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emsmom

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emsmom Apprentice

Hi !!

My 5 yr old had a biopsy a month or so ago and that came back neg. Her initial blood test came back post. So here we are GI dr says its not celiac. and wants me to try bio medical feedback for pain wothout even telling us why she is sick all the time they have no answers. She is constanly comp[laining about stomach pain and headaches her belly is almost always swollen, She asks me to make it stop, I don't even no what to do to help her. So dad and I deceided as well as her reg. Pedi to try going gluten-free and see if there is improvment. So here is my question Were do I begin????? She is a fussy eater already but she will eat fruits veggies and some meat are these all ok? do you find any brands are best tasting for kids? please help

I walked around trader joes dumbfounded. any recipes or premade suggestions would be great !! thanks

Also I got the name of a GI dr in Boston do you think I should get A second opinon does anyone know of a good pedi gi in boston-metrowest area?


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YankeeDB Contributor

Hi Emsmom, I suggest going to your local library and looking for general books on Celiac Disease and cookbooks on gluten-free diets. There are lots of good ones! Also, this site and many others have excellent info for you; it may seem overwhelming at first but it gets easier.

The diet is NOT as restrictive as it may seem at first as you can find or make good tasting gluten-free substitutes for almost everything--even bread and cake! Also, online stores like the Gluten-Free Pantry are very helpful--you don't have to scrutinize what you buy there.

I think trying a gluten-free diet for a while might be just the ticket! I really hope Em feels better soon! :)

You might want to get tested yourself if it turns out she responds well to the new diet.

Best wishes!

plantime Contributor

A negative biopsy could just mean that someone didn't see the damage. Perhaps the biopsy site is not one affected, or maybe the lab tech didn't think the villi was flattened enough. Go with the positive blood tes, and try being gluten-free. The diet is not as bad as others make it out to be. Just avoid processed foods. Stick to meat, fruit, and veggies, and if you are able, the store listed above is good, and so is the GlutenFree Mall. If you have questions, most of us are happy to answer the ones we know about. Good luck to both of you!

ashlees-mom Rookie

I agree, I think I would do the gluten-free diet at this point. My 4-1/2 yr old has always been pretty picky, but we have found some things she loves. She is eating like a horse now, it is just shocking! We had to take her off dairy for right now, she was having too many GI problems, but we should be able to get her back on it later. That is hardest on her, she loves cheese and yogurt and milk. We have the incredible edible gluten free food for kids by Sheri Sanderson. There are tons of recipes I can try once she can have dairy again, but for now she LOVES the porcupine meatballs. She seems to really crave protein in general, so I also keep deviled eggs on hand (Best Foods Mayo and French's mustard) She also likes the gluten free pretzels and Ortega taco shells (she often eats them like a chip) Fruits and veggies are great, she won't eat veggies really well, so I really like the porcupine meatballs ( they have V8 juice in them). She has regained the 3 pounds she lost in the last couple weeks, and is probably a 1/2 to 1 pound over what she was before she started losing weight. We have had problems with the bread. I think the longer since she has had gluten bread the easier it will be. Once she can have milk in baked goods again we will try some home made breads again. Oh, she also loves the Bob's Red mill pancake mix with Smuckers fruit syrup. (I put a dash of her baby brother's rice cereal in it to add some iron when she isn't looking!) We also have her on Ensure. Watch her vitamins if she takes any (good idea to) Flinstones is what we were using, but they couldn't guartee all ingrediants were gluten-free, so we had to switch. Good luck and let me know if I can help with any more suggestions!

Michelle

Ruth Enthusiast

Hi Emsmom,

I live in the Boston/MetroWest area. My daughter's pediGI doctor is Dr. Glen Furuta of Children's Hospital. He has appointments in Boston and Lexington. We really liked him. My GI doctor is Dr. Crimaldi in Milford, MA. He sees children as well as adults... also very good.

After a year of being gluten-free myself, and 4 months with my daughter gluten-free, I have finally managed to be able to fill my grocery cart at Shaw's (they have a great gluten-free section in the Wild Harvest section of their stores) and their store brand products are listed in the CSA Celiacs Gluten Free Product listing guide.

If you want, I can forward you my weekly shopping list! There are a lot of "mainstream" products your daughter can eat! My daughter is 8. I have to say planning meals for her (outside of the home) is more challenging than myself most days!

Let me know how much info you need!

I found the gluten-free books to be a bit overwhelming at first!

Take Care,

Ruth

zippyten Newbie

Ashlee's Mom,

Hi -- I just wanted to add that if you haven't tried corn bread for your daughter yet she might really enjoy it. There are some good gluten-free mixes on the market, but I also use the regular Indian Head brand available in most supermarkets & use the recipe on the back. I am also lactose intolerant right now so I substitute soy milk (Silk brand) for the milk and it comes out fine. There's some iron and folic acid, etc. in Indian Head so it's got some nutrition...my kids like the corn bread with honey or jam.

Ellen

Cait6799 Rookie

My daughter's GI doctor is Dr. Nurko at Children's Hospital. Another excellent dr at Children's is Dr. Markowitz, he's a nutiotionist.

Depending on where you live, there is an AWESOME store in Stoneham Mass on Main St that I go to all the time. The Natural Food Exchange. They have all the good stuff that I think every child should have. Chocolate Chip muffins by Kinnikinick, Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets - Wellshire Kids (I have also found these at Bread and Circus), Schar pastas, Schar Breadsticks - the crunchy kind, Enviro Kids Frosted Flakes and Organic Rice bars, TONS of different kinds of cookies and snacks, donuts, Kinikinnick sandwich bread etc..

They also have Gluten free vitamins, skin lotions etc. There is a really great selection of gluten free foods and I love bringing my daughter there because it is all seperated, so when we go in the gluten-free section - everything she looks at she can have. It brings tears to my eyes, to be able to answer that awful question "Can I have that?" with a YES YOU CAN!

Another thing that I have found at Bread and Circus is Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup - it is Gluten Free but you wouldn't know it unless you looked at the fine print where it actually states it. I think they are afraid of scaring off the gluten lovers :P .

Well I hope this helps a little!


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    • Clear2me
      Thanks for the info. I recently moved to CA from Wyoming and in that western region the Costco and Sam's /Walmart Brands have many nuts and more products that are labeled gluten free. I was told it's because those products are packaged and processed  in different  plants. Some plants can be labeled  gluten free because the plant does not also package gluten products and they know that for example the trucks, containers equipment are not used to handle wheat, barely or Rye. The Walmart butter in the western region says gluten free but not here. Most of The Kirkland and Members Mark brands in CA say they are from Vietnam. That's not the case in Wyoming and Colorado. I've spoken to customer service at the stores here in California. They were not helpful. I check labels every time I go to the store. The stores where I am are a Sh*tshow. The Magalopoly grocery chain Vons/Safeway/Albertsons, etc. are the same. Fishers and Planters brands no longer say gluten free. It could be regional. There are nuts with sugar coatings and fruit and nut mixes at the big chains that are labeled gluten free but I don't want the fruit or sugar.  It's so difficult I am considering moving again. I thought it would be easier to find safe food in a more populated area. It's actually worse.  I was undiagnosed for most of my life but not because I didn't try to figure it out. So I have had all the complications possible. I don't have any spare organs left.  No a little gluten will hurt you. The autoimmune process continues to destroy your organs though you may not feel it. If you are getting a little all the time and as much as we try we probably all are and so the damage is happening. Now the FDA has pretty much abandoned celiacs. There are no requirements for labeling for common allergens on medications. All the generic drugs made outside the US are not regulated for common allergens and the FDA is taking the last gluten free porcine Thyroid med, NP Thyroid, off the market in 2026. I was being glutened by a generic levothyroxin. The insurance wouldn't pay for the gluten free brand any longer because the FDA took them all off their approved formulary. So now I am paying $147 out of pocket for NP Thyroid but shortly I will have no safe choice. Other people with allergies should be aware that these foreign generic pharmaceutical producers are using ground shellfish shell as pill coatings and anti-desicants. The FDA knows this but  now just waits for consumers to complain or die. The take over of Wholefoods by Amazon destroyed a very reliable source of good high quality food for people with allergies and for people who wanted good reliably organic food. Bezos thought  he could make a fortune off people who were paying alot for organic and allergen free food by substituting cheap brands from Thailand. He didn't understand who the customers were who were willing to pay more for that food and why. I went from spending hundreds to nothing because Bezo removed every single trusted brand that I was buying. Now they are closing Whole foods stores across the country. In CA, Mill Valley store (closed July 2025) and the National Blvd. store in West Los Angeles (closed October 2025). The Cupertino store will close.  In recent years I have learned to be careful and trust no one. I have been deleberately glutened in a restaurant that was my favorite (a new employee). The Chef owner was not in the kitchen that night. I've had  a metal scouring pad cut up over my food.The chain offered gluten free dishes but it only takes one crazy who thinks you're a problem as a food fadist. Good thing I always look. Good thing they didn't do that to food going to a child with a busy mom.  I give big tips and apologize for having to ask in restaurants but mental illness seem to be rampant. I've learn the hard way.          I don't buy any processed food that doesn't say gluten free.  I am a life long Catholic. I worked for the Church while at college. I don't go to Church anymore because the men at the top decided Jesus is gluten. The special hosts are gluten less not gluten free. No I can't drink wine after people with gluten in their mouth and a variety of deadly germs. I have been abandoned and excluded by my Church/Family.  Having nearly died several times, safe food is paramount. If your immune system collapses as mine did, you get sepsis. It can kill you very quickly. I spent 5 days unconscious and had to have my appendix and gall bladder removed because they were necrotic. I was 25. They didn't figure out I had celiac till I was 53. No one will take the time to tell you what can happen when your immune system gets overwhelmed from its constant fighting the gluten and just stops. It is miserable that our food is processed so carelessly. Our food in many aspects is not safe. And the merging of all the grocery chains has made it far worse. Its a disaster. Krogers also recently purchased Vitacost where I was getting the products I could no longer get at Whole Foods. Kroger is eliminating those products from Vitacost just a Bezos did from WF. I am looking for reliable and certified sources for nuts. I have lived the worst consequences of the disease and being exposed unknowingly and maliciously. Once I was diagnosed I learned way more than anyone should have to about the food industry.  I don't do gray areas. And now I dont eat out except very rarely.  I have not eaten fast food for 30 years before the celiac diagnosis. Gluten aside..... It's not food and it's not safe.  No one has got our backs. Sharing safe food sources is one thing we can do to try to be safe.        
    • Mmoc
      Thank you kindly for your response. I have since gotten the other type of bloods done and am awaiting results. 
    • Aretaeus Cappadocia
      I wanted to respond to your post as much for other people who read this later on (I'm not trying to contradict your experience or decisions) > Kirkland Signature Super Extra-Large Peanuts, 2.5 lbs, are labeled "gluten free" in the Calif Costcos I've been in. If they are selling non-gluten-free in your store, I suggest talking to customer service to see if they can get you the gluten-free version (they are tasty) > This past week I bought "Sliced Raw Almonds, Baking Nuts, 5 lbs Item 1495072 Best if used by Jun-10-26 W-261-6-L1A 12:47" at Costco. The package has the standard warning that it was made on machinery that <may> have processed wheat. Based on that alone, I would not eat these. However, I contacted customer service and asked them "are Costco's Sliced Almonds gluten free?" Within a day I got this response:  "This is [xyz] with the Costco Member Service Resolutions Team. I am happy to let you know we got a reply back from our Kirkland Signature team. Here is their response:  This item does not have a risk of cross contamination with gluten, barley or rye." Based on this, I will eat them. Based on experience, I believe they will be fine. Sometimes, for other products, the answer has been "they really do have cross-contamination risk" (eg, Kirkland Signature Dry Roasted Macadamia Nuts, Salted, 1.5 lbs Item 1195303). When they give me that answer I return them for cash. You might reasonably ask, "Why would Costco use that label if they actually are safe?" I can't speak for Costco but I've worked in Corporate America and I've seen this kind of thing first hand and up close. (1) This kind of regulatory label represents risk/cost to the company. What if they are mistaken? In one direction, the cost is loss of maybe 1% of sales (if celiacs don't buy when they would have). In the other direction, the risk is reputational damage and open-ended litigation (bad reviews and celiacs suing them). Expect them to play it safe. (2) There is a team tasked with getting each product out to market quickly and cheaply, and there is also a committee tasked with reviewing the packaging before it is released. If the team chooses the simplest, safest, pre-approved label, this becomes a quick check box. On the other hand, if they choose something else, it has to be carefully scrutinized through a long process. It's more efficient for the team to say there <could> be risk. (3) There is probably some plug and play in production. Some lots of the very same product could be made in a safe facility while others are made in an unsafe facility. Uniform packaging (saying there is risk) for all packages regardless of gluten risk is easier, cheaper, and safer (for Costco). Everything I wrote here is about my Costco experience, but the principles will be true at other vendors, particularly if they have extensive quality control infrastructure. The first hurdle of gluten-free diet is to remove/replace all the labeled gluten ingredients. The second, more difficult hurdle is to remove/replace all the hidden gluten. Each of us have to assess gray zones and make judgement calls knowing there is a penalty for being wrong. One penalty would be getting glutened but the other penalty could be eating an unnecessarily boring or malnourishing diet.
    • trents
      Thanks for the thoughtful reply and links, Wheatwacked. Definitely some food for thought. However, I would point out that your linked articles refer to gliadin in human breast milk, not cow's milk. And although it might seem reasonable to conclude it would work the same way in cows, that is not necessarily the case. Studies seem to indicate otherwise. Studies also indicate the amount of gliadin in human breast milk is miniscule and unlikely to cause reactions:  https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/gluten-peptides-in-human-breast-milk-implications-for-cows-milk/ I would also point out that Dr. Peter Osborne's doctorate is in chiropractic medicine, though he also has studied and, I believe, holds some sort of certifications in nutritional science. To put it plainly, he is considered by many qualified medical and nutritional professionals to be on the fringe of quackery. But he has a dedicated and rabid following, nonetheless.
    • Scott Adams
      I'd be very cautious about accepting these claims without robust evidence. The hypothesis requires a chain of biologically unlikely events: Gluten/gliadin survives the cow's rumen and entire digestive system intact. It is then absorbed whole into the cow's bloodstream. It bypasses the cow's immune system and liver. It is then secreted, still intact and immunogenic, into the milk. The cow's digestive system is designed to break down proteins, not transfer them whole into milk. This is not a recognized pathway in veterinary science. The provided backup shifts from cow's milk to human breastmilk, which is a classic bait-and-switch. While the transfer of food proteins in human breastmilk is a valid area of study, it doesn't validate the initial claim about commercial dairy. The use of a Dr. Osborne video is a major red flag. His entire platform is based on the idea that all grains are toxic, a view that far exceeds the established science on Celiac Disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and a YouTube video from a known ideological source is not that evidence."  
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