Gluten-Free Food and Diaper Rash Problems?

My son is 2 years old and on and off has had terrible diaper rash.  I have tried everything – all the tips, all the balms, the diaper methods, including diaper-free and cloth diapers – and he rarely had a decent stretch of a healthy bum.

One day, it hit me, I have tried everything EXCEPT eating gluten-free.  I see all the gluten-free foods clearly marked at the stores we frequent but did not know what the big deal was.  But could it be… I needed to be “one of them” buying gluten-free foods?

Could we be more conscious of ingredients more than we already were?  We buy primarily organic foods with our vegetables, chicken, meat.  When it comes to already made or boxed foods, we choose whole grains, whole wheat and avoid processed foods with migraine-triggers like fake sugars (aspertamame and Splenda), monosodium glutimate, and maltodextrin. My point is, I am no stranger to good quality food and ingredients, yet, my son’s body (or butt) is screaming against what he is eating.

What does he eat? He is into all the grains, bread and breaded foods like chicken nuggets and fish fillets. He likes chips and crackers too.  Like I said, all these weree organic, whole wheat, whole grain, fair trade, etc etc etc.  Could all these be so bad for him?  Plus, he already doesn’t eat a very good variety of foods (I’ve tried feeding him all my gourmet cooking to no avail), must I put on a limitation on what he DOES eat?

I had already removed fruits and juices from his diet – he was only drinking water now – and taken out other foods people online said could irritate him.  I let him be diaper free for at least 20 minutes between changes and frequently using a hair dryer (he loved that part) to help restore peeling skin. He used the most gentle of all diapers and I slathered on all the best balms (that did helped a lot) before closing him up, but still, things were not perfect.  He was having raised puffy skin, welts, redness that is hot to the touch.  Poor baby feared diaper changes and water washes because of the pain of the process.

Something had to change.

I decided to do a 3-day experiment. These 3 days, I only fed him gluten-free foods (half our food in the house [intentionally] was gluten-free). He would still be eating the same things but only those specifically labeled gluten-free.   The results?  Amazing!  After just 24 hours, I saw a great improvement in the appearance of his poop and his bottom.  But even more amazing is that after 3 days being on gluten-free foods, his bottom was free and clear or redness, welts, rash, and the broken skin that would no longer holding cream because the top layer was no longer there, was now forming skin.

But even after that “miracle,” the skeptic in me was alive.  Could it really be gluten?  So I did it:  I put gluten slowly back into his diet.  What happened?  The bad stuff was coming back… first it was bumps, then a welt. After 2 days of non-gluten free foods, I stopped it right there and decided that we are to be a gluten-free kitchen.

The point of my story?  If you, like me, have tried everything to rid of a diaper rash to no avail, consider looking into your baby’s diet, specifically gluten in their diet.  Try eliminating things – the “probable causes.”  For your child, it might be dairy.  For mine, it was gluten.  Doing this simple experiment might give you the answer to solving your child’s diaper rash problem.