Early High Dose Gluten Introduction Can Help Prevent Celiac Disease

I highly disagree with this article. We fed our daughter gluten at this early stage. I was unable to breastfeed and had to use formula. The formula we used had gluten. There were early signs there was something wrong but we couldn’t figure it out because this was 20 years ago when the doctors didn’t test for celiac disease. They just said she needed more iron. Feed her Cheerios. She ate Cheerios every day for a snack. It was finally in the  first grade when my daughters teacher suggested getting her tested. My daughter was off the charts. I do not believe this can prevent celiac disease. A small study does not a prevention make  

The study here looked at over 1,000 infants, rather than just one. Science requires much larger samples to find evidence of an effect that can be measured and applied to a larger population.

Vriezinga, et al, in 2014 published a double blind study comparing gluten at four months vs. delay until 6 months, with 944 randomized at-risk infants across 8 countries. Their conclusion: " At age 5 years the cumulative prevalence of celiac disease was 12.1%, and there was no significant difference in risk of celiac disease when comparing the intervention to the placebo group". Three years old is too early to tell, especially when so many people are misdiagnosed until well into their adulthood. Some of my symptoms started in early childhood and went away only after I started the gluten-free diet at age 64.

On 10/13/2020 at 11:35 AM, Guest Judy said:

Feed her Cheerios

In 1976 they told my wife to take Valium, until we found a doctor who diagnosed my son. He was biopsy diagnosed at around 6 months old.

I read researchers talk in the past, that if the mother fed her kid after 4 years old with gluten products, he would be less prone to develop celiac disease. But, I disagree  with the thesis because:

1) If the kid has one or both genes that causes celiac disease, his body is prone to trigger these genes, sometime during his life-- independently if he eats gluten at an early age.  

2) If he/she has these celiac auto-immune genes, the body can activate these genes when the body feels stress-- such as during pregnancy, taking antibiotics, water fasting or body injury. This, I've read from researchers of Stanford University, Mayo Clinic, etc. Thus, it wouldn't influence if the kid ate gluten at an early age. The person can also develop it by being exposed to high quantity of gluten during his life time. The typical age that someone is diagnosed with celiac disease is between 43-45 years of age.

I myself started to develop gluten intolerance and diagnosed with celiac disease recently, at the age 44 years old, even though I ate gluten since I was 4-5 years old. I did some lab tests and have one of those genes that can cause celiac disease. Thus, I don't believe that being exposed to gluten at an early age, protects you against gluten sensitivity. The bottom line is if you have the genes that causes celiac disease. If you have, you are at the group of risk to develop, sometime during your lifetime-- no matter at what age you start to eat gluten.  

Science evolves and this is a pretty solid study that does indicated that the better approach might be earlier introduction to gluten. It will be interesting to see if future research backs this up.