 Does feeding your infant gluten increase their risk of developing celiac disease? Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio and let's discuss this question because if you're Someone who is planning on having a child or you have a young child You're probably concerned about preventing celiac disease or other food allergies in your child So this is definitely a question that is very practical and something that we want to take into consideration So a recent study was done looking at two groups Of well, I should say one group one large group that's had the genetic predisposition to developing celiac and they tracked if duration of breastfeeding or the amount of gluten that the children ate upon Introducing gluten into the diet had an impact on development of celiac disease What they found was that duration of breastfeeding did not have an impact But the amount of gluten did the more gluten that was consumed at introduction The more likely someone was to be diagnosed with celiac or the more likely the infant was to be diagnosed with celiac So a few points here that are important to consider One is that other evidence has shown that breastfeeding a longer duration may decrease the incidence of celiac disease So it's important that we don't be misled by this one study and that a longer duration of breastfeeding may be helpful the other the amount of gluten Tells us a few interesting things one it may just have been Prolonging the inevitable meaning eventually this child would have been diagnosed with celiac and a larger amount of gluten May have just gotten you there more quickly because there was enough to kind of provocate This appearing in the child's system, but there's another piece here. That's very important, which is yes It does seem reasonable plausible that an excessive amount of gluten introduction may provocate celiac So the question then is maybe if we consume less gluten then that will be protective maybe if we consume no gluten at all that will be protective and It's important not to fall into that Line of thinking either because there's other evidence that shows The diligent avoidance of certain allergens including gluten may actually increase risk of allergy later in life Why is this? Because the immune system probably needs at least a small amount of exposure To foods during infancy to start to train the immune system so as to recognize it as a food or something That's an allergen so While excessive consumption of gluten may provocate celiac in genetically predisposed infants my thinking which some of the research supports is that excessive restriction or avoidance of Gluten or other common food allergens like eggs and nuts May also increase the risk of allergy because you need some exposure to these foods early in life during infancy While the immune system is forming and training so that the immune system can say this is a food or this is an allergen We see the same thing happen with bacteria when certain bacteria that can be dangerous later in life are exposed to a child's immune system Early in life that bacteria can actually be beneficial in how to train the immune system So I don't think we have all this sorted out just yet and the immune system is very complex There may never be one simple answer, but a few take-homes the Amount of gluten Introduced into a child's diet may have an impact on whether or not they will develop celiac The more gluten potentially the more likely that that diagnosis will be made However on the other side of the coin We don't want to say because more is bad than less is going to be better Too strict of avoidance may deprive the child's immune system the chance to recognize these particles and Have the training That's needed to be able to distinguish from a healthy reaction to an allergic reaction So excessive avoidance may also be helpful So a small amount of a broad array of foods during the introduction phase of Solid foods into a child's diet may be the best approach. This is Dr. Ruchow I hope this information helps you get healthy and get back to your life. Thanks