Wheat Allergy and Behavior

amother

Peach

Mon, Apr 03 2017, 9:10 pm

A couple of months ago, my 5 year old daughter began displaying some uncharacteristic behaviors. We did some bloodwork, and she came back allergic to wheat. Her IgE was also elevated at 1611 (!!).

She's never had any classic allergy symptoms such as hives, eczema, rashes, respiratory issues, etc. Most of the behaviors we were originally concerned about seem to be mostly gone, but right now she's still extremely jittery, like she doesn't stop moving all day, and her movements can be somewhat jerky and coordinated, she slides around on her chair and can't sit still, she's impulsive, she becomes very hyper and silly if she's bored, she mouths things a lot.

I would like to trial her off wheat. What I'm wondering now is, for anyone that's had a similar situation, did you take your child just off wheat but allow spelt, or did you go completely gluten free?

Also, how long did it take for you to see an improvement in behavior?

Any other insight would be very much appreciated.

anonymrs

Mon, Apr 03 2017, 10:15 pm

Hi! First, calm down. She's not the first child to go through something like this and iyh she will get through it. If a child is eating a food that s/he's allergic to, an IgE level of 1611 is somewhat expected.

Yes, sometimes an allergy can come out in behaviors. When we were trying to get my allergic daughter to gain weight, we started giving her lots of coconut products because they're high calorie. Her behavior went wonky and we had her tested. Turns out she is VERY VERY allergic to coconut. Her only symptoms were behavioral. As soon as we pulled the coconut, she returned to more typical behavior. So it's definitely a possibility.

Also, just to make you more confused, (sorry) have you looked into PANDAS? It's related to high IgE levels and also to behavioral concerns.

If it was my child, I would pull gluten completely for at least 2 weeks after all symptoms subside and then slowly trial spelt to see if that's tolerated.