I ate bread yesterday for he first time this year.

[TheAlmightyBob]

I'd given it up in an attempt to cure the irritable bowel (along with dairy).

Anyway - I cracked in Ikea and ate a bacon ciabatta.

Oh the wind, and the poo, and the bloating!

I think I know now what was causing the Irritable Bowels.

So - Is this it? forever? am I never going to be able to eat a greggs cheese pasty? or a supermarket sandwich? or a doughnut? or cake? or toast?

have you been tested for Coeliac disease?

My mum was "diagnosed" with IBS when I was about 14. Just last October she was tested for coeliac and hey presto- she has it.

no. should i? would't that be a life long thing (like from birth) rather than starting in my 30s?

Coeliacs is an autoimmune disease, that means your small intestine starts to react to gluten as if it was a foreign invader. It can develop during your lifetime.
Please go and ask a Doctor for it to be tested, although this may well mean you have to eat gluten for a little while.

oh. maybe i should then. i think i assumed i'd have always been irritable.

i am sooooo bloaty today.

arse. how long do i need to eat bread for again if i go to the docs?

NICE guidelines state that anyone with a diagnosis of IBS should be tested for coeliac disease. Sadly, it is often mis-diagnosed as IBS which means many people don't get diagnosed with coeliac disease until at least their 30s (or even their 50s in many cases). To be tested, you do need to be regularly including gluten in your diet for at least 6 weeks otherwise the tests will not be accurate and you could get a false negative result. The initial test is a simple blood test at the GP surgery then if that's positive you should be referred to a specialist for a gastroscopy and biopsy.

definitely see your doc and get tested, almighty. if you are coeliac, then there is a lot of damage you could be unwittingly doing yourself - a diagnosis will help you get it all sorted.

HI
Thats almost exactly whats happening to me and my DD1. She has been diagnosed via the blood test as coeliac and we are now waiting for the biopsy. The consutant said I should also be tested as apparently its commonly linked down the mothers side. The funny think is that I had given up eating bread/pasta etc for over a year to try and make my IBS better (it did) so am now into week 2 of eating wheat again for 6 weeks.

I started off ok but by the end of week 1 have had stomach pains again so I wont be suprised if I end up positive - but you must find out ThealmightyBob as if you dont come off gluten and you are a coeliac it can mean problems like osteoporosis later in life.

I would echo the advice and get tested !

are there any other ways of being tested for celiac disease? i had the blood test but the gp forgot to tell me to eat gluten for 6 weeks beforehand? It seems a shame to have to eat the thing that makes you feel unwell in order to be tested for it.
OP have you ever been tested for a wheat allergy? one of my neighbours has a boy who has the same problems as you with wheat , ie it goes through him. i think his dad is the same. To me that sounds like an intolerance but she says its an allergy.

mumat39 it is a shame to have to eat the very thing making you ill but sadly this is the only way to get a diagnosis. Making my DD continue to eat gluten for 6 weeks last year while waiting for the biopsy was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a mum. She was in agony and her blood test results were so high the consultant said he was 99% certain she was coeliac but she still had to wait for the biopsy. There are proposals to change this for diagnosing children but not sure if they'll get passed. Your neighbour's problem definitely sounds like intolerance rather than allergy. What tests did they have? Skin prick and/or RAST tests?

thanks freefrommum. That sounds tough, having to feed your daughter foods that you know would make her uncomfortable. I suppose the main thing is you know now and you'll never have to put her or yourself through that again.

DD has a wheat allergy. Do you know if she might be likely to develop celiac disease or if there are any links?

Re my neighbour, I don't know what tests they had done. I'm assuming they must have been skin prick and blood tetsts. She had a very unsympathetic GP and ended up seeking help privately.

Thanks again.

*tests

• any other silly typos

There is an alternative to the agony of eating gluten to be tested. You decide that you have a problem, and put yourself on gluten free.

Dd was told she was coeliac after a blood test when she was about 6. Due to a gp cock up, she went gf straight away, and needed to start eating it again for the biopsy. She was so sensitive that 1 biscuit made her scream all night. After a fight with a consultant at GOSH, who said I was unreasonable not to make my dd suffer excruciating pain for 3-6 months so they could stuff a camera down her throat in order to tell us what we already knew, we just moved her to gf food. She never looked back. We managed without prescription food five years, until a new gp gave her the prescription. We have never use it!
Now aged 13, and being far less sensitive to gluten, she has decided to have the test. It's scheduled for next Wednesday.

that's what i'm considering Saggy. I think i'll go to the docs and see what they think.

I so need to do this, don't I? I've always struggled with bread but because all unrefined carbs bloat me and I'm less troubled by wholewheat I kind of keep putting it off. I have been told by the GP that I probably have IBS but might want to try reducing the wheat in my diet.

What happens if you keep eating gluten?

Worried for DS too. Another MNer suggested that his ENT troubles could be down to a food intolerance.

Posted too soon.

Good luck Bob. Let us know how you get on :)

mumat39 there's no link between wheat allergy and coeliac disease. Although oddly I have a DD with coeliac disease and a DS with wheat allergy but that's just an unfortunate coincidence. Coeliac disease does run in families though so consultant has said that if DS ever outgrows his wheat allergy they will want to test him for coeliac disease too (can't test now as he doesn't have enough gluten in his diet).
ohbugrit I would definitely get tested if I were you. If you are coeliac, the longer you continue to eat gluten the more damage you will be doing to your gut. Undiagnosed and untreated coeliac disease can lead to all sorts of problems. Saggy that's awful, your poor DD. I totally understand why you did what you did. However, I would still strongly recommend to TheAlmightyBob to reintroduce gluten for 6 weeks and have the tests done as coeliac disease is a life-long condition and those not diagnosed until adulthood are more likely to have complications so you really need to have it on your medical records (they won't do this unless you have the biopsy). There is also the added benefit of gluten free foods on prescription (although for how much longer I'm not sure given the NHS cuts).

our situation is very similar to Saggy. my DD was 27 months old when she was diagnosed last November (her blood test came back with a reading of over 200). We decided to put her on GF diet straight away because she was so ill and had lost so much weight (she was off the bottom of the weight chart and wearing clothes for 9-12 month old). I couldn't bear the thought of keeping her poorly for another 6 weeks, and the paediatric gastroenterologist didn't fight us too hard.

she's responded brilliantly to the GF diet, and had put on a kilo in the first month!

my feeling is that, if she wants to double confirm it with a biopsy when she's older then she can... at least she would be old enough to understand why she's in pain :(

Exactly. Except we had a cow of a consultant. She told me I was unreasonable, she would do it if she had a child, she didn't that we wouldnt be getting a prescription if we didn't do it, and then she looked at DP conspiratorially, and told him to take me home, talk to me and then ring her tomorrow to book the appointment! How DP got me out of there without me giving her a fat lip, I have NO idea!

OMG!!!! what a bitch!!!!!!

we were given the hard sell (although the only reason they could come up with to do the biopsy was because it was 'policy'), and they tried to use withholding the prescriptions as leverage, but i could afford to buy DD normal food beforehand, so i figured i'd be ok buying GF food for her afterwards!!

that's really naughty of the consultant... to try and make you put your little child through a procedure like that (even without the weeks/months of pain before hand).

good for you for telling her where to go!!! (tiger-mothers 1 - stupid childless doctors zero!!!!!!!)

Definitely not GOSHs finest hour!