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My three-year-old son has not been officially diagnosed with celiac
disease, but we noticed about 6-8 months ago that every time he eats
wheat, he gets a severe diaper rash and does not sleep well at night. We
were not super strict with his diet, but we avoided wheat. Then,
recently, I made a meal with barley and accidentally made way too much
because I misread the recipe. So, for about a week we had a lot of
barley (and also some rye). He seemed to react the same way, which made
me suspect celiac. I am now following a gluten-free diet for him and I
thought I was doing pretty well with it, although I am new to this.
However, the past couple days he's had the same symptoms.

I realize everyone is unique and the body is so complicated. I mean, he
may not even have a problem with gluten at all...maybe he's allergic to
a certain pesticide...who knows. But, did anyone notice when going on a
gf diet that their symptoms remained for a few days? Did they get worse?
I am wondering if his body is just getting rid of some residual gluten,
if that makes sense. Maybe I just need to get him tested, but I don't
want to do anything too intrusive. Does anyone else have the symptom of
insomnia when ingesting gluten?

Also, I know the cause of celiac disease is unknown, but are any studies
being done? I would think that if we knew the cause, we could better
know what to do. I mean, by avoiding gluten, are we really treating the
main cause? Why does a person with celiac not make that enzyme? If a
person's body does not produce an enzyme, maybe there is a bigger issue
there. Maybe there is something lacking in the diet, that person's
environment, etc. Maybe the body stops producing that particular enzyme
as a protection mechanism for something else? I just really wish we knew
why!

Danielle in Charlotte

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