Toddler with behavior and digestive issues

[D'sMama]

Hi MDC allergy experts! I hope someone can help me figure this out...

My 2.5 year old son has these symptoms:

--- raised, irregular, welt-like pink&skin colored rash, about 3-4" long, on his abdomen. It's been there for around 3 weeks, no change. It doesn't itch or bother him. 

--- increasing behavior/mood issues. We've had him tested through EIP and he has a speech delay and sensory issues, but neither are very strong so I wonder if they're related to something else. (No official dx.) He is VERY intolerant of frustration, melts down many times a day, whines constantly, cries and freaks out about seemingly little things. These issues have been getting stronger and stronger. It used to be one terrible day a week, not it seems like a pretty much constant struggle to try to keep him happy or at least not miserable.

--- he wakes up from naps pissed off and extremely irritable and it lasts the rest of the day. Lately, he's been irritable and grumpy most of the day. Very frustrated, low tolerance for pretty much anything. :(

--- complains about his tummy hurting several times a week, for...several months.

--- irregular BMs, alternating hard and very loose stools, the runny ones irritate his skin and give him rashes that clear quickly with coconut oil but seem to hurt him very badly, almost like they sting. (Still not potty learned, and VERY resistant to the idea, despite ECing from 8-23 months. Sigh.)

--- increasingly picky eating, and consuming much less food. He's been chewing and spitting out most of his food, even things he loves. Today, he ate about 4 scrambled eggs in one sitting and spit almost everything else out all day long. He eats mostly meats, fruits, toast, bagel with butter, croissant, cold cereal, clif bars, Annie's fruity snacks, and juice. He also nurses around 3 times a day.

---he sometimes has dark circles under his eyes.

We have no *known* history of food allergies or sensitivities. He's never been tested. I'm considering a gluten-free diet for a few weeks to see if that will make a difference. I would also consider dairy free but he consumes very little dairy - he stopped eating yogurt and cheese several months ago, so the only dairy he has is a bit of butter, whatever cow's milk proteins he gets through my milk, and the occasional cow's milk from cold cereal, but that's not very often.

Do you think these symptoms could indicate gluten intolerance? How long after eliminating gluten from his (our) diet will I see a difference, if that's the culprit?

Any other ideas?

[Namaste Amma]

Wow, he sounds so much like my daughter! We are doing a gluten free trial for 3 months per our ped and ND's requests. Everything I've read says it can take a few months to see a lot of improvement, but sometimes within a few days you start to see smaller changes.

For the record, my daughter has a lot of these reactions to soy and dairy, too. It couldbe more than one food causing him trouble.

[SweetSilver]

And sometimes it is just a simple allergy.  My daughter is allergic to wheat and not gluten.  She also had behavior issues as a symptom.  Gluten could very easily be the trouble, but because you need to be consuming gluten for an extended period of time to have a conclusive test (extremely unpleasant if you are celiac and have been off gluten for a while), I would suggest you try to eliminate wheat first.  So much simpler, and if you don't see any improvement after a while, by all means try to go gluten-free.  But, you know, gluten gets the spotlight these days, but there are so many other possibilities besides that.....