Gluten Sensitivity and Child Mental Health
Hi all,
I have been lurking here all week, taking note of all the product recommendations, and sneaky places people are getting glutened.
Our 6 year old daughter has developed some mental health challenges (anxiety, OCD-like behaviors) and her new therapist directed us to a functional medicine specialist to rule out PANS/PANDAS. Her extensive labs came back negative for PANS/PANDAS, but all signs point to her having a pretty significant non-celiac gluten intolerance. She is also lactose intolerant, and while that has been easily managed with Lactaid pills and products, I am playing around with also trying to go dairy free.
We have been tasked with going Gluten Free for the next 3-6 months and assessing mental health symptoms and also re-running her labs.
In reading about gluten intolerance, I see that she has had some of the other common symptoms for years: skin rashes, chronic congestion, gas/bloating, chronic fatigue.
Anyone have kids with any of these symptoms and see improvement from a Gluten Free diet? This is such uncharted territory for me.
As a former vegetarian, now pescatarian, whole grains like wheat and barley have been staples in my diet for years. It will be an interesting journey for me as well, as I'll need to rethink a lot about how I eat, too.