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Should I put 3 year old on gluten free diet?




My blood test for coeliac was negative. My Blood tests showed I was deficient in every nutrient and my liver and gall bladder were bad too. All foods had begun disagreeing with me and I was becoming depressed as a result.

My GP suggested the elimination diet and within a few weeks of gluten free I was symptom free after 15 years of issues that had resulted in IBS diagnosis. Now my daughter is 3 and her kinder teacher expressed concern about how tired she is all the time, she is quite irritable and will go for days hardly eating and just wanting to sleep. I have decided to get her tested, but if it's negative ( like mine) is it ok to put her on gluten free and see if it helps? Any reasons why I shouldn't?




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Should I put 3 year old on gluten free diet?

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Sep 29, 2011
 We've put our 2 year old on a gf diet
by: Melanie

Hi, I've just found this forum

I was finally diagnosed with coeliac disease last year after having symptoms since I was 10 - so it took 27 years to be diagnosed. Because I never tested positive in the blood tests, doctors always told me I "just" had IBS and that I needed to learn to relax.

I got myself a great gastro. who told me that actually 10% of coeliacs will never test positive in the blood test. The biopsy confirmed that indeed, I am coeliac.

We started to be concerned about my daughter when she was about 18 months old - she had diarrhea almost every day, was losing weight, had a rash that looked rather like the dh rash (but was mis-diagnosed as something else...), but if you didn't know her, you would have thought her to be a perfectly healthy child.

Anyway, I spoke to my specialist. She said that as I tested negative on the blood test, it was most likely that she would as well. She told me there was no harm taking her off gluten to see how she responded while we waited to get into a paed. specialist. The change was amazing. The awful nappies stopped within weeks, she put on weight, she started speaking (her speech is still a little delayed), the rash disappeared....

So that's our experience. We are waiting a few years to get a biopsy done on her (we hate the idea of doing it when she's so young) and our household is now totally gf (hubby has gone gf as well). We've just all been exposed to gluten this week (a friend baked something for us that must have been contaminated), and the symptoms are back :(

Good luck!
Aug 26, 2011
 After testing go GF
by: Anonymous

Hi, I am a coeliac & medical scientist(diagnosed for about 8 yrs now) & I have a toddler that I am also concerned about. This is a difficult one as you know, coeliac disease is diagnosed first by blood tests for Gliadin/Endomysial/Transglutiminase Antibodies (? specific and sensitive??), then a biopsy of the sml intestine is taken (gold standard for testing). Your doctor will advise you that your child should be eating gluten before being tested, otherwise false negative results can occur.

However, I am also in a situation where routine diagnostic tests don't always give you the answers. It is obvious that coeliac disease manifests itself differently in everyone (mostly have IBS), but do we really know how a 3 year old will react? Not enough research has been done into the early signs and triggers of coeliacs. Once you have tried getting your child tested (also gene testing might be worthwhile if you have family members with coeliacs), and possibly found a doctor/gastroenterologist that will look into it in more detail I see no problems with putting your child on GF. I am in a similar situation with my toddler. He is healthy, great weight, showing no IBS but I know that something is not right (he is always hungry and has >6 dirty nappies per day). How do I know it is not coeliac disease in the early stages??? I don't..trust your instincts and keep asking for advice....hopefully you get some answers...good luck.

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