By Jane Wolkowicz, Delight Editorial Assistant

Children in Sweden faced a Celiac “epidemic” between 1984 and 1996, when a four-fold increase of kids under the age of two reported having the disease.

Experts were left to find answers, which is how a prominent group of scientists and doctors in that country came to study the link between early contractions of infectious diseases and the development of CD.

And their results, finally released last December, are startling.

Children who reported three or more infectious episodes during the first six months of life, regardless of the type of infection, faced a significantly increased risk for later developing CD.

And that risk increased synergistically if these same children were introduced to gluten in large amounts after they stopped breastfeeding, regardless of other environmental factors including socioeconomic status.

This new information not only sheds new light on the importance of recognizing infant infections as an important risk fact for CD, but also gives important insight into the Swedish epidemic and concurrent changes to infant feeding which occurred during that time.

Read more about the study now at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2431-12-194.pdf