<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> I began this by writing the following: After eight years of this GF diet, and normal gluten reactions whenever I get a slight touch of gluten, suddenly I do not appear to be reacting to wheat. When "She Who Must Be Obeyed" was gone for a week recently I bought another box of Van's Waffles. Ate one one morning, and two the next. She she got home she looked in the freezer and it brought out her alternate personality, the dreaded Darth. "Why are you suddenly buying whole wheat waffles"? she asked in high dudgeon. It seems I had eaten three whole wheat waffles with no reaction whatsoever. Then three days ago I mistakenly took a bite (half the cookie :) of her wheat made cookie before Darth appeared and stopped me. No reaction whatsoever, even though I did take four papaya pills immediately after I would have expected something. I know I did react strongly to any hint of wheat at least a year ago, when I had my last major accident, that I knew was wheat. What I want to know is: Have any of you gone from normal celiac reactions to wheat to no reactions within a year? For some reason most of those who replied seemed to get the idea that I said I was going to start eating gluten again. I did not say that. That was an unwarranted assumption. I'm careless, not stupid. No way am I going to go back to eating wheat again. No way. Not gonna happen. It's gotten too easy to avoid it. So please do not write and chastise me like a child any more :) I do wish though that I could eat dairy again :) But my Okla family used to tell to wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which hand got full the quickest :) Several people replied that after a long period of careful GF eating they did get to the point where one or two episodes did not bring on any reaction. Several mentioned that when you are "clean" long enough you no longer have any antibodies in your system so you don't react to one or two encounters of the gluten kind. This seems to make a lot of sense to me and that's the one I'm gonna believe till I have something better to go with. But they all said that if they continued to eat gluten, in less than a week they would begin to react again, and some said worse than before. I believe this. -vance Following are some of the interesting replies: "I've had a similar thing, but that dosen't mean you can eat wheat. What happens is that you have not built up allergens and were able to sneak in some wheat. BUT, if you continue, the allergens will come back [usually within four days of daily consumption] and you will be back to groumd[sic] zero again." "That is interesting. I havent tried eating wheat, but I spoke with a friend recently that claimed that he was off wheat for several years and now seems to be doing ok with small amounts of it. I haven't tried it since I don't want to deal with the results if it doesnt work." "I'm definitely no expert in the subject just having been GF around 16 months now. I was diagnosed as gluten intolerant and never had a biopsy. My symptoms all cleared up with a GF diet, but I wasn't convinced until I ate some wheat-dipped french fries and bloated and constipated etc. Anyway, I've noticed recently that I'm not reacting like that anymore to gluten. I'll feel a little off if I accidently ingest something I shouldn't have, but I'm not getting the painful gas and bloating so much. However, I will get a cold, on cue, about 2-3 days later, so I'm fairly certain I should still stay away from gluten. ;)" "I have a friend who was diagnosed 20 years ago. Three years ago a new doctor said that it was a bad diagnosis and he began to eat wheat again. He said it took him 2 years to really screw up his insides again where he is reacting all the time. Thus, the moral of the story is that just because you are not reacting, you may still be doing damage, and the clock is ticking (soon you will be reacting again)." "I haven't tried to eat wheat, but I found your comments interesting. I was diagnosed a year and three months ago. Before that I have seemed to have this problem on and off for years. I first became sick when I was 16, and had severe diahrea for 9 months. It then went away and returned when I was 25. I again was sick for about 6 months. It came back when I was 38, and my doctor but me on antibiotics. I was on the antibiotics for 3 years. I don't know if celiac can come and go like that, but during those years I always ate wheat. Most of the time I was ok. I am very interested in the responses you get." "Hi, I have a 23 month old son who is celiac. He has been gluten and casein free since Sept. 2000. When he had been GF for a year, I challenged him with some Ritz crackers, and he ate the whole roll. Absolutely no reaction, and this is a child who would scream at the top of his lungs and roll in the floor with intestinal cramps. So we went off the diet, using Creon prescription enzymes, and he did not have any diarhea or stomach cramps. We did this for like 3 weeks, then realized that he was having petit mal seizures, staring off into space for about a minute, then just snapping back out of it. We called the alergist, and he said to get back on the diet, gave me a tongue lashing for even taking him off of the diet, and said that these seizures are common in this type of situation. Petit Mal seizures will lead to Grand Mal. We got right back on the diet, and haven't seen another seizure since. He has described it to me like this: You are a big pot, and all of your intolerances are simering inside of it. You can add a certain amount, and keep it in the pot, but if you keep adding, your pot will overflow and you will have reactions. I think if you keep challenging your diet, it will catch up with you and you will have to start over again healing your gut. I have just recently found out that I am also Celiac, I have had horrible diarhea and intestinal cramps every day for the past 6 years (ignorant doctors couldn't figure it out). Since going GF a month ago, I'm feeling great and am in no hurry to challenge the diet and be put back in that horribly unhealthy state of nutrition again." [Ed. note] The last two I'm including because I thought they were noteworthy, but that does not mean I agree with or espouse this approach, so do not chide me. And I also think it's unnecessary to say anything to them either, unless someone has an uncontrollable urge to vilify or control others :) "The first year I went GF, I had the worst reaction ever, when I accidentaly ate gluten. I was then oversensitive to gluten. Last year I cheated and wasn't sick at all. Since then, I must confess that I do cheat once in a while (about every two months) with no reaction at all. Is it very dangerous to do so? Many listmember will tell you it is suicidal, but it makes me feel good and helps me to stay on the diet the rest of the time." "I've got the same problem. I do not stick to the diet but out of the blue I will get really sick and lose a lot of weight and not be able to keep anything in. It happens maybe two to three times per year. I was diagnosed by biopsy 10 years ago as celiac. I have no explanations, but would like one also."