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Food Allergy
miniray
member
XP Gluten intolerance and Pregnancy
miniray
member
in Food Allergy
I ate gluten my entire life up until last year when I went to see a naturopath because of migraines, severe eczema, low iron, low B12, dry skin, diarrhea, etc. and she had me cut out all gluten from my diet and within 2 weeks all my symptoms cleared up. A year before I saw the naturopath, my GP tested me for celiac and results came back negative. My GP refused to do any further testing and still does not believe that i'm gluten intolerant. My naturopath (which I like much better than my GP) explained that I wasn't celiac but I did have a gluten sensitivity (because of my delayed reaction).
My problem is, now I'm 10 weeks pregnant and suffering from m/s. Nothing looks or smells good to me and I have trouble getting anything down. The last few days all I've wanted was a Subway sandwich. So i've had one... twice this week. I've also had bread and butter the other day and a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks. All these 4 things in the span of about 2 weeks.
I've "cheated" my GF diet before and I've noticed that about 4 days after eating gluten my body reacts. I get ezcema around my torso and breasts and have diarrhea, it normally clears up after 1-2 days (as long as I don't eat any more gluten).
I've been reading online about how eating gluten with celiac disease can cause miscarriage but there isn't anything about gluten intolerance. Anyone else exerpiencing the same thing? Anyone have any idea if eating gluten when intolerant can cause miscarriage?
I don't plan on eating gluten everyday or at every meal. But on certain days with m/s and nothing else seems appealing I would like to be able to "cheat".
Any thoughts/advice appricated! TIA.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: XP Gluten intolerance and Pregnancy
You have a known, proven, and very clear gluten intolerance. Please, please, do not eat gluten. Ever. There are several reasons. First, yes your celiac test was negative. But there's a HUGE rate of false negatives. Do you know which test you had? Even if you don't have "actual" celiac, gluten intolerance can be every bit as dangerous; it's simply not been studied to the extent that celiac has been (and even that is way, way behind the times), so it is not given much attention. And if you do have celiac, eating gluten causes an autoimmune reaction... your body begins attacking your organs. Long-term this can lead to a dead gallbladder, pancreas (diabetes!), liver trouble, neurological damage, cancer, and on and on.
Second, you had nutrient deficiencies. These happen when your small intestine is damaged from the gluten. Your villi are blunted and become unable to properly absorb nutrients. Thus, if you go back to eating gluten, even a little every so often, you're going to be causing damage again and getting back into deficiencies. Pregnancy is the WORST time to be doing this.
Third, you may be experiencing a decrease in your gluten symptoms during pregnancy because your immune system is already being suppressed to maintain the pregnancy. This doesn't mean you get a free pass though. The damage is still happening; you're just not feeling it like you normally would.
I know this is tough, but think back to what it was like when you had all those symptoms. That severe eczema? That's the visible expression of what your intestines probably looked like. Don't do that to yourself!
I also have a gluten intolerance. I found myself eating tortilla chips all the time when I was pregnant. The salt and blandness help with the stomach.
I am an undiagonsed celiac.
I self-diagonsed and removed gluten from my diet.. and my blood test will come up negative because I need to start eating gluten again in order to get a positive blood test and I'm not willing to do that.
I notice a huge difference in my symptoms with pregnancy. I don't have the cramping and the bloating if I ingest gluten. But I still get the diharrhea..
As PP said - don't eat gluten.. just because you're not reacting the same doesn't mean it's not causing damage!
It's hard to find food you want to eat when you're experiencing M/S. But I did a lot of gluten free toast - tortilla chips like another poster said.. you can find rice crackers as well.. I found that I preferred bland foods...
Good luck I hope it gets better for you.