3 year old gluten intolerance?

[Nicbent35]

Hi, I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter..I would say she has had tantrums since even before she was a year old. Challenging but not extreme. Lately, her behavior had gotten extreme. Just so angry, yelling mean hateful things, completely defiant, was causing a lot of disruption in our house, I felt like I had lost the little girl I knew, we were baffled.
 

Something just didn’t seem right to me, I have been researching and read about how gluten can sometimes affect kids behavior. I took her off gluten a week ago tomorrow. The next couple days after I took her off gluten the days were much easier. About 4 days in she had one of the worst days I’ve seen her have tho. I kept on with it tho and the past two days she has been angelic. Is this common that if it is gluten that she could still have a bad day like that a few days after taking her off of it? Should I try to reintroduce it at some point to see if it’s really a gluten intolerance?

I’m not gonna lie, if she continues with the great behavior she’s had the past couple days I will probably be scared to reintroduce it but don’t want her to have to avoid gluten if it’s not necessary. Anyone have advice? 

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, @Nicbent35!

There is something called gluten withdrawal that might have come into play here as well. As strange as it might sound, gluten has some addictive properties similar to opiates and some people feel physically and emotionally out of sorts for a few weeks after it is removed from their diet.

There are two recognized gluten disorders, celiac disease (aka, "gluten intolerance") and Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (aka, NCGS or just "gluten sensitivity" for short). They have symptoms that overlap. The difference is that celiac disease is an autoimmune condition that causes inflammation in the small bowel lining and, over time, damages the lining of the small bowel. There are specialized blood antibody tests that have been developed for diagnosing celiac disease. NCGS, on the other hand, does not damage the lining of the small bowel. No tests are yet available for NCGS. Celiac disease must first be ruled out in order to arrive at a diagnosis of NCGS but NCGS is 10x more common than celiac disease.

Please be aware that if your daughter is on a gluten free diet, the celiac disease blood antibody tests will not give valid results. For the testing to be valid, she would need to have been eating normal amounts of gluten for weeks/months leading up to the day of the blood draw. If you remove gluten from her diet as an experiment, valid testing can be done later on but she would need to be restarted on gluten for weeks/months ahead of the blood draw. Also be aware that once on a gluten free diet, restarting gluten can produce more severe symptoms because all tolerance may have been lost.

[Nicbent35]

Thank you for all that helpful info, does that mean it’s not a good idea to do what I’m doing? Or since it’s only been a week should I see if I could get her tested now? Would it show up still since it hasn’t been long if they tested her?

[Wheatwacked]

Hi @Nicbent35,

     

2 hours ago, Nicbent35 said:

don’t want her to have to avoid gluten if it’s not necessary.

      When my son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease when he was weaned, so I understand your frustration.

      With improvement so dramatic, it cannot be a coincedence.

Get her to the doctor and tell the story and insist on testing.  In the meantime, though, continue on GFD.  Her health is more important than convincing a doctor.  Bring videos of her behaviors if you can.  Even if the blood tests and biopsy prove negative, that is part of the diagnosis process for NCGS and later when she is recovered you can always do a Gluten Challenge.

     This is an important time in her developement.  Celiac Disease causes malabsorption syndrome, leading to malnutrition, regardles of what she eats.  Though NCGS may not cause malabsorption, it will affect food choices which can lead to malnutrition.  There may be benifits that an official diagnosis may have, but they don't trump a healthy child.

     Get her healthy, then worry about validation later.  Celiac Disease is difficult to diagnosed, especially in children, because doctors look for antibodies in the blood and young children have immature immune systems.  Also you don't mention any gastrologic symtoms and celiac disease is traditionally considered gastrolic only.  Not true.  There are over 200 symptom that celiac disease and the accompaning malnutrion mimics or causes that often causes misdiagnosis and delay in recovery.

While at the doctors, ask them about vitamin D deficiency and Iodine deficiency in particular. Milk being the primary source of iodine in the diet, but concerns exist regarding the lower iodine content in organic milk and reduced milk consumption in certain demographics.  Vitamin D deficiency is 40% of the industrialized population and a recent study in the Great Britain showed a wopping 60%, beaten only by some areas of Canada at 70%. And B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6.  Deficiencies in these are common in untreated Celiac Disease and they affect energy production.

Quote

Thus, regardless of study design, iodine deficiency had a substantial impact on mental development.  Iodine and Mental Development of Children 5 Years Old and Under

Are You Confused About Your Celiac Disease Lab Results?

[Wheatwacked]

If you mean continueing on Gluten Free my answer is yes.  She showed significant improvement in her behavior and that translates to a happy family.  Do get her tested as sooon as you can.  You might want to investigate genetic testing for Celiac Disease.  Children recover more quickly than adults.  It took my son about 6 months on Nutramigen before going to regular food, gluten free.  Blood tests are not always accurate in very young children. You may be advised to see a gastroenterologist instead of relying on blood tests results.

Logic: She is better off gluten than before.  Wheat flour has no nutritional value and has an omega 6: omega 3 ratio of 22:1.  Our bodies do better at 3:1.  Omega 6 causes inflammation.

When my son was diagnosed, back in 1976, his doctor recommended my wife and I also go gluten free.  We declined and lived to regret it.  I started GFD at 63 and have spent the last 10 years undoing the damage, some of my symptons went all the way back to my childhood and things I lived with all my life got better.

Edited 5 hours ago by Wheatwacked