This Sound Reasonable?

[VydorScope]

As some of you know, so far my son is the only one of us that has any reaction to gluten. We do how ever try to keep our house gluten free.

Well our son is doing great on the diet and it definitely saved his life. The turn around is with out question. ut we have noticed a strange behavior with him, that just might be normal for a typical three and a half year old, but we have no biases for comparison LOL. Being that we make very little $ we have to buy mainstream foods that manufactures claim to be gluten free. We can not afford most of the specialty foods except as treats. I know this means we run a CC risk, but it is unavoidable, I already work two jobs so more money is not forth coming any time soon.

Our son is VERY resistant to trying a new food, and when he does he often will refuse to eat ti ever again, even foods that you would not expect like jelly beans and some ice creams. He recently tried Bread from Anna, and loves it. I baked it in my $50 Oster Bread machine that was purchased after we went gluten-free so its clean!

Since he is only 3.5 and was a VERY late talker (was deaf for a while... another story unrelated to this..) he does not have the vocab to tell us much about how he feels. So I am wondering if some of these mainstream products are contimated and HE knows it but can not tell us? The closest he gets is "Cant like it!" Since no one else in the family reacts we have not way to know.

Is that reasonable? Or am I just falling into the common trap of blaiming gluten for all the worlds evils? His stools are on again off again okay.

Of course he is also in pre-school and Sunday school and awana's so its not like he is in a nice safe gluten-free bubble anymore.

[darlindeb25]

You are the best ones to judge him because you are with him everyday. Myself, I can't handle the heavy gluten free grains. They do not gluten me, yet they do bother my tummy. Does he eat much in the line of grains? If he really likes it, maybe he is eating too much of it and his little tummy is reacting to that.

You are absolutely correct about the cross contamination being an issue outside the home. Even with people who try their best to understand, there is still so much they cannot perceive unless they are gluten-free.

Good luck!

[Nic]

Hi, my sons are 6 and nearly 5. Only the six year old has celiac. First off I will start off by saying that both my boys, especially my non celiac have a tendency to like food one day and then refuse it the next. It can be very frustrating because with such a picky eater you think your finally on to something they will eat and so you buy it in bulk and then they refuse to eat it . And he never wants any of the "normal" kid favorite. His idea of a good dinner from our local hot dog take out is as follows: relish (eaten with a spoon), cole slaw, pickles, and the actual onion itself, pulled out of the breading of an onion ring (don't forget, this is my non celiac). My point being, picky or strange eating goes with the age. But, at the same time, if you feel his bowel movements are only good sometimes maybe he is being cross contaminated or maybe he is intolerant to something else. I would hope though if the manufacturers are claiming it is safe it would be.

Nicole

[Cheri A]

My son doesn't have any problems with gluten. He was a VERY late talker too and I was worried. He finally started talking at around 3 1/2-4 years.

[Guhlia]

It's possible that Tim can detect small amounts of gluten in new foods, but I'd sooner think that he's just being a typical picky 3 year old. Toddlers can be very difficult with diet, add on a major restriction like gluten and you're looking at a struggle. I can't get Tori to try most new things either.

Does he have any favorite dips that he likes? Ketchup, BBQ, alfredo sauce, cream cheese, honey, etc? When I give Tori something new to try, I'll usually let her have a little dish of dip so that she can ease her way into the new flavor by using more or less dip. I know it sounds weird and disgusting, but it really works for us. We've even gotten her to eat 4 different veggies now. She used to only be willing to eat carrots. Also, melted cheese works for us on some things, we just melt cheese over the new thing and she'll sometimes try picking at it, sometimes end up liking it. The only other thing that works for us is sharing with daddy. Daddy will eat the new thing and then Tori will try it since daddy's eating it. That works pretty well, especially for new fruits.

[VydorScope]

RE: Dips... he wont try the Kraft BQ sauce even though he says "Smells good" He sometimes will ask for ketchup, but lately only for fries we bake in the oven.

He is usually not even interested in other peoples food. Which is a good thing but it seems odd to me. I probably just worry to much, but he hs our only child so not like we have decades of experience to call on....

OH he DOES like whip cream, preferably sprayed right in his mouth! Often just with a spoon... maybe I should put that on his string beans LOL

[Guhlia]

RE: Dips... he wont try the Kraft BQ sauce even though he says "Smells good" He sometimes will ask for ketchup, but lately only for fries we bake in the oven.

He is usually not even interested in other peoples food. Which is a good thing but it seems odd to me. I probably just worry to much, but he hs our only child so not like we have decades of experience to call on....

OH he DOES like whip cream, preferably sprayed right in his mouth! Often just with a spoon... maybe I should put that on his string beans LOL

I'm sure we've done things just as strange as the whipped cream thing. Tori now eats her carrots with BBQ, her apples with ketchup, and anything with honey. It might look odd to an outsider, but we're just glad she's eating some nutritious foods with the junky dips.

Perhaps he could help you prepare some foods? Tori will try almost anything that she helps to make, even if it has green stuff in it. We just let her dump premeasured flour and spices into the bowl. She loves it.

Also, does he eat pizza? If he does, perhaps you could puree some carrots and add them to the sauce and maybe top with some veggies. Let him choose the veggies out of a small selection and put them on the pizza.

[tarnalberry]

He might just be a picky eater. My husband is a super taster, and hence a very picky eater. In the past six years or so, he's expanded his taste buds, but he also dislikes bbq sauce (won't eat it), chocolate, cheese, tomatoes, etc. (And he's half italian!) He can recognize that those things could be good, but they're disgusting to him. (Tomatoes are apparently bitter?!?!)

It's got to be really tough that your son can't communicate his needs better. The good news is that is likely to improve over time, so I'd hold on, and wait for it to come. There's not a lot to do in the mean time but keep trying to understand, and working with those he stays with to make sure they don't contaminate him!

[jerseyangel]

Our younger son, now 22, was the same way. Always a very picky eater--and still is!

I always just let him eat what looked good to him (within reason, of course--choosing from nutritious foods)--making meals that included foods he would eat. I never made a big deal out of it, and never tried to force him to eat something he didn't want to. (Much to the chigrin of certain older relatives....)

Otherwise he was an ideal child, and I just knew that he wasn't doing this to annoy us--it was that he truly didn't like so many foods.

As he got older, I asked him about it. He said that a lot of foods just don't taste good to him, and actually the thought of eating them makes him feel sick. It starts with the smell for him.

After I joined up here, and read about tarnalberry's husband being a "super taster", I read up on it and I do believe Matt is a super taster, too! (Thanks, Tiffany )

Tim may not be a super taster, it could be just normal kid-type preferences. Because he is Celiac, there is always the possibility that he is having a stomach ache from something else he ate--or touched when not at home.

[CarlaB]

It sounds like normal 3 year old behavior to me.

I loved mayonnaise when I was a kid. I hated peas, not because I didn't like the flavor, but because they were so hard to eat. I would only eat peas if they had mayo on them making them stick together. No one understood why I wanted the mayo, I don't think I was able to tell them.

You may never find out why he doesn't like something. But it would be good to try to come up with a way to figure out whether it bothers his stomach or not. I do make my kids eat a bite or two of stuff they don't like, but I don't make them eat a whole serving of it. It's good to expand their taste.

Maybe you could stick to stuff that's naturally gluten-free for him-- like eggs, meat, veggies, fruit, rice, potatoes, beans, etc. Then rotate in the processed stuff to see which of it is causing the gi upset.

[Juliet]

My 3 1/2 year old Celiac son is EXACTLY the same way. I actually had to force him to try syrup. He insisted he didn't like it right after he tried it, than 10 minutes later, after he felt he had saved enough face, he asked for some. And he changes from day to day what he will like then not like. About the only consistency for us is chocolate! And we ask him about every other day if his tummy feels OK, and he always answers "yes," unless he was very obviously glutened.

One of the ways I do sneak in something a bit healthy is by making pumpkin pancakes. I use Pamela's Products Ultimate Pancake & Baking mix which is definitely more expensive than regular flour, but it's not that much more expensive than something like Bisquick. I also use milk and extra eggs to make it high in protein, and use some sugar so that he doesn't need syrup and can just eat it with his hands, and it ends up having most of the major food groups, too. It turns it into a more custard-like pancake and, I think, very tasty. He eats 4 at a time, and will eat it several times a week if I have them available. Here's my recipe:

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes

Servings: About 16 Pancakes?

Ingredients:?4 eggs

3/4 cup milk ?3/4 cup water

2 tbs. oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or substitute 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. cloves)

1/3-1/2 cup sugar (depends on your taste - could substitute Splenda, too)

2

[Juliet]

Ignore the question marks above - I copied the recipe from another program and for some reason question marks showed up after I posted the recipe

[Mom to Many]

I understand the picky eater problem.

My 4 year old son tried gluten free bread. He said Mom, it's hairy.

He meant it is gritty.

His 15 year old sister says that she loves her bread. Lol!

Marianne

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Am I misunderstanding you, or are you picking up on a possible developmental issue here?

I don't think you as a parent worry too much. You are a very intelligent guy, an involved and caring parent, and you and your little one have been through more stuff than most MD's can imagine, let alone might have been through themselves.

Why dont you try to categorize everything that you feel might be out of the ordinary, and then research it to see if there is a common thread?

[VydorScope]

Am I misunderstanding you, or are you picking up on a possible developmental issue here?

I don't think you as a parent worry too much. You are a very intelligent guy, an involved and caring parent, and you and your little one have been through more stuff than most MD's can imagine, let alone might have been through themselves.

Why dont you try to categorize everything that you feel might be out of the ordinary, and then research it to see if there is a common thread?

Well.. what is normal for a little boy.. how about sticking dog food in his ears? LOL!

What do you mean by "a possible developmental issue" ?

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Our son is VERY resistant to trying a new food, and when he does he often will refuse to eat ti ever again, even foods that you would not expect like jelly beans and some ice creams.

he does not have the vocab to tell us much about how he feels. So I am wondering if some of these mainstream products are contimated and HE knows it but can not tell us? The closest he gets is "Cant like it!"

Those two things kind of jumped out at me. It is entirely possible that this is normal 3-year-old-boy stuff. The only reason I'm seeing a possible red flag here is because of my own experience, and we have to remember that everyone is different, and just because something signified an issue for one of my kids doesn't necessarily mean that it's any kind of issue for yours.

Only my oldest child (the one who was diagnosed with Asperger's at 4) was unable to communicate feelings at age 3. Both my other children were able to communicate feelings at around 18 months . I don't necessarily mean vocab skills--there are other ways to communicate feelings. They certainly understood enough to be able to respond to questions about what they liked and disliked and why.

But that doesn't mean every child does, or can, or should. That's only my experience. Besides, they were 2nd and 3rd kids, who generally pick up on these kinds of things much more quickly.

he other thought that occured to me was that maybe it's a texture issue?

Anyway, I don't want to suggest that something is wrong if it isn't. THis is just what jumped out at me when I read your post, and I thought maybe this was a direction your thoughts were taking. Sorry if I misunderstood.

[sarah ruth]

I'm with you in thinking there is something odd about excessive pickiness in kids, and haved wished my kids would just get on with it and eat up... but in the arena of picky kids, yours sounds about average. Follow your intuition when it comes to your son's health, of course, 'cause no one but him knows better, but it sounds completely reasonable to me that a little kid healing from imbalances should choose whipped cream over jelly beans - natural intelligence! As my son gets healthier (and older - now 5) he is much more enthusiastic and open about food, we are regularly amazed - persistence and optimism pays off! My daughter is at a stage (a THREE year old stage..) where she will only eat the skin and fat from meat preferably whipped cream by the bowl full, and rice noodles with butter and cheese. I exagerate a bit, but she is seriously NOT into new foods. You as a parent are not alone in this!

Some of the best feeding advice I got was from Ellyn Satter's book "feeding with love and good sense" (at most libraries) where she says you need to casually offer a child a new item at least 20 times before you take their refusal to heart - but even then re-introduce it a month or two later. I also feel hugely indebted to the Weston A. Price Foundation's website for improving our family's diet. Cod liver oil was a surprise hit with my kids, they love love love the plain gel capsules of it.

It also really helped me to focus on the basic, say, 10 things my children didn't question eating and then make them as healthy as I could. For example, rice and quinoa are easy pleasers, so I fill my freezer with litres of homemade meat stock and use that instead of water for cooking it up. Pancakes and waffles are thrilling to kiddos, so I made them with peanut butter and eggs, or almond flour and eggs rather than a starchy gluten-free-grain flour. They wouldn't eat eggs so we invented "jam roll-ups" (jelly roll omlette?) with a toothpick in each slice and they devour them. Going berry picking in the summer led to berries in smoothies which led to so many nourishing things snuck in! (eg. bee pollen, coconut milk or oil, greens powders, flax oils). Fruity yogurts let to homemade yogurt (24hr culturing for good probiotics in a yogurmet machine) with some jam mixed in, which led to kefir, you get the idea. Whipped cream with the green beans sounds delicious, and sounds like a classic dish, go for it!

[VydorScope]

Those two things kind of jumped out at me. It is entirely possible that this is normal 3-year-old-boy stuff. The only reason I'm seeing a possible red flag here is because of my own experience, and we have to remember that everyone is different, and just because something signified an issue for one of my kids doesn't necessarily mean that it's any kind of issue for yours.

Only my oldest child (the one who was diagnosed with Asperger's at 4) was unable to communicate feelings at age 3. Both my other children were able to communicate feelings at around 18 months . I don't necessarily mean vocab skills--there are other ways to communicate feelings. They certainly understood enough to be able to respond to questions about what they liked and disliked and why.

But that doesn't mean every child does, or can, or should. That's only my experience. Besides, they were 2nd and 3rd kids, who generally pick up on these kinds of things much more quickly.

he other thought that occured to me was that maybe it's a texture issue?

Anyway, I don't want to suggest that something is wrong if it isn't. This is just what jumped out at me when I read your post, and I thought maybe this was a direction your thoughts were taking. Sorry if I misunderstood.

He seems to be exploring feelings right now. Like he just this week for the FIRST time ever said "daddy, so cold!" We where driving home from someplace and the heat had not kicked in the truck yet, so it was prbly like 40 or 50 degrees. He is still working on what "scared" means. I am not sure he understands it yet, because he does not always seem to use it right. He pretty much has "sad" down. For example we were watching The Never Ending Story and there is a part where the hero is crying because he lost his horse and Timothy said "He sad". Some times he will say "Cold outside, need a jacket" but I think that might be mimicking his mom more then anything

So while he might (?) be behind in emotional understanding, I think it is there.

When got his last ear infection he said "Ear not working", over and over. (That actually was our first clue he had one..) So he can communicate SOME discomforts at least.

As long as he is making forward progress, I tend not to worry about it. I was late on EVERY milestone, but I still made it.

[gfp]

I would say its completely normal... but then I'm not really in a position to judge....normal perhaps

However as a kid I hated any meat with fat or anything chewy in it.... so my mom would cut meat up smaller etc. then I started thinking of slices of onion as like fat she was disguising and even celery....

I'd hardly eat any vegetables except potatoes and peas... and I'm sure my mom was as worried as you....

Equally I didn't say a word until 2 1/2 then went straight into talking sentences... My mom was REALLY worried about this and her mom kept telling her to relax... and I quickly deveped a vocuabulary after this just through reading..... of course I was left with lots of words I didn't know how to pronounce... a few I still have problems with...

Kids are just fussy eaters... why else would they hate exactly the same thing doesn't come in alphabet shapes or starts etc. so I don't see anything to worry about specifically... Its obvious your a great and attentive parent.... you obviously went through a lot but IMHO your're doing just fine Kids don't come witrh a one manual covers all and your obviously watching and learning and developing...

Isn't being a parent/child just that...?

Of course keep an eye on him and keep up the good work.... I'm not saying not to.... but its a stepwise learning thing... my grandma had 6 kids and I was my moms first.... My mom panicked and my gran had seen it all before and everytihng turned out fine.... so by the time my mom had my bro... she was much more prepared for him not fitting the manual...

[key]

I also have a 3 year old with celiac. He doesn't act interested in our food most of the time. HE doesn't know any different as to what he eats. He is picky in some ways. He loves Peas. He will eat bowls of them at a time. Loves spaghetti, Pamela's pancakes, gluten-free toast, PB&J on Kinnikinnick brown bread. He also likes gluten-free pizza. He hates bananas, cooked carrots. Sometimes he will eat yogurt, but not very much. He can be very frustrating. Some days he hardly eats at all, but then he will make up for it on another day. My son is underweight and very small, but he has always been this way and is very normal otherwise. Healthy and happy, so I think it is just him.

I don't know if this has helped at all. Also my older two kids ate the worst at age 3, so it might just be the age.

Monica