What are the symptoms of gluten allergy?

[fluffyanimal]

Ds (12 months) has had upset stomach for a fortnight and no signs of it easing. All the doctors are saying rotavirus but his stool sample came back normal. Just wondered if I should be ruling out any food allergy. Can any experts on gluten allergy tell me how it usually presents?

proper gluten allergy (ceoliacs disease) is horrid. severe weight loss, severe fatigue. easy to diagnose with blood test. i'm not an expert btw, just a hypochondriac! hope he is better soon

It could be a temporary intolernace. Did your ds have a tummy bug? Alot of kids develop a temporary intolerance to diary after a bug. If not it could be wheat rather than gluten. My ds is allergic to wheat, gets a very bloated tummy, horrid stools, tummy ache, wind and goes off colour. I guess it depends on the kind of reaction your child is having. Vomitting, diarrhoea, hives??

The vomiting varies - some days he may not puke or only once, other days he pukes several times in a row. The diarrhoea gets worse as the day progresses, is yellow/green and smells sickly sweet

But no skin reaction other than dryness as he is a bit dehydrated.

I object to nickytwotimes use of the word 'proper'. There is a huge range of symptoms that can be caused by coeliac disease - depression, low energy, ADHD, osteoparosis, cancer, stomach cramp, feeling 'run down', itchy skin (dematitis herpatiformis) etc. It is hard for doctors to diagnose because of the great range of possible symptoms that overlap many other medical problems.

coeliac disease is not an allergy, it is an auto-immune disease and as clerkkent says, can result in all sorts of horrid symptoms if left undiagnosed.

fluffyanimal...my DD1 has coeliac and was diagnosed last year at 2.8 but with hindsight she'd been symptomatic since I introduced gluten at 6 months. A gluten intolerance/allergy doesn't definitely mean coeliac though. Unfortunately you might find it difficult to get a referral after 'only' two weeks, but if you should trust your instincts if you think it is not just a tummy bug. Perhaps you could take your son off gluten for a few days to see if it makes any difference? Only problem is, you'll then have to put him back on it to get a proper diagnosis if it is the problem.

Hope he feels better soon.