Have a Gluten Free Baby
Many people who are not celiac may wonder why people would consider restricting a baby's diet from gluten or wheat, unless there is an obvious reaction. The following new research suggests some very good reasons to play it safe.
Research by the UK department of health (March 2006) saw them advocate that gluten should not be given to babies under six months, and never as a first ablactate food for babies with a family history of allergy or celiac disease. The very good reason for this was that the symptoms of celiac disease are usually first seen in babies between nine and 18 months of age. Symptoms include: diarrhea, weight loss or poor weight gain, malnutrition, anemia, poor appetite and tummy bloating.
This means that by the time a baby has acquired the disease, and obvious symptoms occur, it is too late to reverse the disease. They also suggested that women should continue exclusive breastfeeding until (their) baby is six months old. Expecting until six months to familiarize solid foods into your baby's diet will help minimize the risk of her developing adverse reactions to foods and allergies, including celiac disease.
An update on this research was made by University of Colorado scientists and appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It states that babies had a lower chance of developing the digestive trouble celiac disease if they were not fed gluten food until aged four to six months. But closely more important than this is that the exposure to gluten - a protein found in wheat - in the first three months of life increased the risk of celiac disease five-fold. Children not revealed until they were older than seven months were also more likely to grow celiac disease than babies exposed when they were aged between four and six months.
All of these sounds very unbelievable until the mechanism for this "two month window" were explored. It was determined that for gluten to evoke an allergic reaction it has to cross the gut barrier so that it can be established by the body's immune cells. At very little ages, such as the first three months of life, this barrier may not be as over as at older ages, thus providing gliadin to pass still with small quantities of intake.
Conversely, when wheat products are introduced to an older child, such as those older than seven months, it tends to be in huge part sizes, thus increasing the amount of gluten available to track the gut. Even if a small ratio of the available gluten crosses the gut, it may be sufficient to start an adverse response. The increased rate after seven months maybe due to the oftenest of exposure at initial introduction increased with age. But given that the children studied were all from families with a strong history of celiac disease, the researchers said their findings might not apply to all children.
At the simplest level they still indicate that ablactate from breast milk and the introduction of gluten food should not occur before six months. But as many celiac's already know, children with a parent or other first degree relative with celiac disease had a one in 10 chance of developing the intolerance themselves.
Since wheat is an allergen, we are often of the belief that it should be avoided in our baby's diet until after 12 months old. Some do say to not familiarize wheat until after 1, 2 or even 3 years old. The majority of sources however agree that wheat may be introduced around the age of 8-9 months old. It is best to wait to introduce wheat until you are certain that your infant has no reactions to rice, oats or barley
Confusing?
Well the increased gluten volume in wheat and the many manufactured foods that we unknowingly digest that has had our systems overload and essentially decline any level of gluten. If you are a celiac it appears that no level of gluten will be safe for your baby. If you wish to care the introduction of gluten to a baby then the latest research cited above indicates that the miracle two month windows between 4 and 6 months may be the key. But with this research being only one study with only 1,500 children it is likely that recommendations will be refined in the future.
This leads to the conclusion that as YOU are unlikely to be able to reduce the amount of gluten in grains (unless you are a farmer or biologist). YOU are also unlikely to even know the amount of grains in the many foods that you consume, so the only safe way to raise a baby may be to raise your child gluten free from the start. That is, gluten will invariably sneak into their diet, but it seems that there is no consensus on a safe levels of gluten (if it could be universally measured and listed on packaging) let alone foods that you feed to a baby..
So what exactly is gluten free baby food? You will see from the places located in the Gluten Free Pages directory (baby directory) that baby gluten free foods can range from typical jars of suitable pure fruit baby food to snacks. It is a shame that the state of the simple foods that many people eat often contain excessive levels of gluten. This means that it will always be safest to avoid all gluten sources, particularly for a fragile baby's immune system. Unless you do, it is likely that they will have a much higher likelihood of becoming a celiac and thus have no choice on the kind of diet they will have to follow throughout adulthood.
