Gluten Allergy Peeps

[ironbutterfly]

Hey everyone:wavy:

I know we have many gluten allergy suffering peeps here. I have read here I believe, that gluten allergies can cause behavioral disorders in children? :sherlock: Is this in fact true? And if gluten allergies can be a cause of childhood behavioral disorders, can you please post links I can pass on to family members?

And also an additional question, is there a simple blood test etc...... that can tell you if a child is gluten sensitive?

Thanks in advance for any help you may give:grouphug:

[secular]

I've heard children on the autism spectrum that go gluten free do well. http://www.autism.org/leakygut.html

From what I understand the only sure way to know if you are gluten intolerant is to go off the gluten.
The family member - do they get alot of artificial dyes in food? My daughter is SUPER sensitive to red dye and acts out when she has it.

[ironbutterfly]

Well, honestly I am not sure if they have looked into dietary causes at all:dontknow:

And I want to preface that statement with after reading OLS, I don't know that nutrition is the first thing most pedatricians talk about in regards to such things, so I don't want it to sound like the parents haven't cared to look into dietary causes, just not aware of the possible implications dietary sensitivity can cause in a childs behavior.......

:sweat: Whoosh I hope that generalized statement doesn't offend the post police :sweat:

[psipsina]

Food sensitivities in general can cause behavioral issues. I know that when I get glutened I get really light headed and out of it and then I crash and feel awful and cranky for days. The best way to find food sensitivities is to do whats called an elimination diet and to keep a food journal to try and figure out what foods are correlating with a reaction. On an elimination diet you take one thing out at a time for about two weeks and then try it again to see if there is a reaction. You usually start with common sensitivities like gluten, caesin (in milk), eggs etc. Often a person craves the very thing they are allergic to most. Before I found out about my gluten allergy my favorite foods were pasta, goldfish, bagels, pizza and oreos lol. Your body can get addicted to the endorphins that are released when you react. So if a kid has a series a bunch of favorite foods that all have the same ingredient that might be a good place to start. Another thing to look into is a possible candida overgrowth if they have ever been on antibiotics and didn't take probiotics with them because the candida can cause leaky gut which causes more and more sensitivities to develop. There are blood tests but they are expensive and you still have to do an elimination diet with them to see if they are real sensitivities or not. Another thing to keep in mind is that often someone who has sensitivities will have trouble with chemical additives so its good to start reading labels and going for the brands that aren't full of preservatives and dyes.

[gladstone7272]

My daughter was just diagnosed with celiac. It isn't an allergy, It's more complicated. She has to go on a gluten free diet. The way the checked her was multiple blood test (testing for several protein antibodies and genetic testing, followed by an endoscopy).

[ironbutterfly]

Ahh so is celiac and gluten the same thing or different?

[gladstone7272]

Celiac disease is when your body produces toxins when you eat gluten. It damages the small intestines. It's autoimmune. Your body views gluten as a foreign substance and tries to attack it. You could have a gluten allergy but that isn't the same as celiac disease.

[psipsina]

Ahh so is celiac and gluten the same thing or different?

Celiac is a specific gluten sensitivity. It is the one best known and understood by western medicine because it has physical manifestations in the GI tract that can be observed via colonoscopy. There are false negatives for the blood tests however. Alternative medicine docs believe that many more chronic diseases are connected to food sensitivities. For instance I had what looked like rheumatoid arthritis (though I didn't have the rheumatoid factor which confounded my doctor) but it went away when I went on a gluten free diet. My doctors think I have celiac but I refuse to eat gluten so the blood test would work so I don't know for sure.

[Fidget]

i tested negative on the blood test but my life improved 500% once i stopped eating it. One of my girls also tested negative but has serious behavior issues when she eats gluten. I can come home after a day of being out and tell if Daddy let her cheat. On the rare occasion I allow her to eat something gluten-y I brace myself for backlash - temper tantrums, coloring on the wall, hitting, biting, etc.

[skpaw]

I am gluten sensitive. I don't eat gluten or dairy (that bothers me too). Today my kids wanted Subway and I went in there to pay for it and GAG. I was getting ill smelling all the wheaty things. I had to give my daughter the money and go out to the car.

Even being in an environment with gluten is enough to make you sick when you have been away from it for a while. If one person in the family is gluten free, they all need to pay attention not to do things like use a knife to get mayo out of the jar and then spread on the bread and dip again. That makes the rest of the jar unsafe for us.

It takes adjustment, but it makes a huge difference how you feel.

[Defenderofthefaith]

Kind of ironic you started this thread because I was thinking of starting one myself after the ER doc last week told me I may have a gluten sensitivity. I have been trying to eat gluten and dairy free since. I was going to ask my PCP to test my for food allergies this Friday when I go see her but I have researched and heard the same thing--that tests don't always catch food sensitivities. I have reactions to latex, sulfa, and morphine(that last one they found when I was recently in the ER.) I have diverticulosis and endometriosis and I read a nutritionist who said there may be a link between gluten and endometriosis. All I know is that the gluten free breads at Trader Joe's are a little hard and not very pleasant to eat.

[psipsina]

Kind of ironic you started this thread because I was thinking of starting one myself after the ER doc last week told me I may have a gluten sensitivity. I have been trying to eat gluten and dairy free since. I was going to ask my PCP to test my for food allergies this Friday when I go see her but I have researched and heard the same thing--that tests don't always catch food sensitivities. I have reactions to latex, sulfa, and morphine(that last one they found when I was recently in the ER.) I have diverticulosis and endometriosis and I read a nutritionist who said there may be a link between gluten and endometriosis. All I know is that the gluten free breads at Trader Joe's are a little hard and not very pleasant to eat.

Hon I'm so glad that you finally heard this from a for-real doctor because I've had the strongest suspicion about you myself. We have a very similar cluster of symptoms. My endo, migraines and arthritis are all sooooooo much better on a GF diet.

I don't like the pre-made breads either. There are brown rice tortillas made by "Food For Life" and they are fantastic! I make wraps with those when I'm craving sandwiches. I also really like the pre-made biscuits and pie shells that are sold at wholefoods. And I use the mix for making pizza dough that they sell there too and its good (though different, it fulfills the craving when I feel like I'll go homicidal if I see just one more domino's commercial!!). Pamela's cookies rock out too!

One thing to keep in mind is that it will take a few weeks of gluten withdrawals and for your taste-buds to reset before some of this stuff tastes any good. I would go 2-3 weeks without using specialty gluten free foods . . . just potatoes and rice for starches . . . and then try them out and start to pick out the brands that you like and dislike. There is a steep learning curve but a few months in you'll have a nice repertoire of the things you know you like and it won't feel like such a hassle anymore.

[Defenderofthefaith]

Hon I'm so glad that you finally heard this from a for-real doctor because I've had the strongest suspicion about you myself. We have a very similar cluster of symptoms. My endo, migraines and arthritis are all sooooooo much better on a GF diet.

I don't like the pre-made breads either. There are brown rice tortillas made by "Food For Life" and they are fantastic! I make wraps with those when I'm craving sandwiches. I also really like the pre-made biscuits and pie shells that are sold at wholefoods. And I use the mix for making pizza dough that they sell there too and its good (though different, it fulfills the craving when I feel like I'll go homicidal if I see just one more domino's commercial!!). Pamela's cookies rock out too!

One thing to keep in mind is that it will take a few weeks of gluten withdrawals and for your taste-buds to reset before some of this stuff tastes any good. I would go 2-3 weeks without using specialty gluten free foods . . . just potatoes and rice for starches . . . and then try them out and start to pick out the brands that you like and dislike. There is a steep learning curve but a few months in you'll have a nice repertoire of the things you know you like and it won't feel like such a hassle anymore.

Oh yeah, I forgot my RA symptoms and IBD. I do use the rice milk and noodles too. There's a place called "the Green Grocer" on the north side that I told DH I want to investigate soon--they have stuff by Pamela's. :ohyeah:

[tfacey]

Pretty soon we will all being going gluten free....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"...in 2007 wheat stocks have reached their lowest since 1981, and 2006 was the first year in which the world consumed more wheat than the world produced - a gap that is continuously widening as the requirement for wheat increases beyond production."

[sparkleygem]

Food sensitivities in general can cause behavioral issues. I know that when I get glutened I get really light headed and out of it and then I crash and feel awful and cranky for days. The best way to find food sensitivities is to do whats called an elimination diet and to keep a food journal to try and figure out what foods are correlating with a reaction. On an elimination diet you take one thing out at a time for about two weeks and then try it again to see if there is a reaction. You usually start with common sensitivities like gluten, caesin (in milk), eggs etc. Often a person craves the very thing they are allergic to most. Before I found out about my gluten allergy my favorite foods were pasta, goldfish, bagels, pizza and oreos lol. Your body can get addicted to the endorphins that are released when you react. So if a kid has a series a bunch of favorite foods that all have the same ingredient that might be a good place to start. Another thing to look into is a possible candida overgrowth if they have ever been on antibiotics and didn't take probiotics with them because the candida can cause leaky gut which causes more and more sensitivities to develop. There are blood tests but they are expensive and you still have to do an elimination diet with them to see if they are real sensitivities or not. Another thing to keep in mind is that often someone who has sensitivities will have trouble with chemical additives so its good to start reading labels and going for the brands that aren't full of preservatives and dyes.

So, how do you do the probiotic thing? Just eat some yogurt containing probiotics every day?

Or would it be better to take a supplement? Is L Acidopholis (spelling?) a probiotic?

I've been trying to research possible causes of Fibromyalgia for a while now, and leaky gut, and chronic flouride poisoning seem to look like possible causes of the symptoms.

I read about leaky gut, but I didn't see anything about probiotics, just basically what foods to eat & what to stay away from.

I was eliminating all forms of flouride, but it's hard to always drink store bought water. And you have to eliminate all traces of flouride for a long time before you see any results, if any. I need to go back to my non-flouride diet, but I'd like to try & do the leaky gut fix diet too, & see if I start to feel any better.

Basically, everything I've read about practically every condition is simply: stay away from processed food, artificial everything, and stick with fruits & veggies & natural everything. Which is really mostly common sense - a healthy diet/lifestyle is always best.

[psipsina]

So, how do you do the probiotic thing? Just eat some yogurt containing probiotics every day?

Or would it be better to take a supplement? Is L Acidopholis (spelling?) a probiotic?

I've been trying to research possible causes of Fibromyalgia for a while now, and leaky gut, and chronic flouride poisoning seem to look like possible causes of the symptoms.

I read about leaky gut, but I didn't see anything about probiotics, just basically what foods to eat & what to stay away from.

I was eliminating all forms of flouride, but it's hard to always drink store bought water. And you have to eliminate all traces of flouride for a long time before you see any results, if any. I need to go back to my non-flouride diet, but I'd like to try & do the leaky gut fix diet too, & see if I start to feel any better.

Basically, everything I've read about practically every condition is simply: stay away from processed food, artificial everything, and stick with fruits & veggies & natural everything. Which is really mostly common sense - a healthy diet/lifestyle is always best.

You can eat yogurt (if you don't have a problem with dairy) or drink that crazy kombucha probiotic drink, or you can take a supplement. If you go the supplement route I highly highly recommend Natren's Healthy Trinity which has three human strains of good bacteria instead of plant strains like most other supplements. Any probiotic you get should be refrigerated at the store and then at your home . . . if its just sitting on a shelf its useless.

Leaky gut is caused by a candida infection which eats the holes into your gut . . . food particles leak out into your bloodstream and cause an immune reaction. This primes you to react to it in the future even if its just in your gut. So I'd recommend looking into candida diets. There are multiple views on this but I trust one that was recommended to me by a naturopath who diagnosed my gluten sensitivity a few years ago. These links are similar to what he explained to me:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/candidadiet.htm
http://www.candida-cure-recipes.com/index.html

[gervitsd]

I have been gluten free for about 6 years now and I has helped me a ton. My migraines are almost gone, the heartburn and stomache aches are gone and that weird out of it feeling is gone. Now if I get that weird feeling and start getting a stomach ache, I know that I must have somehow accidentally ingested some gluten, even though I try to be very careful.

Have you tried the Glutino bread? Of course it still needs to be toasted like the others, but I find it doesn't fall apart and isn't too bad. I get the fiber bread. Also our wholefoods sells the glutino frozen pizzas and they are pretty good. I like the spinach one and I add mushrooms to it before I bake it.

A while back I won a sampler box of mixes from Gluten Free Essentials. So far the ones I have made have been really really yummy, close to the real thing. Their mudslide cookies are really good. I made the lemon poppyseed muffins and muffins from the gingerbread mix. All have been fantastic, I would highly reccomend.



Hon I'm so glad that you finally heard this from a for-real doctor because I've had the strongest suspicion about you myself. We have a very similar cluster of symptoms. My endo, migraines and arthritis are all sooooooo much better on a GF diet.

I don't like the pre-made breads either. There are brown rice tortillas made by "Food For Life" and they are fantastic! I make wraps with those when I'm craving sandwiches. I also really like the pre-made biscuits and pie shells that are sold at wholefoods. And I use the mix for making pizza dough that they sell there too and its good (though different, it fulfills the craving when I feel like I'll go homicidal if I see just one more domino's commercial!!). Pamela's cookies rock out too!

One thing to keep in mind is that it will take a few weeks of gluten withdrawals and for your taste-buds to reset before some of this stuff tastes any good. I would go 2-3 weeks without using specialty gluten free foods . . . just potatoes and rice for starches . . . and then try them out and start to pick out the brands that you like and dislike. There is a steep learning curve but a few months in you'll have a nice repertoire of the things you know you like and it won't feel like such a hassle anymore.

[psipsina]

I have been gluten free for about 6 years now and I has helped me a ton. My migraines are almost gone, the heartburn and stomache aches are gone and that weird out of it feeling is gone. Now if I get that weird feeling and start getting a stomach ache, I know that I must have somehow accidentally ingested some gluten, even though I try to be very careful.

Have you tried the Glutino bread? Of course it still needs to be toasted like the others, but I find it doesn't fall apart and isn't too bad. I get the fiber bread. Also our wholefoods sells the glutino frozen pizzas and they are pretty good. I like the spinach one and I add mushrooms to it before I bake it.

A while back I won a sampler box of mixes from Gluten Free Essentials. So far the ones I have made have been really really yummy, close to the real thing. Their mudslide cookies are really good. I made the lemon poppyseed muffins and muffins from the gingerbread mix. All have been fantastic, I would highly reccomend.

I also have a yeast allergy which rules out most of the glutino products sadly though I have heard good things about them :(

[gervitsd]

yeast allergy really does make it much harder. The really stinks. I also love the brown rice tortillas by food for life, they can be a lifesaver. Trader joes has started selling gluten free brown rice tortillas now as well and I think they are the same, but cheaper. Trader joes has gotten pretty good about gluten free items. they now sell brownie mix, pancake mix, a really yummy gluten free granola. Also they are starting to put a little g in the corner of a lot of their products to show that they are gluten free, which can be a big help. I love that place, so good. They used to have these great gluten free cakes in their freezer section but I don't see them any more, they were awesome, they had a tiramisu and a black forest cake. I wish they would bring them back. They also have gluten free peanut butter cookies in the freezer section that you can bake up, and gluten free frozen pancakes and gluten free frozen banana waffles.

[secular]

So, how do you do the probiotic thing? Just eat some yogurt containing probiotics every day?

Or would it be better to take a supplement? Is L Acidopholis (spelling?) a probiotic?

I've been trying to research possible causes of Fibromyalgia for a while now, and leaky gut, and chronic flouride poisoning seem to look like possible causes of the symptoms.

I read about leaky gut, but I didn't see anything about probiotics, just basically what foods to eat & what to stay away from.

I was eliminating all forms of flouride, but it's hard to always drink store bought water. And you have to eliminate all traces of flouride for a long time before you see any results, if any. I need to go back to my non-flouride diet, but I'd like to try & do the leaky gut fix diet too, & see if I start to feel any better.

Basically, everything I've read about practically every condition is simply: stay away from processed food, artificial everything, and stick with fruits & veggies & natural everything. Which is really mostly common sense - a healthy diet/lifestyle is always best.


I really think you would!

[psipsina]

yeast allergy really does make it much harder. The really stinks. I also love the brown rice tortillas by food for life, they can be a lifesaver. Trader joes has started selling gluten free brown rice tortillas now as well and I think they are the same, but cheaper. Trader joes has gotten pretty good about gluten free items. they now sell brownie mix, pancake mix, a really yummy gluten free granola. Also they are starting to put a little g in the corner of a lot of their products to show that they are gluten free, which can be a big help. I love that place, so good. They used to have these great gluten free cakes in their freezer section but I don't see them any more, they were awesome, they had a tiramisu and a black forest cake. I wish they would bring them back. They also have gluten free peanut butter cookies in the freezer section that you can bake up, and gluten free frozen pancakes and gluten free frozen banana waffles.

I miss trader joes!! We don't have any here :( They have the best GF granola ever! I do love love love the food for life tortillas. Food for life makes GFYF bread too but I don't like it at all.

[Defenderofthefaith]

I found some nice soft bread at my local health food store. The only thing is they are waaay more expensive than TJ's. I also tried some ready made noodles made from tofu and yam flour--they were pretty good and cheap. Tomorrow I will ask my dr about being tested for celiac disease...

[sparkleygem]

You can eat yogurt (if you don't have a problem with dairy) or drink that crazy kombucha probiotic drink, or you can take a supplement. If you go the supplement route I highly highly recommend Natren's Healthy Trinity which has three human strains of good bacteria instead of plant strains like most other supplements. Any probiotic you get should be refrigerated at the store and then at your home . . . if its just sitting on a shelf its useless.

Leaky gut is caused by a candida infection which eats the holes into your gut . . . food particles leak out into your bloodstream and cause an immune reaction. This primes you to react to it in the future even if its just in your gut. So I'd recommend looking into candida diets. There are multiple views on this but I trust one that was recommended to me by a naturopath who diagnosed my gluten sensitivity a few years ago. These links are similar to what he explained to me:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/candidadiet.htm
http://www.candida-cure-recipes.com/index.html

Thanks.

Man, I don't know if I could do the gluten free thing. I freaking LOVE rolls with butter, bread, pie, cake, omg. I do know that I eat too much of these things, and not nearly enough fruits & veggies. But I really don't eat a whole lot at all. I probably eat once or twice a day, and they're very small portions. I'm full after a few bites.

I already take tons of vitamins & supplements, I do have some acidopholis capsules in my fridge. I haven't taken any in a while, I'm going to start adding them to my daily box-o-pills.

I could probably live without wheat for a while just to see what happens.

But.... Once you stop eating the gluten, & it's out of your system, don't you become more sensistive to it if you eat it again? I don't feel bad after I eat bread or wheat products, sometimes I feel better after I eat a little bread.

I don't think I could stop eating these things for the rest of my life, so I don't want to make myself sensitive to them & create a problem I may not even have.

But, if I start to feel great, which is something I haven't felt since I was about 17, I could definitely deal with that.

[psipsina]

ns.

But.... Once you stop eating the gluten, & it's out of your system, don't you become more sensistive to it if you eat it again? I don't feel bad after I eat bread or wheat products, sometimes I feel better after I eat a little bread.

I don't think I could stop eating these things for the rest of my life, so I don't want to make myself sensitive to them & create a problem I may not even have.

But, if I start to feel great, which is something I haven't felt since I was about 17, I could definitely deal with that.

You can't make yourself sensitive by stopping your gluten consumption, you can only discover a sensitivity that is already there and that is wreaking havoc on your body. If you stop eating it for a few weeks and then try it again and it makes you sick it means you already had the sensitivity, you were just so addicted to the endorphin rush that you weren't noticing the connection. If I'm remembering right sparkly you have fibromyalgia right? I think that doing an elimination diet would be a great idea for you. I would do gluten first, and then dairy next and then maybe soy since those are all really common sensitivities. If your body is generating antibodies to your foods its hurting you every time you eat it, its just that certain types of antibodies don't act as fast as others (the ones responsible for anaphylactic food allergies) . . . sometimes you can have a symptom days after consuming something you are sensitive to. If you are sensitive to gluten and eating it every day you wouldn't even notice any specific reaction, you would just feel like crap all the time. Thats what I felt like, and I loved loved loved gluten and craved it (it made me feel better as you described which was an addiction tot he endorphins) . . . I've had my sensitivity diagnosed with bloodwork and its looking like I have true celiac's disease because I've started getting a skin reaction when I'm glutened that is a diagnostic criteria for celiac's. So its not like I developed the sensitivity because I took a gluten hiatus. The hiatus let me see what I'd been doing to myself on a daily basis.