SYNOPSISThe mother‐child relationship was studied in 28 children with coeliac disease. It was found that there was a high incidence of emotional symptoms in these children, namely withdrawal, irritability and ‘clingingness.’Accompanying these symptoms in the children there was a significant disturbance of the mother‐child relationship, with maternal anxiety, maternal depression and maternal preoccupation. These symptoms in the mother and child disappeared or greatly improved once the child had responded to a gluten‐free diet, except when the mother was already emotionally disturbed before the onset of the child'