Bowel Issues

[Shanksy89]

I’ve been gluten free since March. Symptoms definately improved in the initial few weeks however recently I have been having lots of mucus in my stool again, my stools are almost always yellow and lower abdo pain 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[benmaise]

I also have Coelic. Waiting for a stomach scan too. I'm feeling nauseous. I am worried about it. No pain but a dull ache in belly.

[Whydothis]

Three possibilities as I see it!

The first one always has to be cross-contamination from gluten that you are not aware of (it took me over a year to really work out all the possible sources) Avoid anything with "may contain traces of gluten" or "packed in a factory that also handles ..." If you share a kitchen be extra careful about crumbs and tiny amounts of flour. Also - change any wooden spoons, rolling pin, chopping boards and keep yours separate.

Then avoid oats, if you are not already. I was not told this to start with, but because their protein is similar to gluten, it is best to avoid them for the first 6 months or so, until your gut has healed. Then introduce them gradually to see if you can tolerate them, making sure you only buy oats that are labelled gluten free, as most oats are harvested and stored alongside other cereals on the farm, making it impossible to avoid contamination with grains of wheat, barley and rye.

Finally there is the way that the damage done by gluten has probably affected your villi, making it difficult or even impossible to digest lactose. This is thought to be temporary, sorting itself out as the small intestine heals. This means only eating hard cheese and live yogurt, and either buying lactose free milk or adding lactase to ordinary milk, for at least 6 months (longer for me!)

I hope this helps - good luck with it!

[Shanksy89 in reply to Whydothis]

Thank you. This is helpful. I haven’t touched oats or milk since diagnosis. The only dairy I eat is cheddar cheese and chocolate. I am also really careful about cross contamination. The only non gf foods in the house are snacks that my son and husband eat but they are kept separate and surfaces are wiped down regularly 🤷‍♀️ it really is a mystery but I will keep a close eye on ingredients and kitchen cleanliness to see if I can figure it out. I did wonder if I could also have bile acid malabsorption as I had my gallbladder removed 4 years ago.

[Whydothis in reply to Shanksy89]

It does seem like a mystery then - I hope you can get it sorted out soon - good luck with it

[Hellytheelephant in reply to Whydothis]

That is SO helpful re the oats- I can' t have them without probleme after years of being fine with them. It is hard without, but my toleration has gone right down.

[Whydothis in reply to Hellytheelephant]

That's a shame - I missed them while I wasn't eating them, and I still don't eat as many as I would like.

[Hellytheelephant in reply to Whydothis]

No porridge or flapjack is hard!

[Rocky]

Have you checked if any of your gluten free food contains pea fibre? I couldn't work out at first why I was so bad, and then realised I was eating things that contained pea fibre. It had the same reaction for me as if I had eaten gluten

[Shanksy89 in reply to Rocky]

I’ve just looked and can see a lot of it does have pea fibre or pea protein in 🤷‍♀️ is it just pea fibre I should avoid or pea protein aswell?

[Rocky in reply to Shanksy89]

I avoid anything with pea fibre and after feeling so ill, I also avoid the pea protein too just in case.