The connection between inflammation of the GI tract and arthritis is quite complex. It’s true that for most children with celiac, the arthritis will improve with the removal of gluten, but not always. The complication is that the incidence of celiac disease is increased in children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA)  as compared to other children, so sometimes children have both. This is also true for insulin dependent diabetes and thyroid disease. Almost certainly these diseases share common genetic traits.  At the end of the day, whether your daughter has celiac-related arthritis or JIA and celiac disease, the most important thing is to improve her health, and gluten removal alone may not do the trick.  If her GI disease is much better, then we would treat her arthritis as aggressively as possible. Luckily, we have many possible treatments, all of which are gluten-free. June, 2017