid day last week  things have improved TREMENDOUSLY.  Her belly button infection completely vanished. She decided to potty train (even poop! even poop!) she has doubled her vocabulary, is giving us hugs and kisses for the first time, doesn't need me to hold her every second and HAS STARTED ACTUALLY EATING SIGNIFICANT QUANTITIES of solid food: she looks like she has already put on some weight. She is also laughing and smiling so much more. We are so excited and relieved and totally convinced that this has been the problem since birth behind so many issues we've had. 

There are a few puzzlers however and I'm hoping someone can shed the light on the mystery:

1. Her sleeping which has always been awful, has actually gotten quite a bit worse since going gluten free. Before she would sleep about 10 hours nightly waking up every 1 or 2 hours. Since changing her diet it has been only 7 hours nightly waking up every 45 minutes and she has been talking alot in her sleep. Her nap has also gotten shorter and more restless. This is been the one major downfall of going gluten free. Can anyone explain why this might be happening? 

2. Approximately one week into changing her diet, the skin behind her knees broke out into a very red, itchy rash. It is starting to go away, but still there. Is this related to the gluten leaving her body/detox? 

Thank you so much. Inspite of the knee rash and exceptionally poor sleeping, we are so glad we found out about the gluten issue she is siginficantly happier.

wow! thank you so much for the support and advice. It is such a relief to know that other people have been there. I have some progress to update on, and more questions, but will put them in a new  message. thanks again!

I have a 2.5 year old daughter who has been "high needs" since birth. Early on we discovered she was allergic to dairy and eliminated that from her and my diet (breastfeed, still breastfeeding) Except for a few phases in her life, she usually seems unhappy more often than not. This currently manifests itself in whining, tantrums, extreme clinginess among other things. She also has always been underweight, has severe tooth decay, intermittent mysterious rashes, and sleeps TERRIBLY (at most 2 hours at a time at night, all night) she also constantly wants to nurse. Lately all of this has gotten even worse, and I am starting to get burned out from being her mother. I often feel like I have nothing more to give her, and nothing makes her feel better, or happier. I finally brought her to a recommended naturopathic doctor and he suggested going gluten free for 4 weeks. Does this seem like a reasonable effort to you folks who have gluten intolerant children?

Since our visit to the doctor we have been Gluten-free for 1 week. It seemed like two of those days were slightly better: improved mood and sleeping. However, today I felt so discouraged as it seemed any progress I had been seeing went out the window: An entire day of whining and haven't been able to put her down without a total meltdown. So frustrated. Any help? This is my last ditch effort.