Signs Of Gluten Intolerance In Kids

Gluten Allergy Symptoms Stomach Problems

Stomach symptoms are common with toddlers and the signs of gluten intolerance the difference being those who actually have a gluten allergy will show more severe stomach signs. Its common for gluten to induce vomiting and/or diarrhea in people who are allergic and its important to keep your body hydrated.

If you cant keep fluids down at all, it may be necessary to visit the emergency room so that the doctors can provide a saline drip for hydration. Stomach cramps and bloating are also common however, these are common signs of a gluten intolerance as well.

Is It Really A Gluten Intolerance Or Sensitivity

Sometimes, what you think is a gluten allergy may actually be a gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance, when your baby has a mild, uncomfortable reaction to foods containing gluten. In most cases, you may notice issues with the digestive system, such as excessive gas, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation.

“With an intolerance, you typically see vomiting, diarrhea, or stomach upset,” says Deena Blanchard, M.D., of Premier Pediatrics in New York City. A true gluten allergy would cause hives and possibly bloating, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, or constipation. There are no accurate tests to determine a gluten intolerance or sensitivity. Instead, your doctor will recommend cutting back certain foods. “Most experts recommend a trial elimination diet for at least two weeks to see if symptoms resolve, followed by reintroduction to see if symptoms return,” Dr. Stukus says.

Celiac Disease For Small Children

Celiac disease in children is often diagnosed before the age of two. This is because the symptoms of the condition tend to be most obvious during this time when children are first introduced to gluten in their diet. One of the most common symptoms of celiac disease in children of this age is failure to thrive, which refers to poor growth and weight loss. The condition usually worsens once solid foods have been introduced. This is a severe symptom and should lead to immediate investigation by medical professionals.

Other symptoms commonly recorded among children under the age of two include:

• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Malnutrition

You may also find that these symptoms worsen as the months go on, and the child is weaned off milk and increasingly relies more on solid food to receive the necessary nutrients for growth. This is because celiac disease makes it difficult for the body to consume nutrients, possibly causing your child to become malnourished if the condition is not detected early.

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Symptoms Of Gluten Sensitivity In Children

Gluten is a kind of protein that is found in grains like wheat, rye, and barley. It is often found in foods that use these ingredients, but it can also be found in medicines, vitamins, and supplements that use small amounts of these ingredients.

Gluten intolerance, also called gluten sensitivity, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, or non-celiac wheat sensitivity, is a disorder where your body reacts badly to eating gluten. It is a chronic condition that can have a negative impact on a childs health and wellness.

There are 5 symptoms related to gluten sensitivity. Your child might experience one or all of these if he or she is gluten sensitive.

The Myers Way Guide To Gluten Ecourse Includes:

• 4 hours of information and worksheets
• Gluten-containing foods list
• Signs you have a gluten sensitivity
• How to test for gluten sensitivity
• Gluten sensitivity risk factors

• Gluten and its effect on the gut
• Gluten sensitivity testing and treatment
• Avoiding gluten in obvious and hidden sources
• Enjoying abundant foods that are naturally free of gluten

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How Do I Manage It

If you’re confident you are intolerant to a particular food, the only way to manage this is to stop eating the food for a while and then reintroduce small quantities while monitoring how much you can eat without causing symptoms.

Check food labels to see which sorts of foods to avoid.

If you think your child may have a food intolerance, check with a GP or dietitian before eliminating foods from their diet, as a restricted diet could affect their growth and development. Cows’ milk, for example, is an important source of calcium, vitamin D and protein.

What To Do If Your Child Exhibits Symptoms Of Gluten Intolerance

If your child exhibits one or more of these symptoms of gluten intolerance without other explanation, it would be wise to do a gluten elimination challenge for 30 days as described above to see if there is improvement in the symptoms. If so, your child is likely gluten sensitive and should not continue to eat gluten in any form.

Continued exposure to gluten in a gluten sensitive individual can lead to malnutrition, autoimmune disease, and many other complications. It is important to note that gluten DOES pass through breast milk, so any mother who is breastfeeding a child must also go completely gluten-free to avoid exposing a gluten sensitive child.

While going gluten free may seem overwhelming at first, it isnt difficult to achieve in todays world. There are tons of resources available for free online, and the most nutrient dense foods for infants and toddlers, such as animal products, traditional fats, vegetables, and fermented foods, are naturally gluten free. Trips to the grocery store may take longer at first because every label must be inspected , but with practice it becomes old hat. As long as you avoid gluten free replacements for low nutrient foods , your child will in no way suffer and will actually thrive on a nutrient dense, gluten free diet.

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Diet For Babies With Celiac Disease

To manage celiac disease, it’s important to eliminate gluten from your child’s diet. This can be challenging since it’s found in many different foods. Your healthcare provider may refer you to a dietitian to help you learn what foods to avoid.

Some general tips for eliminating gluten include:

• Avoid foods with wheat, barley, and rye.
• When your child starts eating regular food, opt for naturally gluten-free ones. These include plain meats, fish, chicken, milk, cheese, eggs, fruits, and vegetables.
• Look for bread, cereals, and baking mixes that are “gluten-free.”
• Watch for cross-contamination when preparing foods. For example, use a fresh knife with butter and spreads to avoid contaminating with regular wheat bread crumbs.
• As your baby gets older, check before eating at a restaurant to make sure they serve gluten-free meals.

A single exposure to gluten probably won’t cause symptoms. The small intestine’s lining renews itself every three to four days, and new cells will replace the damaged ones. However, continuous exposure to gluten will start to cause damage to the intestines.

Testing For Gluten Intolerance

Gastroenterologist will probably also make a biopsy and then look the sample under a microscope to see whether there are any signs of damage caused by celiac disease.

If all the tests confirm gluten allergy, your doctor will recommend strict avoidance of all gluten-containing foods because at the moment of writing, no medications or treatments exist for the disease. If your toddler is experiencing gluten allergy symptoms a doctor should be the next call.

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Unexplained Aches And Pains

Children with gluten intolerance may experience unexplained aches and pains, particularly headaches and joint pain. One study showed headaches were a common symptom in pediatric patients with gluten intolerance which was alleviated by gluten elimination. Likewise, Gluten Free Society lists joint pain as a primary symptom in people who have some sort of gluten intolerance. Since joint pain is an uncommon symptom in children, this may be easier to spot than some of the other symptoms, particularly if your child frequently complains of aches and pains without a specific onset.

What Is Gluten Sensitivity

Back to non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Since research into this condition is relatively new, not all physicians have accepted it as a “real” condition. Consequently, not all will give you a diagnosis of gluten sensitivity.

Those practitioners who will diagnose the condition will conduct celiac disease testing to rule out celiac first.

Still, recent medical research on gluten sensitivity has strengthened the theory that it’s a separate condition from celiac disease. Celiac is caused by your body’s reaction to the gluten protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.

It’s less clear what exactly causes gluten sensitivity. Because it may be a non-gluten component of wheat and the other gluten grains, “non-celiac wheat sensitivity” may be a better name for it. For now, though, most medical researchers refer to the condition as “non-celiac gluten sensitivity.”

To get a better picture of the most common symptoms found in gluten sensitivity, Verywell Health spoke with three physician researchers who have spent a great deal of time studying the condition:

• Dr. Alessio Fasano
• Dr. Kenneth Fine
• Dr. Rodney Ford

They discussed their own clinical experience involving patients with gluten sensitivity. It should be noted that in some cases, their opinions haven’t been confirmed in published research or accepted by the medical community at large.

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Gluten Allergy Intolerance & Celiac Disease

Intolerance to gluten protein can cause signs of a gluten allergy in two distinct disorders: celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Unfortunately, doctors often mistakenly dismiss gluten intolerance as having few consequences in the absence of frank celiac disease. Experts in the field of gluten intolerance, such as Dr. Stephen Wangen, have found that hundreds of health problems and signs of an allergy to gluten are connected to wheat and gluten reactions. About 10 percent of the population is reported to have some degree of gluten intolerance and about 30 million Americans are affected. This includes adults, children and toddlers.

Easy Tips For Going Gluten

1. Encourage Whole Food.

Whole, unprocessed foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, meat, fish, and whole grains, like rice or quinoa, are naturally gluten-free. When you choose whole food, you dont have to worry about interpreting a list of mystery ingredients or eating highly processed gluten-free products.

2. Limit Between Meal Snacks.

When transitioning to a new diet, a hungry kid is more willing to try new foods. Snacks are also a common source of gluten. If your child needs a snack between meals, try a crunchy carrot or a sweet apple.

3. Drink Lemon Water With a Pinch of Salt.

A squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of high-quality salt in a large glass of water can reduce inflammation. The lemon water flushes toxins from cells, the electrolytes help to rebuild damaged tissue, and the act of drinking water between meals reduces cravings for gluten-containing foods.

4. Care For The Buddies In Our Belly.

Naturally fermented foods, like kefir or kimchi, help balance our microbiome to stabilize mood and conquer cravings. Many kids are also motivated to try a new food if it will take care of the Buddies in their belly. High fiber foods like apples, bananas, and asparagus help to feed our healthy gut bacteria which manufacture B vitamins and happy hormones.

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5. Keep It Fun.

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What Are The Effects Of Food Intolerance

• Generally it has been observed that people who have a food intolerance will experience such discomforts as stomach bloating and abdominal pain, flatulence and diarrhoea.
• In a few cases, it can also result in the victim breaking out with skin rash and itchy skin.
• Overall you can say that some sort of physical or mental discomfort will invariably be felt by such people.
• You have to be wary because sometimes the symptoms do not make themselves evident immediately.
• They may arise a few hours after the intolerance triggering food has been consumed.
• So really speaking, it may be quite difficult to know for sure if your kid has a food intolerance or not.
• It is only when you notice a recurring pattern or decide to keep a food diary, will you become aware that some kind of food allergy exists in your kid that is in fact triggered by intolerance to a certain kind of food.
• The complicating factor here is you cannot know for sure. Symptoms of food intolerance can sometimes be confused with similar conditions that are indicative of other common ailments.
• It may be a simple case of dyspepsia or diarrhea that we are dealing with, rather than a food allergy.
• So the only way of being sure is, that we arrange a session with the doctor, and get some tests done that will prove once and for all, whether the child has some kind of food intolerance or not.

How Can Gluten Intolerance Be Diagnosed

Endoscope, biopsy and blood panels are often used to determine if a child has celiac disease. However, these tests are specifically for celiac disease. Testing negative does not necessarily assure that there is no level of gluten sensitivity and you must still watch for celiac disease symptoms in children even after an initial negative test. Blood tests must usually be performed twice for accuracy. I will discuss the more common test in another specific article about the celiac disease blood test.

The only sure way to determine gluten intolerance in children is to remove gluten completely from their diet and see if their symptoms improve. Gluten-free living may be intimidating at first, but Im sure you will agree that it is worth it when it comes to your childs well-being.

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You Consistently Have Joint Or Muscle Aches

Chronic joint or muscle pain is a common symptom reported in studies of non-celiac gluten sensitivity .

The pain is said to be like that of Fibromyalgia, a condition which may be improved by going gluten-free, at least anecdotally.

As joint and muscle pain is a broad symptom, only consider it a possible sign if you experience several of the other symptoms.

Kinds Of Food Intolerance

Research has indicated that the most common food intolerances include the following:

The rest of this piece will focus on Gluten Intolerance. It is one of the most commonly occurring issues that parents and their kids have to deal with in the 2000s.

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Gluten Hides In All Sorts Of Foods

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Gluten is a protein that’s present in wheat and other grains, like barley and rye. Gluten helps dough maintain its shape and gives it an elasticity or a chewy texture. Although it’s commonly found in baked goods and pastas containing wheat flour, it can also be found in cereals, crackers, and sauces or in unexpected foods such as ice cream, pickles, and hot dogs.

But “a ‘gluten allergy’ is really a misnomer, because it’s really a wheat allergy, and gluten is one of the components,” says David Stukus, M.D. assistant professor of pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “A wheat allergy is an immediate onset allergic reaction caused when the body’s immune system reacts against wheat proteins, and it usually occurs with every exposure.” Wheat is one of the eight most common food allergies the others are cow’s milk, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish together they account for more than 90 percent of allergic reactions. If your child has an allergy, he’ll likely experience immediate and reproducible hives or swelling whenever the food is consumed, says Dr. Stukus.

Babies can be exposed to gluten through breast milk before 6 months or when they start solids, around 6 months. First, determine if your baby is actually allergic to gluten.

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