JennyW

Rachel,
So sorry for all the craziness you have been going through. My little girl was about 14 months when she just got worse and worse, would throw up everything she ate (as it almost all had wheat) and would literally eat nothing. The doctors told us to be patient with her and spend more time feeding her, but I don't think they understood that when I said she wasn't eating anything, I meant it....I think we were happy when we got her to eat a few bites of a banana and that was for an entire day. She lost a LOT of weight and dropped to the weight she was at like 8months old! She too lost almost all energy and would sit or sleep all day...crawling to a toy seemed like an incredible effort and she certainly couldn't walk, she didn't have the energy. Finally, they tested for celiac and luckily got her in right away for an endoscopy which also positively confirmed how bad her intestines were and how little they were absorbing. We went gluten free that night and luckily her response was immediate. We were told to try to avoid dairy the first month or two while the villi are healing as when they are damaged they have trouble processing the dairy. We were also told to put her on polyvisol which is gluten free. Additionally, because she had lost so much weight, they told us to add olive oil to a lot of things we served her....it is a little thing, but the calories in it REALLY add up.

Sorry to hear your little one got sick again, but I think you are on the road to success. My girl is 2 now and has regained all the weight and started growing again too. In fact, her hair has started coming in finally. It was as if the celiac shut down all non-essential functions! So, I know it's difficult to wait, but I am confident he will start to improve soon as his little body starts to heal itself.

I'd add this forum to your favorites as I know I have definitely consulted it for all sorts of questions that you come across moving forward. Best of luck and best wishes for your son.

Personally, my little one does scrambled eggs for breakfast with some cheese and fruit. But, if cereal is the thing to have, I just recently found that the General Mills Chex cereals have 5 flavors that are now gluten free (Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Honey Nut Chex, Chocolate Chex, and Cinnamon Chex). Unlike the specialty boxed cereals (Envirokids for example), the Chex ones seemed more regularly priced, so it might be an option for you

Interesting. My two sons are young (3 and 5). They were doing great the first 6 months on the diet and now we're struggling to see why their symptoms are returning when nothing new has been added. They never tell me if they're hurting (they never did pre-diagnosis either) so I can only go off bathroom antics and behavior problems. I did take away their rice milk and while it seems to have helped, they still seem not quite right. Very frustrating! So, what do you do for breakfast? My 5 year old is a cereal junkie. I limit him to one bowl a day because it's so darn expensive.

Discount School Supply (http://www.discountschoolsupply.com) is a good place to start in regards to art supplies.  Sells a lot of "Colorations" brand materials that are often gluten free, casein free, soy free, nut free, etc.

I live on the west coast, so do not have a Wegmans, but maybe I will be on the lookout in other stores! Thanks for the suggestion

Do you have a Wegmans in your area? They make a fruity pebbles that they advertise as gluten-free, which I think means that they aren't made in the same facility. That is an option.

When my daughter was tested a few months ago (at the time she was 17 months), they told us that anything over 19 was considered positive for Celiac and that she had a reading of 200 something!  I would check with your doctor to make sure, but they told us that 19 was the magic number.
~jenny