intolerances and their impact on sleep

[bethylou]

I've posted here before about DS1 and DH's food intolerances. DS1 has recently restarted his gluten-free diet after 16 weeks back on it (so that we could exclude Coeliac disease once and for all). He now sleeps through the night again, having been up two to three times a night whilst back on gluten. This made me think about DH. He used to sleep talk/walk/fondle etc.. sometimes several times a night. I don't know if its ceasing coincided with him going gluten- and dairy-free, but it has certainly stopped (thank God!) DS2 is now having problems with digestion and he seems to be sleep talking more/being much more restless. I could be reading too much into it, but I was just wondering if any of you had similar experiences.

I certainly think it has impacted on ds sleep. There's the wind and the itching. According to gp histamine is higher at night so if this is a factor it's bound to have an affect.

There's a lot of evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that food intolerances have an impact on behaviour in general including sleep, concentration levels etc. Changing a child's diet can have a huge impact on their behaviour - ask most parents of a child with ASD. I don't have any personal experience of this though as my DD's sleep/behaviour hasn't changed since she was diagnosed as coeliac and went gluten free, all that changed was she stopped have tummy ache & reflux (although those have subsequently returned but that's another story!). But then, she never had any problems with her sleep or behaviour, in fact she had no other symptoms at all. So, am I right in thinking your DS1 doesn't have coeliac disease but gluten intolerance?

Btw, I did chuckle at your description of your DH 'fondling' in his sleep - the mind boggles!

Oh yes, he wakes up doing it and is very confused!

Ds1's endoscopy results have come back negative for Coeliac disease. Some evidence of mild CMP allergy from the blood tests.

Both ds1 and ds2 still have reflux and I'm sure it's all linked. If woe could sort out ds2's vomiting and waking in the night we'd be laughing!