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Thanks for all the replies I received on this. If you missed the question it
related to a 10 year old boy with Down Syndrome whose favourite food is
peanut butter sandwiches who also has bowel and bladder problems (continuous
flow).
The question was:
Has anyone else had a similar problem and did a gluten-free diet solve or at
least improve the situation?

There were 14 replies:
2 mentioned that peanut butter sandwiches were also their favourite food pre
diagnosis of celiac.
Other possible causes to check for:
Dropped bladder (i.e. in the wrong place); heavy sleeper; overweight; spinal
cord lipoma (story below); diabetes (high blood sugars can be a factor);
allergies or intolerances to milk products, soy and other food.
4 have personal experience with bladder problems improving on a gf diet.
So for those who want the personal stories  read on...

- At 7, my daughter had "leakage" and NEVER knew when her bladder was full.
After scores of
doctors etc., she had an MRI of her lumbar spine. She had a large spinal
cord lipoma, after 9 hrs of microsurgery, she was perfectly perfect. Today
she is 12, diagnosed CD 2 yrs ago and doing
great.

- I have experience with and have read  some info on incontinence and food
intolerances.  Cases of
bedwetting in mid-age kids, etc have disappeared when the offending food is
eliminated from the diet. Two books that address this are: "Food Allergies
and Food Intolerances" by Brostoff and one of  Dr. Jonathan Wright's books.

- My daughter has Down Syndrome. She is 24 and has had Celiac synptoms for 3
years. She must avoid milk products and soy because they cause bladder
incontinence.

- I found a connection between urgency and Celiac.  I'm 50 and have always
had a bladder of steel, could hold it all day!  Over the past few years, I
started having to go constantly.  I attributed it to aging.  Then, I went GF
when my daughter was dx, just to make it easier to prepare food, and what do
you know, I realized after about 3 months that I didn't have to run to the
bathroom constantly!  Now, urgency and gas are the only symptoms I have of
gluten ingestion.

- My daughter Elizabeth is 6 and wets her pants frequently. Part of this is
due to behaviors learned on her part - to put off using the athroom when she
doesn't want to stop playing. However she has not wet the bed one time since
we have had her off gluten! And it was only a matter of weeks on the new
diet before we saw improvements in bladder control during the waking hours
as well.

- My daughter has been gluten free for 2 years.  She was 2.5 when first
diagnosed.  Prior to her diagnosis and when she was at her sickest - she had
terrible bed wetting issues.  She was wearing a diaper to bed, but would
just saturate the diaper and have an accident on a regular basis - she would
even go through the special night-time diapers.  When she went gluten-free
she stopped bed wetting and soon stopped wearing a diaper to bed.  Last
summer we took a cruise and although we tried to be extremely safe she
started getting a tummy ache at the end of the week and also wet her bed 2
days in a row. We got home soon after that and she has had no problems
since. I am convinced that her bed wetting is related to the ingestion of
gluten.

- My 10 year old grandson, who has recently been put on a gluten free diet,
also had severe bowel and bladder problems. Between messing his pants or
wetting them, he probably changed his clothing 5 to 6 times a day. Plus wet
his bed several times a night. He refused to wear pull ups. He went on a GF
diet Feb. 18th, and the improvement in his control has been amazing! It took
about a month before I noticed a real improvement. He no longer wets his
pants and probably only messes them several times a week, versus 5 times a
day. His bed wetting has also been reduced to several times a week.

Thanks again to all who replied. I'll send the full text of the emails on to
my friend so she gets to hear of the other benefits of going gf and some of
the helpful suggestions included re coping with the diet.
God bless you all,
Stella
New Zealand

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