<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Here is a summary of the replies I received regarding my question to
bacterial intestinal infection.

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I found the book "complete candida yeast guidebook" by Jeanne Marie Martin
to be a wonderful complete resource--better than the other ones out there
even the Dr.  Cook or whatever his name is books.  She discuses parasites
briefly.  She discusesthe various antibiotics used and also the natural ones
that she recommends you use in addition to a strict multi-level diet.
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do you get a fever????if not no antibiotics, if it's truly bacterial what
kind is it?  does your doctor incubate it from your blood and use the
antibiotic specially designed for that certain bug?
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It is very interesting that your post came along when it did. I have had
some very foul smelling and floating stools for some time. I was very
perplexed over it. I maintain a GF diet so was even more perplexed. A month
ago I was in severe pain, and after a CT they found 5 kidney stones. Last
week they removed them, and for the healing process I was given an
antibiotic called Cipro. After about 6 pills my stools cleared up and seem
to be normal. I have been a biopsied Celiac since 1986, and this is the
first time things have looked this normal. After things had cleared up I
guessed that I had had a bacterial infection, but certainly didn't even
guess it till they did clear. I can hardly wait to see my GI Doctor next
Wed. to see what he says. I have been on prednisone for a year because of
refractory Sprue. This turn of evens may help me yoget off of this
medication.
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Homeopaths would know how to deal with this - and also
parasites, which could be causing your problem.
Antibiotics kill the good and the bad bacteria.  It is
good that you are taking yoghurt, but you obviously
need some other treatment if the antibiotics have not worked.
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Has your gastro done a stool sample?  You could have parasites.  Been
there done that and it was not pleasant.  Taking care of the parasites
was easy and I felt better immediately.  As for acidophilus,  take
PRO-BIOTICS which is a multi=stain acid.  It works better...take one
with each meal.
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I have had h. (or is it e.?) histolytica and am currently on treatment for
blastocystitis--hm blastocystis hominis--- (I think that's what it's
called.)

i could not get treatment for these parasites from an MD-- they didn't
believe I could've contracted them without foreign travel...

My naturopath gave treatment for both-(i know the naturopathy worked because
histolytica didn't show up on the laboratory tests when this other bug was
found.)  also as (somewhat) preventative, when I eat out or in another
state, or have a big meal, I need to take extra "stomach acid" (Betaine HCL
or others- you can buy them in health food stores).  He said the reason for
my stomach upsets and susceptibility to parasites is partly due to the fact
that I don't produce enough stomach acid.  (How do we KNOW?  I think there's
a test for it, but let's face it:  we celiacs KNOW when we aren't
really...um- digesting our food properly, shall we say?  ) AND-- I have only
had heartburn once or twice in my whole life--only after eating huge holiday
meals.
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The human intestinal tract is colonised by what is called the "intestinal
microflora" which is just a flash way of saying "all those bacterial,
yeasts, etc., that live and grow in the gut".  These microbes can be
desirables or undesirables and they live in a kind of fragile balance.
Whichever microbes are most entrenched create conditions around them to kill
or retard the growth of others.  For example, they might make conditions
more acidic or they might release chemicals which are toxic to other types
of microbes. When the microbial population in your gut gets out of balance
it is hard to re-establish the desirable microbes.  It's like an on-going
"survival of the fittest" with undesirables competing with the "friendly
bacteria" for food and for attachment sites on the gut lining.  If the
undesirables reach a certain level they swing the balance away from the
desirables.

When you get a flare up of undesirables you may get sick, go to the doctor
and get a course of antibiotics.  Some antibiotics are narrow-spectrum, that
is they only act against a small, closely related group of microbes.  Others
are broad spectrum, they kill off a lot of microbes.  The antibiotics
therefore will not selectively kill undesirables and leave desirables alone
unless they are very narrow spectrum antibiotics.  Often doctors give broad
spectrum antibiotics because they may not know the specific microbe that is
causing the problem.  Also, they want to ensure that they are killing the
culprit.

For your problem, since it keeps coming back and it's not just a transient
one-off thing you need to ensure that you keep in touch with your doctor.
If you take probiotics like yoghurt and Lactobacillus these will die if you
are taking the antibiotics at the same time (especially if it's a broad
spectrum antibiotic that kills a  wide range of microbes), so it is best to
start the probiotics when you finish the antibiotics course (otherwise you
are wasting your money) or have a cross-over of a couple of days.

Probiotics are often quite sensitive, so follow all the instructions on the
bottle, and if it is not a temperature stable strain YOU MUST STORE IT IN
THE REFRIGERATOR (but do not freeze).  Another useful supplement is FOS
(Fructooligosaccharide) which is a substance derived from chicory.  This
carbohydrate is a good food source for desirable gut bacteria and many
undesirables don't like the environment created by the FOS.  You'll be able
to find one from the place you get your probiotics.

Hope this helps.  Do keep going to your doctor if it keeps coming back
because untreated gut infections can make you really ill.
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I also have constant bacterial infections in my intestines.  I am blood type
A-negative, and Peter D'Adamo describes this condition as being a problem
for type A's in the Eat Right 4 Your Type book even without having CD.
Having CD makes it even worse; I cannot eat any carbohyrates within 5 hours
of going to sleep (the time that it takes for the small intestine to empty
of a meal) and cannot tolerate any refined sugars.  About 6 hours after
eating sucrose, I have an extremely painful infection, normally of
klebsiella bacteria.  Gastroenterologists and other doctors dismiss the
problems as being imagined, because "klebsiella is a bacteria that is
normally found in the intestines".  They aren't the ones that have to deal
with the pain.  CD has made the problem a lot worse.  By damaging the plasma
cells that produce IgA antibodies (the antibodies that "clean-up" foreign
bacteria in the intestines) CD has also left me IgA deficient.  When I go to
sleep at night, my metabolism slows down, and so does my ability to hold the
bacterial growth in check.  Very frequently, I will wake up at night with
hot flashes and sweats from a bacterial overgrowth.

You do not say if you also have a leaky gut (leaky gut syndrome). If it
progresses far enough, it will cause some extremely painful arthritis in
your joints, and narcotics are needed to control the pain. I took narcotics
for about 6 months, before I was diagosed CD, and as long as I avoid
sugars and gluten, I do not need them.

A juicer has helped a lot toward getting the intestines to start healing.  I
drink fresh fruit juices during the daylight hours, and eat only proteins
and vegetables after 5:00 pm.  At this point, I do not know if my IgA
antibody plasma cells will regenerate in time or not.  I have not found any
reliable statistics on recovery rates for IgA deficiency caused by damage
from CD.  The juicer has also helped my energy level immensely; for about 7
years I was totally exercise intolerant because of malabsorption.  Yogurt,
acidophilus, essential fatty acids (flax oil), folic acid, and b-12 do
absolutely nothing for me.  I hope that they work for you.

Another book that might be very helpful is "Breaking the Vicious Cycle"
by E. Gottschall. It describes a diet for persons with intestinal damage
that doctor's will scoff at, but has helped many persons when doctors
could not.

If it works for you, there is an herbal antibiotic that may help control
the infections - pao d' arco. It will not work if you have consumed sucrose,
but will the rest of the time for klebsiella and yeast bacteria. I do not
recommend prescription antibiotics because you cannot take them long
enough to allow the gut to heal (1-2 years) and without addressing the
cause, the infections will simply return as soon as your dietary intake of
carbohydrates exceeds your personal limit.
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Your email struck a familiar chord.  Intestinal infections such as you
describe plagued me for years prior to my diagnosis.  They were presumed to
be reproductive in nature and so I was regularly treated for pelvic
inflammatory disease (PID).  E.coli was the only "bug" ever to culture out
and the response was"that's just normal gut bacteria."  The antibiotics (an
injection of Rocephin and oral vibramycin) also made me quite sick, but at
the same time appeared to clear up the infection--temporarily.  I would end
up taking antibiotics almost every 6-8 weeks.

As a consequence of repeated infections I finally followed medical advice
and underwent a full hysterectomy, but the problem persisted.  Then I was
diagnosed as celiac, and since being on the gf diet (2 years) I've only had
one recurrence which came on the tails of 2 weeks of significant gluten
exposure when I was in a "field research" living situation and was unable to
control my food. Coincidence? Perhaps...

The persistent infection has been and remains a puzzlement. I've wondered if
it's related to the "leaky gut" condition (which in itself  seems to have
multiple definitions) such that when I get severe diarrhea with exposure,
gut bacteria leaks out of its environment into my abdominal cavity.   This
is pure speculation.  My doctor has been content to provide the antibiotics,
but I suffer mightily from taking them and would very much welcome any
advice on how to avoid such occurances.
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I had a bacterial (candidas) intestinal infection for which I was perscribed
nystatin....the nystatin didn't work well and was yucky (you should get sick
before you get better from a toxic overload from the dead bacteria).  I
tried the special diet and natural recommendations to kill yeast in the book
I mentioned and it worked.  Check with you doctor to see if you have a
candida infection.....I don't know if the methods/natural anti-fungals in
the book could be applied to other infections.  Candidas is a type of
yeast/fungus.
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    I had the same problem ,finished taking the antibiodics with pepto
bismal tablets last week. I am now on prevacid only for the next 2 weeks
and hope it works. I also had an ulcer return about the same time so I
am hoping all goes well. This past week my stomach bothered me on 2
different days but cant tell whether it is from Celiac, ulcer,
indigestion,or the bacteria or prevacid reaction. If I have the next 5
days ok I think I will be cured as I dont know what else to do.
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I am currently battling the same.  I also take acidophilus capsules, 3 - 6
times per day (yes, that many, it can't hurt and I'm trying desperately to
reinnoculate myself).  I also have been researching diet implications;
apparently the white sugar and flours (in our case white rice flour and
white rice for that matter) is a no no.  I've been looking at the
macrobiotic diet, it looks rather extreme, though I am definitely interested
in eating healthy, i.e.  more vegetables and fruits.  I have been craving
breads, cookies, etc.  (gluten free of course) and from what I've learned,
this makes sense as yeast feeds on these types of foods and craves them, so
we're driven to eat them.  I find that as I do eat these bread type foods, I
get the smelly gas and other pains related to this systemic yeast infection.
I was just on the internet looking up foods to eat, perhaps that would help
you.  Basically, you need to be eating protein and vegetables (with daily
supplements of acidophilus) until it clears up.  I am coming to the
realization that I won't be able to indulge in breads and cookies nearly as
much as I seem to crave them if I want to stay "yeast free" and healthy for
that matter (as I find that I substitute breads for vegetables which ain't
good).

Thanks for all the responses.  I will be going back to the gastro on
December 21st and plan on printing all of the responses I received and show
them to him and see what kind of response I get.

I will let you know if I find out anything interesting. I don't know what
us Celiacs would do with out this list, for me it has been an invaluable
source of information.  Thanks to all and Happy Holidays!