Very Upset

[Nikki2003]

My older daughter alivia is making me very upset. Just about every night she get's up in the middle of the night when we are all sleeping and gets a snack,She doesn't know if it is gluten-free or not but she doesn't care either because she does not react to gluten we only had her tested because nicole was positive,and alivia also was positive throught bw and biopsy. And I know it would solve it if we were a gluten free household but there is no way we can afford it,It is hard enough with the girls being gluten-free. But she got up again last night and found some fun size kit kat bars and ate 4 of them. I only got them because I thought they were gluten-free and didn't notice the wheat flour. So we tried to hide them away,not good enough though,She looks everywhere for a snack. We have tried locks on the cabinets but she has mastered all the ones we have tried. She is 7. Any ideas?

Thanks

celina

[Guhlia]

Tot Loks... You actually need a key to open the cabinet doors. Do a search for them. They are WONDERFUL!!! You can just take the key to bed with you then.

On the other hand, perhaps you could lay out some safe, gluten free snacks at night that are tasty for a 7 year old, some of her favorite nutritious snacks.

[Nikki2003]

My older daughter alivia is making me very upset. Just about every night she get's up in the middle of the night when we are all sleeping and gets a snack,She doesn't know if it is gluten-free or not but she doesn't care either because she does not react to gluten we only had her tested because nicole was positive,and alivia also was positive throught bw and biopsy. And I know it would solve it if we were a gluten free household but there is no way we can afford it,It is hard enough with the girls being gluten-free. But she got up again last night and found some fun size kit kat bars and ate 4 of them. I only got them because I thought they were gluten-free and didn't notice the wheat flour. So we tried to hide them away,not good enough though,She looks everywhere for a snack. We have tried locks on the cabinets but she has mastered all the ones we have tried. She is 7. Any ideas?

Thanks

celina

that's a good idea, thanks.

celina

[ptkds]

I hide food that I don't want my kids to get somewhere in my room or my bathroom closet! I have never had a problem like that, though. My dd's never wake up in the night and look for a snack. Mabybe you can use those magnetic tot locks like the pp said. And designate one certain "off limits" cabinet w/ the lock on it to keep your dd out. I have those on my entertainment center, and they are GREAT! If there is no key, there is NO way for a kid or adult to get in there! And you can't see them from the outside at all.

I understand how kids can find things in the kitchen! My dd's have found things that I didn't even know I had!!

Good luck!

ptkds

[nikki-uk]

Although my son with celiac disease is 14 yrs he has Downs Syndrome so he wouldn't 'know' if he ate the wrong food - and I've worried that he too might sneak a snack in.

I decided to clear ALL gluten food that he could get to (we are not a gluten-free house either - my 2 other son's are gluten eaters!)

I do allow the other boys gluten treats but I keep them on top of a kitchen wall cupboard - and in fact it hasn't been too difficult.

There are lots of nice/tasty gluten-free treats out there and my other boys don't seem to mind not having easy access to gluten treats!

I also understand having a kid that is constantly on the look out for food!!! - I'm sure my son with celiac disease has hollow legs!!

I tend to leave some 'easily found' gluten-free snacks around - just in case he does wander at night.

[FeedIndy]

We cleared the pantry of all gluten foods. We were mostly all gluten free anyway as it's just easier to cook one meal each night. There is one cabinet that has some gluten snacks for DH and I. It hasn't been an issue since they know there are safe snacks in the pantry, but if they were still getting into the off limits pantry I would put a lock on it like the above poster suggested.

At 7 she is old enough to explain the rat poison analogy. Tell her that even if she doesn't feel sick, the gluten is damaging her body inside and she could get very sick later. That is what I had to do with DD9 as her symptoms are neurological and didn't seem to matter to her. I asked her if she would eat some rat poison to which she, of course, said No Way! I said "How about just a little bit? One little piece?" She was thoroughly disgusted. I let her know that gluten was just like poison to her body-even a little bit can do a lot of damage inside.

[Nantzie]

I would say that being hungry like that is a symptom of celiac - just one of the less noticeable ones. I was always hungry before I found out that gluten was causing most of my health problems. For me it went away pretty quickly. Looking back, and being able to compare how I feel on and off gluten and being glutened, I can see that the feelings that I was interpretting as hunger was actually low-level pain from the irritation that was happening.

I've also noticed that when we get glutened both my daughter and I are more hungry for a few days afterward. If there are a few glutenings in a row, it just gets worse and worse. I can see how it could keep your daughter awake.

So it's possible that that's what's going on and you may start noticing a difference as time goes on.

I put my vote in for Tot Locs too. They're magnetic and it's like the doors are glued shut. She'd need a crowbar to get into it without the key (which is just a magnet). You can put all the gluten containing stuff in a couple different cabinets and keep a healthy gluten-free snack cabinet that she can go to when she gets hungry. Maybe make her a deal that she can have a snack whenever she wants to if she promises to brush her teeth afterward.

Nancy

[rez]

Maybe she's having a hard time adjusting and this is her way of asking for help. It's a hard adjustment for anyone, especially a child.

[e&j0304]

My children both act as though they are starving when they eat gluten. Is she always really hungry or do you think she is just trying to sneak what she can't have? Are you sure to have goodies on hand that she can eat? I would say that if she is getting up in the middle of the night to get snacks something is bothering her. A 7-year-old should be sleeping straight though (unless they need to use the restroom or something). If she is getting up to eat she must really be hungry so maybe it's the gluten making her that way or maybe something else is going on.

Good luck and I hope you get it figured out. I wouldn't get too mad at her. She's only 7 and she is likely having a gluten reaction or something else that is making her act that way. I say this knowing full well how hard it is and how I lose my patience with my kids as well. I know it's hard. Hang in there!!

[tarnalberry]

Just an note - the gluten free diet doesn't have to be expensive, as you don't have to buy all the specialty foods. I realize that it's harder to avoid that with kids who don't want to feel left out if they're used to having gotten that sort of thing in the past, but it's an option for taking the house gluten free. (The other options listed are probably a lot more workable, though. )

[Juliebove]

My daughter is 8 now and here's what we did to solve this problem. I got her a basket. In fact she has had it since she was old enough to walk. In the basket I put snacks that will keep for a while and are safe for her to eat. She has such things as Boomi Bars, Pumpkin seed bars, fruit snacks, raisins, bags of gluten free pretzels, nuts, etc. She knows that everything in there is safe for her to eat and she can eat any of it at any time without asking me first.

If she wants to eat something else, she must ask me first. If she takes something else without asking me first, she is punished for it. She doesn't do this often and I think I've pretty well broken her of it. She has this bad habit of bailing the wrappers in odd places like behind the couch. Silly child! I would be less likely to notice the wrappers in the trash and probably would not trace them back to her because it could just as easily be something my husband ate. Now that I know of her weird hiding places for wrappers I can catch her pretty easily. The only thing I've found recently was a box of double chocolate brownie cookies (gluten-free). I didn't punish her for that thinking perhaps she misunderstood. I bought them some time ago to take to a birthday party for her but my SIL made a gluten free cake so she didn't need them. They were about to expire and I mentioned to her that they needed to be eaten pretty soon. Apparently she took me literally on that. Heh!

[Juliebove]

I hide food that I don't want my kids to get somewhere in my room or my bathroom closet! I have never had a problem like that, though. My dd's never wake up in the night and look for a snack. Mabybe you can use those magnetic tot locks like the pp said. And designate one certain "off limits" cabinet w/ the lock on it to keep your dd out. I have those on my entertainment center, and they are GREAT! If there is no key, there is NO way for a kid or adult to get in there! And you can't see them from the outside at all.

I understand how kids can find things in the kitchen! My dd's have found things that I didn't even know I had!!

Good luck!

ptkds

I went totally gluten free at first but my husband was demanding some things like favorite cereals. I then bought my daughter her own little fridge and also set up a spare table and some stacking bins with all of her food. I do keep some things I would need for cooking and baking like rice, pasta, flour etc. in a separate place. But all of her cereals, canned prepared foods, etc. are all in one place. We were having problems with her dad not knowing what she could eat and always trying to force her to try things she was allergic to. This method seems to solve all the problems. And if for some reason we need to get a baby sitter they will know where to get food for her that isn't going to make her sick.

I had the other cabinets labeled for a while. That did seem to help my husband. The 8 year old didn't need the labels though. She's smart enough to remember what goes where. Heh! Just told my husband he's on his own. Not that it should be so hard in our house since we don't have very many food cabinets to begin with! And the design of the kitchen is such that most of the food must go up above in the higher cupboards that my daughter can't easily reach.

[Juliebove]

My children both act as though they are starving when they eat gluten. Is she always really hungry or do you think she is just trying to sneak what she can't have? Are you sure to have goodies on hand that she can eat? I would say that if she is getting up in the middle of the night to get snacks something is bothering her. A 7-year-old should be sleeping straight though (unless they need to use the restroom or something). If she is getting up to eat she must really be hungry so maybe it's the gluten making her that way or maybe something else is going on.

Good luck and I hope you get it figured out. I wouldn't get too mad at her. She's only 7 and she is likely having a gluten reaction or something else that is making her act that way. I say this knowing full well how hard it is and how I lose my patience with my kids as well. I know it's hard. Hang in there!!

My daughter is most concerned about her school lunches. Luckily for me she loves inexpensicve foods like casseroles, beans and rice, chicken and rice, etc. But she said the kids at school were making fun of her lunches and what she really wanted was a sandwich like the other kids had. So I am willing to send in a more expensive lunch for her at least 2 or 3 times a week. It's actually more convenient for me than trying to reheat leftovers. And there have been several occasions where she could not eat her lunch because neither she nor the teachers could manage to get the tops off of the insulated containers I sent in. Gah! Bought 4 new microwaveable containers for her this year and all were horrid! So now she still gets occasional leftovers. But most of the time it is a sandwich, Boomi Bar or Pumkin seed bar (apparently the kids don't make fun of these), a couple of slices of home made zucchini bread or a muffin and a few other things to round out the meal.

At home we eat the cheaper foods. She used to be very picky as to the shape of her pasta for a while, refusing to eat certain shapes. But she is old enough now to understand the value of money. I explained to her that if I can get certain pastas at the local grocery store for less money, those are the shapes we will be eating. And if and when, I find sales on the shapes she wants online or at stores we visit infrequently, I will try to stock up on them for her. I should also be thankful that one of her favorite foods is popcorn. That's one of her favorite breakfasts. I know that might sound weird to some people, but I was born in the midwest so this was a common breakfast there, often eaten in a bowl with milk like cereal. And it is a whole grain! Plus it's cheap.

[Juliebove]

My children both act as though they are starving when they eat gluten. Is she always really hungry or do you think she is just trying to sneak what she can't have? Are you sure to have goodies on hand that she can eat? I would say that if she is getting up in the middle of the night to get snacks something is bothering her. A 7-year-old should be sleeping straight though (unless they need to use the restroom or something). If she is getting up to eat she must really be hungry so maybe it's the gluten making her that way or maybe something else is going on.

Good luck and I hope you get it figured out. I wouldn't get too mad at her. She's only 7 and she is likely having a gluten reaction or something else that is making her act that way. I say this knowing full well how hard it is and how I lose my patience with my kids as well. I know it's hard. Hang in there!!

Boy does that sound familiar! My daughter has allergies and not celiac, but before we knew what the allergies were she thought she was starving all the time. I knew something was wrong because in the middle of a meal she'd scream, "I'm HUNGRY! Can I have a snack?" Turns out eating the allergens gave her an upset stomach. But the poor kid who is allergic to both soy and milk and had been given allergens pretty much since birth (had to supplement with formula does to not producing enough milk) so her stomach had always felt that way. She must have sensed in some way something wasn't right. And she knew enough to know that the stomach has certain feelings in it when hungry. Those feelings will go away with food. Now granted in her case the food might give her totally different feelings and probably not good ones! But at any rate she would want to eat and eat and eat all the time and this was one reason why she was sneaking the food.

I guess I am fortunate in that once we stopped feeding her that which she is allergic to, she felt so much better she would never take the chance of eating an allergen. I am also fortunate now that she is old enough to be able to read labels and can pretty well identify gluten or anything else she is allergic to.

[taweavmo3]

The others have all given you great ideas so far! I have a 7 year old that went gluten free this year, and I'm certain he would cheat if we had gluten filled treats where he could find them, lol. He understands he feels better without gluten, but he doesn't get as sick as my daughter does, so it's harder for him to be compliant.

I keep gluten free candy around the house and a fair amount of "junk" so they don't feel deprived in the least. There is alot of mainstream candy that is gluten free. Hershey's kisses, Dum dums, Reeses pb cups, jelly beans, Starbursts, Skittles, and Air Heads are a few that I can think of.

I know having a gluten free house isn't an option you really want to explore, it's not right for everyone. But I just wanted to reiterate what Tarnalberry said about being able to do it w/out spending alot of money. I used to get frustrated when people would say this, and didn't think it could be done. But we are a gluten free house now on a very modest income, and I honestly don't spend any more now than I used to on groceries. The only money we spend on special gluten-free foods is one package of pasta every two weeks, and one loaf of bread each week. I buy mainstream cereal......I have found FIVE different cereals now that the kids can eat. There's Trix, Dora Stars, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Fruity Pebbles. These also make great snacks! Anyway, if you ever get to the point of making the house gluten free, I'd be happy to give some tips on how to do it w/out spending extra. I have three older kids and the baby.....so I know all about keeping kids satisfied on this diet.

Hope you find something that works for you!

[Nic]

My house is not completely gluten free either. My husband just can't give up the gluten . But my "snack" cabinet only contain gluten free snacks. My Celiac son does not even see the food that is in the house that contains gluten (unless it is something he would never eat anyway). Anything he would like, that also contains gluten, is hidden on top of the cabinets out of reach and out of sight. As far as meals are concerned, I cook gluten free for everyone. And as someone above said, it does not have to be expensive. The only specialty foods I buy are the cookies, cereal, and cereal bars. I get my pasta from Trader Joes and it is only $1.99 which is a lot cheaper than all the other gluten-free pastas.

Nicole

[Nikki2003]

My house is not completely gluten free either. My husband just can't give up the gluten . But my "snack" cabinet only contain gluten free snacks. My Celiac son does not even see the food that is in the house that contains gluten (unless it is something he would never eat anyway). Anything he would like, that also contains gluten, is hidden on top of the cabinets out of reach and out of sight. As far as meals are concerned, I cook gluten free for everyone. And as someone above said, it does not have to be expensive. The only specialty foods I buy are the cookies, cereal, and cereal bars. I get my pasta from Trader Joes and it is only $1.99 which is a lot cheaper than all the other gluten-free pastas.

Nicole

I really want to get to a trader joes there is one I think about 45 min from my house. A friend from the celiac support group who children also have celiac was telling me about it. Also I looked up the tot locks and they look great I just hope they work on my cabinets The cabinets we have are a double door type so there is no wood thing in the middle of them,But if they work just by the door itself. That would be great they sell them at home depot That is about 15 min away,I will have to get some.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Celina

[Nic]

I really want to get to a trader joes there is one I think about 45 min from my house. A friend from the celiac support group who children also have celiac was telling me about it. Also I looked up the tot locks and they look great I just hope they work on my cabinets The cabinets we have are a double door type so there is no wood thing in the middle of them,But if they work just by the door itself. That would be great they sell them at home depot That is about 15 min away,I will have to get some.

Thanks for all the great advice.

Celina

The Trader Joes near me is only like 15 minutes away but I hate going there because I work all week and on the weekends they are so crowded. So when I go for the pasta I buy 10 bags for $20.00 and that lasts me for quite a while. Then I do not have to go back again too soon.

Nicole