Gluten-free and Still Sick? You May Need to Omit Dairy Products.

I received some very helpful and interesting e-mails in my request for comments to add to my list for someone newly diagnosed with celiac disease.  (see below)  Take a look at this comment:

"With our daughter, even after she started eating the (gluten-free) diet she still wasn't feeling well.  A dietician suggested starting with just one thing and adding back in the foods she was eating to see what was the problem.  We got her separate dishes and cooking utensils and found that she started feeling better right away.  We then added back different foods. A dietician also told us that the receptors for milk are on the tips of the celia and so when she wasn't healthy she couldn't drink milk, but after she was on the diet for a while and things were healing we found she could drink regular milk again.  Since then she has done fine as long as she was careful on the gluten."

Her comments about milk got me thinking.  Years ago I read an article from the New England Journal of Medicine and it stated something about how some people have to go off of dairy products for about 6 months when they are first diagnosed with celiac disease.  I wish I could find the exact quote on that one, but we installed new flooring in our bedroom, and that paper is somewhere in my closet in a box. :)  Here is one I did find, however.  It is from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, April 2008, P. 665:  "In many cases, lactose intolerance resolves naturally with time on the gluten-free diet."

When we started out gluten-free diet, we went off of dairy products for about two years, but found out we could have re-introduced dairy products sooner.  Think of all of the milk chocolate we missed out on.  I didn't care too much about milk chocolate until I couldn't have it anymore.  When we went back on dairy products, and ever since then...I have been especially grateful and fond of chocolate. :)

Aside from the tips given above, here are additional ones I added to the list on the previous blog entry:

--Join a support group and share ideas about gluten-free products you enjoy.
--Watch out for cross-contamination on the dishes used by those still eating gluten.
--Sensodyne toothpaste has gluten.  Check your toothpaste label.