GF trial day 6- do we keep going?

[rugbymom]

Hi! My son has been dairy and soy free for almost 2 years now. We have A LOT of trouble with sleeping. He is also on Miralax for constipation. We decided to do a gluten free trial to see if it would help either of those things. We are on day 6, and things are not going well. My son (almost 3yrs) is hardly eating anymore. Sleep is even worse. (1/2 hour nap yesterday. Took an hour to fall asleep finally at 8pm. Up at night with leg pain. Up for day at 5:30.)
We haven't really replaced wheat with anything, although I did buy rice crackers, so he's getting a little more rice than he used to. He ate pretty well the first few days, but now he's not. He keeps saying he's hungry, but just picks at his food.
Should we keep going with the gluten free trial?

[rugbymom]

Is this normal? Is this just part of detoxing, or does this show that I am taking out the wrong food? I was going to give this at least 2 weeks- 1 month. Should I keep with my original plan?

[EmTheWife]

I am no expert, so I hope someone else will answer too, but I will share my experience:
I went totally wheat free 3 mos ago with the before birth of my EBF son as I have a wheat allergy and noticed it affecting my pg; a few times after my son was born I accidentaly ate wheat, and noticed bad effects on him, so now I am really cautious. Going wheat free essentially led to being gluten free, b/c that's where the alternatives to wheat are available.
For the first few weeks I felt constantly hungry, until I came up with some adequate carbohydrate substitutes. I too initially tried rice cakes, rice crackers, but they didn't help with the hunger issue, nor did they lend to feeling satisfied.
My Solutions: I have incorporated a LOT of organic sweet potato into my diet (it's lunch almost every day, cooked various ways), and make rice pudding with rice milk, which I've found to be a great satisfier (there's are recipe around here somewhere - check the allergy-free recipe threads). I also make home-made GF oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which provide a tasty snack and dessert, and a good amount of fiber.
It took a good 4 weeks for me to get used to the diet, and 5-6 weeks to see the positive effects in myself.
I hope you find a solution that works for your family!

[dannic]

He may need more fats and protein. I can't really tell you what to do, but our experience was being starving and needing to eat more and eat things that would satiate. Our trial was 3 months. Could he be holding out for the types of food he wants? gluten withdrawal is tough. It could be that as well. gl.

[shelley4]

i would continue for at least a month. sometimes things things get worse before they get better! in the mean time, find some yummy recipes to tempt him to eat more, and have a variety of easy foods on hand to snack on (fruit, veggies, hummus, etc).

also... have you removed all gluten, or just wheat? because gluten is also in barley, rye, oats, and spelt (though you can buy special non-contaminated oats).

[kjbrown92]

It could be withdrawal. My DS had 3 days of withdrawal from gluten. But it could also be more of another food (my DS was also intolerant to rice) that is also a problem.

[HowtoGlutenFree]

We didn't notice any benefit for our son from going gluten free initially until we discovered that the yeast we were using contained gluten !!! Hadn't even occurred to us to check.
Since then we check absolutely everything as gluten is in products containing malt, including malt vinegar, as well the ones mentioned by shelley4, and also in unexpected places such as processed meat.

[rugbymom]

We did go gluten free, because it seemed like we might as well just like a previous poster said. You guys could be right that he's holding out for something, but I would think that he is verbal enough to tell me. He did ask for bologna today, but that's really the only thing he's asked for specifically.

It is a definate possibility that I'm not getting all of the little tiny glutens out of his diet. I'll go through and check everything. That's what is hard about food allergies is the learning curve about the hidden stuff. The one thing I did give him today that I was unsure of was mustard.

I'll keep going with the trial. He was a very pleasant person today despite his lack of sleep.

[Ruthla]

Also make sure nothing is cross-contaminated from your own kitchen from before the GF trial started. Were there wheat crumbs in the jelly you then put on his rice cakes?

Overall, my guess is that this is detox. Make sure he's getting enough fats and proteins- fats in particular can be very helpful with treating constipation.

[balancedmama]

Keep trying - my detox was UGLY when I went off gluten a few months ago. I was starving and craving wheat, really crabby, couldn't sleep etc. I think that was bad for about a week and then the next week was so-so. I'd say I really noticed a difference at about 3 weeks into it.

For some reason I really needed to eat a ton of food the first week. He might just be hungry and also not feeling full b/c he's used to having things like bread. Also the gf-substitute foods seem really gross when you are just craving wheat. That first week I was just plain mad at the world.

If he's a spaghetti kid I highly recommend the Ancient Harvest Corn-Quinoa pasta. As a die-hard pasta fan I can tell you that it rocks!

[ewp11100]

Originally Posted by rugbymom

We did go gluten free, because it seemed like we might as well just like a previous poster said. You guys could be right that he's holding out for something, but I would think that he is verbal enough to tell me. He did ask for bologna today, but that's really the only thing he's asked for specifically.

It is a definate possibility that I'm not getting all of the little tiny glutens out of his diet. I'll go through and check everything. That's what is hard about food allergies is the learning curve about the hidden stuff. The one thing I did give him today that I was unsure of was mustard.

I'll keep going with the trial. He was a very pleasant person today despite his lack of sleep.

Cross contamination and not getting the "hidden" gluten out for me was hard in the beinging. I wasn't seeing much progress until after I got those things straight. This webpages helped me:
http://www.celiac.com/articles/182/1...nts/Page1.html

[rugbymom]

Well, it's easy to see that he is not eating anything cross-contaminated, because he is now hardly eating. He ate a sunbutter crunch bar this morning and that was mostly it. He says he's not hungry.

[riomidwife]

The first few weeks, and even months, can be so hard. I was always hungry, always craving. Like a PP, my son reacted to rice and other grains too so increasing those wasn't helpful. If you can stick it out it will be worth the hardship. Children don't starve when they have food available. They may protest, and not like what they see, but we're human. I also agree adding fats might help, and even some tasty treat-like foods to help ease the withdrawl symptoms and irritability. Coconut milk is a big one for us.

[Jes'sBeth]

we call our daughter a 'fruitarian' because after taking the wheat out she mostly eats fruit. (she east a LOT of it too!) Of course it's not completely true but she's sensitive to SO SO SO much (legumes, most grains including rice, citrus, eggs, and on and on) so it's hard to get her to eat things that are 'replacement' type things that are designed to replace normal gluten filled things. She doesn't like a lot of expensive gluten free bread type things. It took a good couple of weeks to get her eating well again. Having eaten her diet for 6 months (because I am still nursing her - she's 2 and a quarter) I totally understand why she eats so often... all her food is quickly metabolized. It really does take awhile to figure things out. What really keeps us going though is a really good probiotic. We probably haven't got everything out of her diet but we're stable and for now I'm good with where we're at.