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OT: Gluten Elimination
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For those of you who are gluten free or have tried gluten free . . .
We have eliminated gluten from our diets to see if it helps our DD with focus and learning. I have read that a lot of gluten induced symptoms begin disappearing withing 24 hours some have taken a week or more. I have read to eliminate for any where from 3 weeks to 4+ months. How long do you suggest eliminating gluten before re-introducing it to see if there is any reaction? So far we are into our 3rd week and see no differences in health or focus/learning.
Thanks for any input.
We started avoiding gluten because of physical problems (stomach aches, rash), and noticed later that it also helped my Asperger’s daughter with some of her learning/ neurological issues. For us, a few days is enough to notice a difference. Are you sure you’ve completely eliminated gluten, including any possible cross-contamination? If you have been very careful and consistent, and haven’t seen changes yet, then gluten may not be your daughter’s problem. That said, I have heard before to give it 6 weeks or so. Just in our experience, it took a lot less time to see improvements and differences.
Tara
I have been careful. We make everything at home. I mostly cooked/baked from scratch anyway, so now I’ve just made sure to use gluten free flours/oats or to just make something else. Maybe I should give it the 6 weeks. When we hit six weeks we are heading out of town for a couple of weeks, it would just be nice to know that either I do need to worry about it or not before that.
I would give it 6 weeks at least. While it could be an allergy to something else like eggs, dairy, or soy, another thing to consider, the body turns grains of any kind into sugars quickly. If you are carb heavy – even with the healthy grains, you might try cutting those out for a while. Trim Healthy Mama book has some great recipes in it, Paleo recipes are very helpful, and GAPS recipes work well here, too.
Hope you figure out what is causing the lack of focus.
~j
I plan to do the 6 weeks. We’ll be at my in-laws right at the end of the six weeks, so I can try some reintroduction there.
We were alreay 99% vegan, but I have been careful to total eliminate all casein from our diet for now. I have also eliminated soy and any refined sugar. We have been using eggs more during this time, but I’m not convinced it is that because I used to never buy eggs and we were having issues then.
I don’t know that we’re carb heavy, but probably not carb light either. Since doing gluten free we’ve definately been a lot lighter on carbs.
Once you are sure (I have always heard 3 months total for complete “free” time), it will not take much to notice a difference. It could be just one meal. For us that’s all it takes for me to know that they ate something that is setting them on a road I don’t want to be on. Good luck, finding those foods is so hard and time consuming.
I would LOVE to go gluten free for 6 weeks for both health and attention issues but I have never figured out how to do it! I don’t like the gluten free grains much (use them some but not a regular replacement for bread) and my kids are such frustrating eaters, so carb heavy!! I know that is my own fault but we haven’t gotten out of it since they got home at around 1 year of age (via adoption) and food was a very sensitive issue for them. Still, six years later they are mostly unhealthy eaters! (Oh time goes by so fast.) It is hard to dance around that food issue with adopted children we have found. We’ve been grain free a few times in the past but I crumble after a week or so, not knowing what else to feed everyone! If anyone has an easy reference as a starter guide (I feel like I’ve looked at a million but haven’t found one easy enough for me!) let me know.
Also, might gluten sensitivity cause frequent anger/frustration in a child?
I know for a fact that food sensitivities cause frequent anger and frustration. We’ve seen so muh of that at our house in the past. I’m sure gluten would cause it too. We aren’t exactly gluten free here, but we can’t have regular flours. And we have a huge list of other foods we can’t eat. Gluten is definitely not the only culprit in the world.
The first thing I did was just eat meat, fruit and vegetables and brown rice for a couple weeks. The I decided I had to figure out more to eat. We use freshly ground whole oat groats (you can buy oat flour) for pancakes and muffins and banana or zuchini bread type things. Also, we use brown rice flour (we grind that too) for anything like gravy or thickening of stew. We also make crepes out of the brown rice flour for chicken or tuna crepes. We do use our spelt flour that has some gluten for bread, but if that was causing us problems, we’d just dump it. To us it’s not worth eating any speck of anything that causes trouble. Life is full of enough trouble as it is.
If you’re interested in recipes, let me know and I can post some.
Shannon – I read someone’s blog (didn’t bookmark it, so don’t remember where) about their child who sounded very much like my DD. Easily frustratied, hard time focusing, difficulty reading, frequent outbursts, etc. She found a lot of help in going gluten and casein free. So far I am not noticing that with my DD but will stick out a bit longer. A book that the blogger read, and I found at my library, is “The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet” by Pamela Compart and Dana Laake. I found the book very helpful and informative. The first part talks about how the gluten and casein affect some children and the second part has recipes. It also discusses how to slowly implement it by slowly introducing foods while weaning others out.
The book states that for behavioral reactions to gluten can take 2 or 3 days to manifest after eating it, unlike physical symptoms which usually occur within 24 hrs. It also discusses how gluten and casein can have an opiate affect on kids, therefore they are addicted to them and can have withdrawls when they are taken out of their diet. Very interesting.
Google recipes online. I have found some good recipes and blogs with things worth trying. I found it helpful to think up some meals ahead of time and make sure that I had the things in the house for it before we even started. I have made some bread that I like (DH doesn’t) but gluten free baking dries out really fast, so we don’t have sandwiches very often anymore. It does help to cook up some white beans and puree some and put it into your baking. Helps it be more moist.
When I do reintroduce, I was planning to introduce one eliminted food at a time. Should I reintroduce it, give it 3 days and reintroduce it again or do you think one time is enough and then move on to the next item?
If you don’t have a reaction the first serving, you might play with it for a week. Delayed reactions can take time, plus sometimes one serving isn’t always enough to reproduce the symptoms you are watching for (at least at your expected normal levels). Keep a food journal and notice the behaviors…it can be interesting to see that correlation.
I noticed that when I bake our gluten-free items (like muffins) and put them in the freezer (in a plastic container) within a few minutes of them cooling it really helps the drying out. I just microwave a single serving for a few seconds to make the muffin taste fresh out of the oven. Mmm, fresh muffins for breakfast w/out the mess. 😉 I don’t make bread often because we are also yeast free, but have discovered that wrapping in foil before placing in a Ziploc bag helps the drying out. It still gets dry, just not as fast.
We wrap our sandwiches and burgers in large lettuce leaves because it allows us to use toppings that we otherwise tend to give up w/out the bread. 😉
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