Biding Our Time

Baby E has been feeling quite unwell for a week now, and it doesn't seem to be dissipating. It certainly seems as though there's something more than a cold at issue here.

A lot of it seems to be intestinal discomfort, which doesn't really fit with a cold. She's been clingy and fussy, comfort-nursing and wanting to be held a lot, tired, sleeping either very poorly or far more than would be normal for a child of her age, and just . . . uncomfortable.

It is hard to poinpoint, but there's definitely that subtle "something is not right with my child" instinct going off.

##################

It's not her normal allergy reaction, but it doesn't really seem related to her cold. Some days she seems to feel better than others. It seems that the days she's eaten a lot of wheat have been worse, but we can't tell for sure yet.

I think it's rather telling that she's been less than enthusiastic about any gluten-containing food the second time it's offered. Even the whole wheat noodles she loved the first time I gave them to her, eating serving after serving and demanding more, she only picks at now.

She did get a stomachache that night, complete with lots of gassiness, and then slight diarrhea and a diaper rash the next day. No wonder she started refusing wheat after that. So we cut out wheat again and went back to barley.

She does seem to tolerate barley a bit better, but it's hard to get her to eat it. She ate pancakes and waffles made with barley flour eagerly at first, but lost her enthusiasm halfway through the first serving. Now she takes a taste and turns away.

She's becoming more hesitant to try new foods, and less eager to eat even the safe, known foods. Her appetite is waning again. She's less eager to eat anything other than bananas, chicken and peaches (a newer addition to her diet). Even of that short list, she's eating smaller quantities.

DH and I agree that the gluten experiment hasn't been successful enough to move ahead with the elimination diet, at least at this point. We really can't add anything we're not already certain she tolerates well.

There's little point in adding new foods a few at a time to see how they affect her when she's already feeling badly. Since we suspect one of the foods we've already added but can't remove it again at this point, we're probably going to have to just start over with the elimination diet at some future point if it turns out that gluten isn't an issue for her.

Still, this doesn't necessarily mean she's not tolerating gluten well. There are quite a few possible explanations for her not feeling well.

Maybe last week's glowing good health wasn't related to food at all.

It's possible that the combination of her cold and teething might affect her this way, though that would be unusual for her.

Or she could have some other as-yet-undiscovered pain or illness going on.

But having that illness or whatever it is that's bothering her be worst on the days she's eaten the most gluten might be a bit of a stretch.

The real test will be what happens when we take her off gluten again, and then repeat the trial. If (and at this point it's a big if) the pattern repeats itself, then we'll know she doesn't tolerate gluten well at this point.

Even if it does turn out that it's the gluten that's bothering her, that doesn't necessarily mean she has celiac disease. A person can have an allergy or intolerance to gluten without it being a full-scale autoimmune reaction. She could just not digest it well for some reason without having even a true intolerance. It could easily be something temporary that she could grow out of.

For now, we're going to continue getting gluten into her any way we can (wheat flour, barley, or anything else) for the next few days and then do the blood test. I haven't yet added gluten back into my own diet, and probably won't for the time being.

At this point I just want to get the test over with. Then we can concentrate on finding out what she can eat instead of trying to make her eat things she may not tolerate well.