Family history of coeliacs / wheat intolerance. Should I hold off giving wheat to DS2?

[Jojay]

Dh's brother has recently been diagnosed with coeliacs disease, and my aunt has a wheat intolerance. Both DH and I are fine, as are our parents. DS1 is also fine - neither relative was diagnosed when I weaned him so introduced wheat at 6 months with no problems

Is there any research to show that holding off is sensible? Or can holding off actually be a bad thing?

DS2 is 27 weeks and has had just fruit and veg so far. He's fully breast fed and I've been eating wheat throughout.

TIA

Forgot to say that DS2 has dry skin and eczema patches.

DS1 has asthma, DH has hayfever and dry skin, as does MIL. I'm fine

The latest healthcare advice is for all children to avoid wheat/gluten until 1yr old.

Really? Do you have a link?

All my children have coeliac disease so as you can imagine we've done quite a bit of research! No-one in the family had been diagnosed with it prior to DD1's diagnosis when she was 2.10, but since then her cousin (then 12) has been diagnosed. My DTs were tested when DD1 was first diagnosed, but were clear, but after DT1 started showing some symptoms earlier this year she was tested and after her test came back positive, DT2 also tested positive, despite showing no symptoms at all.

As far as I can ascertain, if you have a coeliac in your close family, you have a 1 in 10 chance of having coeliac disease yourself. I would say that you could start giving DS2 gluten products as and when appropriate (according to the latest guidelines - wasn't aware of the advice mentioned by tinytalker), and if he displays any symptoms then you will know to get him tested asap. You could ask your GP to do a test to rule it out, but the blood tests can be unreliable in children and it's probably not worth putting your baby through it yet.

Symptoms to look out for when you do introduce gluten: constipation/constant diarrhoea, lethargy, lack of appetite, frequent vomiting. Also physically - big belly and stick legs, slow weight gain/weight loss.

HTH

Thanks. I've just googled it and I can't find anything to suggest I hold off until he's 1 - but maybe I just can't find it.

The general consensus seems to be that it can be dangerous to introduce before 4 months, but also leaving it too late - post 7 months - can increase the likelihood of coeliacs.

Coeliacsuk says ' ^It is recommended that gluten is not introduced into a baby's diet before 6 months of age - regardless of whether the baby has a relative with coeliac disease or not. Following on, we recommend that provided the baby is fit and well, the parents and local medical services are aware of the incidence of coeliac disease in the family and the symptoms of it in infants, then the usual baby foods should be introduced when the baby is six months old.

For a few weeks, this probably means that not very much gluten will be ingested, since most first-stage baby foods are naturally gluten-free. However, by the time the baby is eight to nine months old, normal feeding, including breakfast cereals, the use of second stage baby foods, ordinary pasta and puddings, and ordinary bread as little sandwiches at teatime, will mean that the baby is having a normal gluten intake^'

So I think that's what we'll do.

Thanks for your input - those symptoms to look out for are very useful.

Hope it goes ok. Just to add, DD1's symptoms started about a month after I introduced gluten...it took a long time to get the doctors/health visitors to take any notice of me . But as you know what to look out for, and have the family history, you won't have any trouble getting your son tested if he does start showing symptoms. The trouble with coeliac disease is that a lot of GPs don't know enough about it so it's not something that they immediately think of.

My DS1 was diagnosed with coeliac disease when he was 22 months. When I had DS2 just over a year later I was advised by the consultant treating my eldest son's CD to hold off introducing gluten until he was 9 - 10 months old and to breastfeed him for as long as I could. To date DS2 is coeliac free. This advice was given some seven years ago though and advice does change...