From New Zealand

[fourkiwis]

Hi everyone , I am new here and have two sons 6.5, and 4.5. My husband and the 6.5 yr old are both diagnosed celiacs, we have a forum going as well in NZ, but since I recieve emails from this site I thought I would come on here and talk to other parents and partners who are dealing with this. The diet is going really well for Matty (6.5 yr old), he was diagnosed in November 2005, but we always knew he had celiacs by his behaviour and lack of weight gain. Just getting a diagnosis has been tough though, we were first told at the hospital that we needed a child psychologist! and after putting him back on gluten last year he finally developed all of the stomach problems that led to a positive diagnosis.

There seems to finally be some research being done on the gluten adn brain development connection and if any of you have timie, have a look at a nz doctors website www.drgluten.co.nz, he is the first doctor here to actually look into the gluten intolerance/ allergy as well as celiac disease, he is also doing research on the brain connection as well ie: austism and aspergers connection.

Anyway, it would be nice to talk to some other parents and to see how everyone copes with this and what products are available to you guys, we have a few major companies now changing products or developing new ones to suit with celiacs, which is great to see.

By the way, Matty has since gained 3 -4 kilos (dont know what that is in pounds sorry), and grown about 4-5 cm since November

[Kaycee]

Hi and I am a kiwi too. Fortunately it is me with coeliac, and none of my children.

It is nice to see a fellow nzer on here. At times it feels I am the only one from here from this side of the world.

I have just come back from a couple of weeks in Waimate, and have been so surprised how many people have coeliac down there, and I didn't have to explain to anybody what it was. Whereas, here home In Northland, most people say what is that?

[fourkiwis]

Hi Kaycee, do you get onto trademe as well? in the messageboard then recipe section there is an extensive gluten free thread going - have a look in there when you can. How many children do you have? and what ages are they? My youngest at this stage doesnt have symptoms - he has been tested as he was very low in iron for years and is a bit dairy intolerant (cant have straight milk), but he isnt showing any other signs yet! Its amazing how subtle this intolerance can be, we know of many people that have celiacs and they all have differing symptoms!

[Kaycee]

I will look in there, next.

I have four sons, between the ages of 25 and 16. The younger two have been tested, and their results came back negative. Because they have been tested negative, does that mean they can still get it in the future, not sure about that one.The two older ones, in Sydney have not yet got around to doing the tests, I will have to nag them, so I can't say whether they have it or not. I read somewhere that coeliacs can have a short stature, and that would fit my oldest, who is on 5 foot seven, whereas, the others are all about 6 feet tall.

I was only diagnosed in February this year, at 48, on valentines day. In some ways it is still all new, and in others I feel I should be doing better than what I am. Getting to the stage where I am wondering whether there are other issues as well.

Thanks for your reply.

Cathy

[fourkiwis]

Hi cathy, yep you can develop celiac at any time in your life, studies show that people tend to develop it after a stressful time in their life - like the stressful time triggers it. It would be hard to say if any of your children have it, but since you have asked them to get tested then it would be up to them now and I suppose none of them have any health problems that they are concerned about ? The problem with celiacs is that it can appear as many health problems and not many people actually suffer from 'classic' symptoms - which I guess you can tell by reading the threads here. My husband is just under 6 foot and he has possibly had it all his life - he was about 65kgs when I met him though and couldnt put on any weight! He also discovered he was dairy intolerant after being gluten-free for about 1-2 years and still having some symptoms - so have a look into that one, they do seem to go hand in hand for alot of celiacs.

Have a look on that website I mentioned and find me in the recipes to chat some more