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Hello,

Our autistic daughter has been gluten free for 12 months.  A few weeks
ago, we decided to do a gluten challenge and gave her noodles.  We did
not see any increase in her autistic behaviors; however, her stools
immediately started to float, and floated for a week.  Two weeks ago she
was given a very small amount of bread and, once, again, her stools
floated for a couple of days.  Last Thursday she was given breaded
chicken and, once again, her stools are floating.  They are soft and
light golden brown, but do not appear to be greasy nor are they
noticeably stinky.

We are concerned about celiac disease but realize that floating stools,
while a symptom, are not axiomatic; floating stools can result merely
from change of diet.  As I understand it celiac disease results in
damage to the villi of the small intestine which decreases its surface
area resulting in malabsorption.  Shouldn't there be a delay between
when gluten is reintroduced into the diet and the villi becoming so
damaged that this malabsorption occurs?

Thanks

Margaret