Gluten intolerance is one of the most irritating allergies to be inflicted with. Almost everything contains gluten in some form or the other; your ketchup is thickened with it, your baked snacks are made with it, and even your oats are contaminated with it.
How on earth is someone supposed to avoid gluten?
And when it happens to kids, it becomes a hundred times worse, for of course all their favourite things now fall into the banned category. But before you start putting away the pasta and garlic bread, take some steps to determine if your kids are actually allergic to gluten or not.
The Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance
The problem with diagnosing gluten allergy (or any kind of allergy, for that matter) is that we seldom know what went into our food. Sure, you had pasta for dinner, but was it the pasta, or the spices in the sauce that triggered a reaction? It is not easy to tell.
In order to narrow down the list of contributing factors, try simpler dishes. For gluten intolerance, it comes down to plain bread.
Does your child complain of nausea or stomach ache after consuming a wheat based product? Have your kids ever experienced difficulty breathing after eating a couple of sandwiches? Are your kids frequently affected by bouts of diarrhoea?
If you answered yes to any of the questions, your kids may be suffering from gluten intolerance.
Occasionally, the symptoms are more subtle; you may notice your children getting tired easily, or feeling ‘bloated’. Sometimes, gluten intolerance masy cause headaches, or even unexpected weight loss, as the gluten in their meals is not properly assimilated by the body.
The problem with most of these symptoms is that they are common with many other stomach ailments. Diagnosing the wrong illness could prove more harmful than just ignoring the signs. Which brings us to the next point: get your kids tested for gluten allergy.
Testing for Gluten Intolerance
While symptoms can help shed light on the possibility of gluten allergy, a proper test is needed to confirm it. Make sure that you do test for confirmation; some of the symptoms of gluten intolerance are shared with the much more serious celiac disease.
Celiac disease can trigger extreme reactions to gluten, and requires a much different method of handling than mere gluten allergy.
A simple blood test can ascertain the gluten sensitivity of your child, putting your fears to rest. MyLabBox offers a convenient home testing solution, with which you could get the test results mailed to your home, saving you the effort of going to a medical facility for the same.
Conclusion
While gluten allergy is usually not that serious an affliction, it can severely impact your kid’s growth by limiting their nutritional intake and causing discomfort and digestive problems. Living with gluten intolerance only requires certain changes in the diet and lifestyle, and can actually lead to a healthier body if done right.
But the first step is to know what is affecting your kids, for when their health is concerned, you simply cannot take any chances.
