Hi there. I am really keen to hear from anyone who has a child who is gifted with gut issues/intolerances. Keen to know anyone's thoughts, experiences, theories, links to research, etc. I have a little boy who is gifted, has leaky gut syndrome, and a range of intolerances (gluten, soy, dairy, lentil, nuts). I know kids on the spectrum often have these issues (my son is not twice exceptional), but just curious about the incidence in the gifted population.

My HG+ DD11 doesn't have any food intolerances per se, but she does have a lot of stomach aches. Last fall they got really bad and she was in tears most days for a few months, so we did a full round of testing and didn't find anything particular. We think that, while it's possible she has some reflux, what it is primarily is that she is very aware of every sensation in her body. So, when she's hungry her stomach hurts, when she's just eaten her stomach hurts, when she's tired her stomach hurts, etc. We did not, however, find any link to stress, despite her doctor being sure that she must be stressed because she's grade skipped. Which is not to say that it's all in her head -- she actually does feel stomach pain. A long course of the right ulcer medication eventually worked to decrease the pain greatly, so there must have been something that caused it, though, even if all the tests were negative.

Anyway, from talking to other relatives, it seems that many of the smarter members of the family have also had this same issue. IMO it's probably part of the general hyper-awareness that a lot of gifted people have of the world around them. (BTW: no 2E issues here.)

But maybe you were wanting to know about actual intolerances and allergies?

We have three children, all with some degree of food intolerance. My husband and I as well. Of all the families of identified gifted children I know personally the vast majority have gut issues, food issues, autoimmune issues or all three in the family, usually with gifted child, but not always. Off the top of my head the incidence is 100% in the 2E families. Of my own children my child with the most severe food intolerance is too young to test, but at a guess is the most gifted and may luck out and be the only non-2e child. But she has NEVER eaten a normal diet in her life and when we have a diet mistake I see a child that would not be developing normally on a normal diet.

Not sure what the link would be. For what it is worth, DD10 HG+ is lactose intolerant and cannot have anything with red food dye (I was such a skeptic about this, but she literally swings from the ceiling when she consumes it). DS4, not udentified as GT yet, has no digestive issues.

The only link I see between my two was chronic ear infections, late speech and anemia during infancy.

My ds7 has digestive issues, had them even in infancy. He also has some sensory sensitivity issues. Ds10 has not had any digestive problems.

neither of my kids have issues but I do

DD8 doesn't appear to have any issues, but we are increasingly concerned about DS4, who frequently says his stomach hurts. I really hate the idea of going down the allergy detective road, but we may have to. He was also failure to thrive as a baby for no reason anyone could really see and has probably not gained a pound this past year.

DS3 is allergic/sensitive to dairy, gluten, soy, corn, pork, and preservatives/dyes. He also has acid reflux so he can't do a lot of berries, nor spicey, citrus, or tomato foods. He gained weight okay when he was exclusively breastfed because I ate a very limited diet, but ever since then eating/weight has been a struggle.

My 2e DD is lactose intolerant which she gets from my side of the family. She gets the dyslexia from her dad's side. DS has severe food allergies.

DD7 was born with lactose intolerance, just like her mom.

I think belly issues are so common that they are bound to show up in any group. I imagine the large amount of processed foods and high sugar foods does not help the situation (and trust me, I wish I had the discpline to act more upon that fact than I do).

That being said, I was a 'somaticizing' kid who felt every bellyache, splinter and mosquito bite with great intensity. I suspect that I was waaaaay too in tune with my body, and have had to learn to reassign a lot of those aches as within the realm of normal. My neice had the same issue and was labeled 'overdramatic'. Of course, I was also a kid of divorce with a lot of stress. Thus far, my kids don't seem to be nearly as sensitive as I was (and still am...the belly stuff continues, grrrr).

i feel a little weird writing on this thread, as i'm the "gifted kid" in my family, not a parent, and I only came on here in a moment of curiosity and low spirits, but today I saw this... Although I agree with Evemomma (in my experience the number of kids with food issues is growing, and especially in countries with greater food processing)I'd like to mention that I have eating problams too. I don't know what the connection is, but I have an idea it's to do with nerves and the more intelectually active and hyped up you are (substitute gifted) the more likely you are to be highly strung and thus have problams eating.

Anyway... it's certainly a nervous thing with me

How do you know what foods your kids can't tolerate? Maybe my son's behavior problems stem from a food issue. He couldn't tolerate dairy as a baby but has been able to tolerate ice cream and cheese as he's gotten older. He now doesn't like cow's milk - he drinks soy (which someone told me you're not supposed to give to boys because it inhibits brain growth:) ). He had multiple ear and sinus infections after we switched from breast to dairy formula, which cleared up immediately when we switched to soy formula (about 12 months old) when my mom thought to tell me "oh, two of your sisters couldn't tolerate dairy".

Do you just have to start eliminating things from their diets? What do you look for to see if things are better/different? Might be worth a try for us. Seems like someone noted above the most common intolerances are soy, dairy, and gluten.

Petunia if you are going to look at food intolerances I really recommend doing it thoroughly, scientifically and with the support of a really experienced dietician. There are so many mistakes and pitfalls to make that will lead to false conclusions and you need to make sure you are doing it safely as well as thoroughly. In Australia I recommend the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Elimination Diet Handbook, their cook book and then a local dietician familiar with their approach. I am not sure what to suggest to you...

For us we followed the handbook recommendations for how to go strictly low salicylate, low amine, no numbers (colours, flavours, preservatives), gluten and dairy free. Once you have been on this elimination stage diet and had two weeks of reduced symptoms you start adding things back in one at at time. If you saw no change on the diet and you are sure you got it right (it's very easy to miss hidden sources), then you can pretty much just go back to normal (but pay attention to see if that causes any issues). If you did see improvement from symptoms and you are going to challenge to see what caused the problem then there are really strict rules about how to do this as there are very few foods that have only one of the chemicals in that you might need to test (for example cheese has both dairy AND amines, many foods have both salicylats AND amines), you need to challenge in high enough doses and over enough days before concluding whether you can or can't re-introduce that food. This is why you need the experienced deitician.

My husband had known dairy issues right from childhood, but was drinking milk, eating cheese and all other sources of dairy like it was going out of style when I made him join the rest of the family on the diet. He would have said he was ok with dairy now. Well after two weeks dairy free he was not and has never since been able to re-introduce dairy without making himself sick. His problem is not with Lactose it's with cow's milk protien. None of my children can tolerate it either, I can tolerate at least some. On the other hand he can eat as much Salicylate as he likes, as can my middle daughther, but my youngest, eldest and I cannot tolerate Salicylate, my youngest daughter's salicylate intolerance is quite extreme.

Thanks. His problem behaviors only occur at home, though. Is it possible for him to compensate for these things in other environments? It seems if it were a food sensitivity, he'd have behavior issues across the board. If you've read some of my other posts, you know I'm totally grasping at straws here.

In our case, it couldn't have been easier to diagnose DD with lactose intolerance (but certainly wasn't easy to experience). DW had a health issue early on that forced a switch to formula for DD. Immediately after switching, we observed that her stomach was bloated and hard, and she had stopped defecating.

We switched her out to one of those formulas that are advertised as easy to digest (lactose free and every protein broken down to smaller chains), and the problem was relieved. Those formulas are rather expensive, though, so later on we tried one that was just lactose free, and that worked out fine.

Of course, we already knew DW was lactose intolerant, so that helped.

Over the years since, we've been able to bust our DD for drinking regular milk at a friend's house, or at school, because the bloating and constipation issues show up again. The cause and effect couldn't be more clear.

I agree; it seems unlikely to me that these behaviors could be rooted in food intolerance.

And I wouldn't go for dietary changes on my own; if you have reason to think there are gut issues (constipation, frequent diarrhea, reflux being some observable signs) you should talk to a doctor. Mum3's recommendations are very sound.

DeeDee

My 10 year old dd has a huge number of food allergies and sensitivities, and yes, they did impact her behavior when she was young and we hadn't fully figured out the full list of what she needed to avoid. However, there would have been no way she coud have held it together during a school day and then fallen apart at home..... and she has other very real and obvious social/medical symptoms. OTOH.... Just a small gotcha.... a food reaction that typically occurs, for instance 20 minutes after a chil eats when the food hits the stomach.. might not ever occur at school if the food that's the issue isn't being eaten at school.

We untangled her food issues through several years of testing through doctors as well as paying close attention to what she ate and her reactions at home. If you have any concerns about possible food sensitivities, I'd recommend simplifying your child's diet (which is different than an elimination diet) and keeping a very close diary of foods eaten, behaviors noted and physical symptoms noted (hives, stomach pain, lethargy, coughing, throat feeling swollen, swollen facial features, odd bowel movements, stomach pain, constipation etc) PLUS the day/time OSHA eats and the day/time the reactions/behaviors occur. You also need to keep track of ingredients in things like toothpaste and inert ingredients in medicines etc. IF there is a food allergy or sensitivity, you'll eventually see patterns in the reactions.

Re simplifying her diet, what I am referring to is not withholding any foods at first, but limiting the number of ingredients at each meal and limiting the amount of processed foods so that you can really see track and know what foods she's eating.

I also want to add.... every food we saw a pattern with and were concerned about we followed up with allergy testing, which was without a doubt positive for our dd. In following online while wading through the years we spent testing and trialling foods I have read lots of stories of parents who were so desperately hoping for any kind of help with behavior that they easily fell into thinking it had to be food issues. I do think it's worth a close look through a food journal for anyone who has concerns, but I also think there is a lot of hype out there too so unless I was seeing some kind of correlation I wouldnt pursue it.

Last thing I'll add... my dd also has a seizure disorder, and the first indication was in behavior. It was several years and only after her symptoms accelerated that we realized she was having seizures. There were indications of that in her food diaries but the issue wasn't related to food so we didn't catch it from the journals.... But I do think that keeping a detailed behavior journal might be helpful even if it's not food but something else driving the behaviors, when you're seeing differences in behavior at different times.

Hope that helped a little bit, and made some sense!

polarbear

Hmmm... what kind of seizures, polarbear? What would I look for or ask the doctor about? Sounds like a need to attempt (again) a food diary.

Sorry this is getting off topic.

My kids are absolutely worse at home than school. They are better in both environments on the diet...

And I strongly disagree with Polarbear about simplifying being enough. There are some foods where that may be suitable. But if you are looking for food chemical intolerance like salicylate and amine you have to know exactly what you are doing to be able find the pattern and simplification won't do it. Allergy leads to fairly immediate response so the simplification approach can work for allergy (as does allergy testing in most cases), intolerance is a load issue, the reaction may not be 20 mins after eating, it may be 3 days after eating an increased load of the chemical in question through a pattern of foods you are not aware all contain the same thing. We understand that if we've had a beer, a wine and a vodka that we have had 3 drinks with cumulative effect. That just one of those might have fairly minimal effect and that three is quite likely to have a noticable effect. We also know that some people are effected much faster than others by alcohol, but that everyone has a point at which they are overtly impacted. What people don't tend to be aware of is that cheese, chocolate and oranges all contain amines and someone with an amine problem might be fairly ok eating one of them but be extremely depressed (or badly behaved) if they eat all three.

Also, intolerance may not come with obvious tummy upset.

Also removing one thing at a time you risk the possibility that symptoms from a food still in your diet will be masking improvement from something that is an issue but is not the only issue or is not the worst issue.

The first two weeks of an elimination diet is absolutely hellish. If it works you won't care and will be very motivated to continue. If it doesn't work it will be over fast and you'll never have to go there again.

Just popping back with another thought. I do agree with Polarbear that parents are desperate to see results, no-one tries a diet like this because it's fun. But honestly it was completely clear in my family that DD#1, DD#3 and I had a salicylate problem and DD#2 & DH did not, and likewise all the other foods that some (or all) of us are now excluding. The diet was painful to do but the answers were really quite clear.

Similarly it is abundantly clear that DD#2 has the classic magic switch response to ADHD medication. There is absolutely no question that it profoundly impacts her functioning. DD#1 possibly there were some mild fuzzy effects, but despite our desperately wanting to help her, it was fairly straightforward to look at the overt change in one and the mild fuzzy possible changes in the other and say "Clearly not the right call for this particularly child to continue with medication, it's not doing anything/enough."

I find it interesting that my child who had the biggest gain from diet had no appreciable gain from medication.

my DS6 has leaky gut, it is tolerated to a point...he is not lactose intolerant. i think some people confuse the 2? for him, after having cassein- you can almost time it to the behavioral change- it can be a little freaky. i mean- if he has a LOT of gluten in his belly and then ingests the cassein- you can literally watch him disappear into his own opiate void.

for him, we mostly avoid MILK, i'm not sure if this is a true thing, but for him, we note the protein breaks down differently in cheese, it is only when he has had milk specifically within a certain time frame of ingesting gluten- that he has very specific behavioral changes...(ok icecream with the cassein AND sugar will do it too!)
ok, so we avoid the cassein. especially if he's ingested gluten.

i want him to experience cupcakes and icecream... i try to go as organic as i can, and as gluten/cassein free as i can, but yes, he does consume gluten.
he mostly drinks water, but also drinks almond or soy.

he always ate very healthy, but then one day became very picky. he lists fish as his favorite food. and would happily eat it most days. actually he does! (i know horrible for lead and mercury i've read?)
but
he is considerably healthy, tall & nice healthy weight, also very active. i mention this because he was having horribly horrible gut issues. severe pain and then he sorta just stopped eating. i mean, everything that he had in the past, he became the fish eater. he stopped drinking milk on his own, then juices. only eats 1fruit-banana. eats sweet potato/broccoli/spinach. and all his behaviors and gut issues went away.

so my thoughts are as long as he is strong & healthy? as long as behaviors are ok? then i am okay with whatever he wants to eat.

and more to topic--- yes, every @2E child i know has gut issues, and yes, every gifted child i know also seems to have some type of sensitivity or food allergy... these moms of gifted kids tend to word it differently, they don't say outright "leaky gut" or even say "gut" but say the child is sensitive to some foods.

I don't know exactly what is wrong with my sons gut. The doctors say it is (I forget but it is stretched bowel due to constipation and resulting lack of sensation and soiling). They say he will grow out of it and it is getting better. Also there is probably a hereditary component on his fathers side.

That said, it seems to be worse if he eat gluten, and if he eats too much not great food (at birthday parties), blue food colouring is odd too. I think he just has a sensitive gut which is easily overwhelmed by some foods and stress.

Hey Puffin, I think you're talking about encopresis.

Has Hirschprung's disease been ruled out? I know of kids with similar symptoms who had short-segment Hirschprung's and were diagnosed very late. It is rare but might be worth considering.

My son has Hirschsprung's disease. While it is possible to be diagnosed later in life, it is really rare. The children who are diagnosed later are very sick, with lots of failure to thrive issues, multiple hospitalizations for serious conditions, etc. The top specialists in the country on Hirschsprung's disease will say that it is nearly impossible to not be diagnosed in infancy or during the first year of life given all that we know about it.

While you can certainly read about the disease and see if it fits, I would not go too far down this road unless your son shows the following symptoms: distended belly, chronic foul liquid stools alternating with constipation, failure to gain weight, stools that smell worse than any frat house, anemia.

I don't want to sound harsh or be taken the wrong way. I am just a mom who has seen too many people throw out Hirschsprung's as an explanation for constipation when in reality, kids are extremely sick if they have undiagnosed Hirschsprung's disease. I have seen too many moms worry unnecessarily.

My son has Hirschprung's disease as well. I agree that it is very unusual that a child would not be diagnosed, however, I have met, IRL, more than one child whose symptoms were not severe enough to require hospitalization, but that did interfere significantly with quality of life, and that were diagnosed at >5 yrs. If the affected segment is very short, this can happen. A dr. would certainly not do a biopsy unless it was indicated, but given the difference having a diagnosis made for the kids I know I hate to see anyone go through what they did prior to that point.

Just FYI: my son has Down syndrome as well, and while still rare it is more common in kids with Down syndrome. Perhaps in kids with Ds who do not have severe symptoms early the diagnosis is delayed because the symptoms are attributed to low muscle tone in Down syndrome rather than other possibilities.

Both kids (1 year and 3 years) and I have very sensitive systems - to the point where eating at potlucks (different spice palates or foods we aren't used to) tend to make us sick. DD is also currently sensitive/intolerant to stone fruits (cherries, peaches, plums, etc.)It's not considered an allergy, but just a sensitivity.

Since I'm new, I should add that none of us have been officially deemed 'gifted'. In college, I did find my IQ is within the 1st tier range and both kids are show signs of at least 1st tier as well, although I suspect DD will be higher up than that. We'll wait for Kindergarten at least for any assessment.