Gluten free diet as an experiment to see if you (or your children) feel better, can be beneficial, but this approach can mask underlying celiac disease.
The gluten free diet can be recommended by pediatricians for children with GI (gastro intestinal) complains. In the short run, this may solve the problem. Long term results need to be considered more carefully.
If, when reintroduced, gluten does not cause the original complaints to return, the doctor may consider the child to be better. It may seem as if no further action is required.
This may be possible with adults too. The gluten free diet seems to be a bit of a fad right now, as much as it is also a very serious requirement for a growing number of people who are becoming aware that they have celiac disease.
This is a mistake, unless a proper celiac disease test is carried out.
Sometimes, gluten will trigger severe reactions in a child with celiac disease, but when that child grows up, the same person as an adult may have slight or unnoticeable symptoms.
Celiac disease is not to be managed based on symptoms. Unlike other conditions, such as allergies, celiac can quietly cause problems with many of the bodies systems.
Next thing you know, you have thyroid problems or cancer. Often, these conditions appear to be the primary problem, and of course they are very serious and must be dealt with directly.
In many cases, the problem was a lifetime of gluten consumption by someone with undiagnosed celiac disease.
Whenever gluten is suspected as possibly triggering symptoms in your body, you are highly encouraged to get a celiac disease test. You may end up finding you have a gluten allergy, which can be managed according to how you feel.
If you have celiac disease, then you must avoid all gluten, even if you seem to feel OK after eating it.
Don’t let a gluten elimination diet that seems to solve the problem, even after gluten is reintroduced, fool you into assuming you are free of celiac disease.