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Gluten Challenge?

TinkerbellSwt

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TinkerbellSwt Collaborator
TinkerbellSwt
Posted

Can someone explain to me exactly what a gluten challenge is? Is this something I should do?

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sleepingbean Newbie
sleepingbean
Posted
Can someone explain to me exactly what a gluten challenge is? Is this something I should do?

The medical and overwhelming recommendations from all I have encountered has been to do the standard medical testing BEFORE changing your diet or doing a gluten trial. However, there are those who do not wish to undergo the biopsy testing for reasons such as they don't want to put their babies or young children through the process, they don't have insurance or other.

We opted to do the gluten challenge before we even knew about the medical options. Our doctors were just not on the ball and I had never heard of Celiac disease, but I had to do something to help my daughter's chronic diarrhea, and we stumbled onto the autism diet (gluten and casein free), which is what worked so well for her!

The recommendations for a gluten challenge vary depending on where you find your info. Some say 2 weeks is ample. Others say 2 months, others day one year. It is true that while some will notice results quickly, others will not see results in 2 weeks time, so that is something to take into consideration.

As for if you should do one or not, that would be impossible for me to tell you, as I don't know your history or anything about what led you to this question, but I know that the gluten challenge did this for us: stopped my daughter's chronic diarrhea and in combinatino with SCDiet it reversed her autims diagnosis and stopped her autoimmune resopnses that were going on.

For myself it stopped my life long battle with terrible skin rashes and it also stopped my shakey hands and hypo glycemic responses.

So, we got our answers very quickly and they are too obvious to dispute, but others are not so lucky and it can take much longer of being strictly gluten free to let their bodies heal enough to begin absorbing properly and showing the benefits of a gluten free diet.

TinkerbellSwt Collaborator
TinkerbellSwt
Posted
  • Author

Thank you so much for your response. I dont think I need to do it as I was so sick, in the hospital, literally dying, because I had basically no nutrients in my body. I was hooked up to all kinds of fluids and massive pain meds. I got home like others, had problems digesting dairy, but for me that was a very short time. So I guess I dont need to challenge any gluten and just stay gluten free. Maybe its somthing I can do with my son when he gets a bit older to see what his diagnosis is? He just turned a year old and I keep him completely gluten free. In conjunction with his father. Our whole house is gluten free, except for one loaf of bread and some hot dog rolls.

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      By Zuma888 · Posted

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    • Zuma888
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      By Zuma888 · Posted

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    • trents
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      By trents · Posted

      Two weeks is the minimum according to the guideline. I would go for four weeks if you can endure it, just to make sure.
    • Zuma888
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      By Zuma888 · Posted

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    • trents
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      By trents · Posted

      It applies to both blood tests and biopsies. Guidelines for the gluten challenge have been revised for the very issue your question raises. It was felt by medical professionals that the longer term but less intense consumption of gluten approach was not proving to be reliable for testing purposes and was resulting in too many false negatives. But do keep in mind that the gluten consumption doesn't have to be in the form of bread slices. It can come in any form: pasta, cake, wraps, etc. Another approach would be to buy gluten powder at a health food store and mix it in a shake. The idea is to get at least 10g of gluten daily, whatever form it comes in.
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