Is this a wheat allergy or an intolerance?

[FeatherySquawkington]

I've been having IBS symptoms for a couple of years - bloating, windy, constipation with sporadic episodes of diarrhoea, nausea and stomach aches. About 10 days ago I started coming out in hives and itchy rashes on my arms and legs. I've pinpointed this to wheat ingestion - it happens with 15 minutes of eating anything with wheat in and the severity depends on how much I've eaten. For example, one digestive biscuit brought out a rash on my knees and a few hives on my bum but two slices of bread resulted in my arms and legs being covered. It gets worse over the first hour then calms down and disappears within 2/3 hours. Does this sound like an allergy or an intolerance? I'm going wheat-free until I can get in at the drs but I'm so scared I'll have a serious reaction if it is allergy. Antihistamines do help to clear the rash up quicker and also to prevent it happening.

[pastabest]

I'm going wheat-free until I can get in at the drs

Don't do that (sorry ) to get an accurate test for coeliac disease you need to have been eating wheat/gluten in the run up to the blood test otherwise it can give a false negative.

Even just a biscuit a day is enough if you can

[FeatherySquawkington]

I'm not convinced it's coeliac disease, I didn't think you could get hives from that or that it would respond to antihistamines?

[pastabest]

A symptom of coeliac disease can be dermatitis herpetiformis

www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/dermatitis-herpetiformis/

Although it isn't generally treated/cured with antihistamines, antihistamines can sometimes help to reduce the itching

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-3083.2009.03188.x

[seanceinterrupted]

My son has a non IgE wheat allergy. Different symptoms though. Current advice is to continue keeping small amount of wheat in your diet (assuming the symptoms are not too drastic)so your body doesn't have an ana reaction if it gets exposed after a long time off wheat.

[Troels]

I get the rash and it responds to antihistamines.
Keep eating gluten and get some blood tests at the doctors.

[lorns01]

Hi @FeatherySquawkington how did you get on with your tests? Any diagnosis or improvements? x