Refusing To Try Diet

[ADevoto]

Hi,

Need help. I have twins that look like they may be celiac if nothing else gulten sensitive. The doctor wants us to try the diet but my one is losing it over it. He loves pasta, breads..... and he is literally throwing rages over it. I know that there is pasta... out there but he can tell the difference. Do you just throw everything out and tell him that is the way it is and hope he eventually stops destrorying the house. It is hard because to him he doesn't have any symptoms. Any thoughts?

[Guest gfinnebraska]

What age are they?? IF you feel like they are celiac disease, then you have no choice but to throw everything out. My Mom use to tell me when I would complain about something the boys would or wouldn't do... "Who is bigger? You or them???" Depending on their age, who is bigger?? If they are too young to understand life and death, then you have to be the adult and do what is best for them no matter the cost. There are tons of yummy alternatives out there. Go to your local health food store, or here are a couple of on-line alternatives:

Open Original Shared Link or Open Original Shared Link

Good luck!!

[jadobson]

We too went through something similar. Only I have one not twins. At first it was really hard as he would see us eating a reg. meal and he had to have his. So my first suggestion is find meals that everyone can eat. Some of our favorite pasta is DeBoles (? sp) Rice pasta and Food for Life. We found ours at Whole foods (or try a health food store) and on line. Try to really disguise it at first until he gets used to it, then you can ease up on the extra things. I know it can be hard. You might try eating meals that don't involve pasta as well so that there is no reason to fret about the taste. Another thing we started doing was having my son cook. He was around 2nd grade when we found out, so at 8 he couldn't fix a major meal, but he certainly could help. He loved the fact that he was cooking and I loved the fact that I was setting him up to succeed in life and to learn to cook gluten free. Not to mention we were learning math at the same time. There is a kids cookbook called Wheat-free Gluten-free Cookbook for kids and working adults by Connie Sarros that we are always using. It runs about $20 but way worth it. Another suggestion would be to find a local support group to swap reciepes and such with. It can all be very overwhelming at first. One of our biggest challenges was school lunches and birthday treats. We keep a bag of Halloween size candy in the teachers drawer at school and when someone has a birthday he gets his own little bag of candy. For his birthday we make gluten free peanut butter cookies with chocolate drops in the middle. All the kids love them and nobody says anything about why there isn't cupcakes. Hope all my rambling helps.

Julie D.

[celiac3270]

I like Tinkyada pasta a lot, and so do most here on the boards. Kinnickinick is the most popular bread....I like it the most, and I've tried a lot of breads . If you haven't tried these, check them out.......it's a difficult change, probably difficult for him to understand, and it might take time. How old is he?

[ADevoto]

He is a new 10 year old but fairly immature and has a lot of mood issues that interfer with him being able to calmly adjust to new things. Thanks for the advice.

[MySuicidalTurtle]

The diet may help with his moods, too. He can't just not do the diet. . .it's damaging him. What if you serve him glutenfree pasta (nd food) without telling him it is different. I sereve people all the time glutenfree food and they don't' know that's what it is.

[ryebaby0]

My son is 11 (10 when dx) and I agree, based on what I've been reading this year on the boards, you may be surprised at how his behavior issues change when he is gluten-free.

But you are going nuts now! Of course, he's mad, and unhappy. But you wouldn't let him play in traffic, and he can't eat gluten. A non-negotiable. For us, what worked in the long and short-term was to be sympathetic but relentlessly upbeat -- Yes, I know you miss those chicken nuggets, but you can still have Hershey bars. Yes, I know you wanted Domino's pizza, but hey, this pizza I made is darn good too. When neccessary, less sympathetic! We have a family friend who has MS; my mom has cancer --- and we didn't hesitate to point out my son had little to whine about in comparison to their daily difficulties when he got a little too involved in the pity party routine. You HAVE to (imho) focus on the positive issues -- he isn't dying. He isn't needing medication (it's not all pills --there's lots of IV stuff out there!). There is still LOTS he can eat. Get him some Kinnikinick food, have him surf Ms. Roben's. Don't give in due to pity. Don't treat him special because of this -- just get him the right foods (simple is better, it will save your sanity) and get back on the horse what threw you ..... It does get better -- but it takes time (and Hershey bars!)

[ashlee's mom]

My daughter was much younger, and pretty lethargic by the time she was diagnosed, so it was easier, but one thing I did was not try and replace everything at once. After trying a couple different breads, I decided to just not give her bread for awhile. By the time I started again, I made the bread, and since it had been awhile, she didn't have as much to compare it with. I realize that is harder since your son is older though! We also were given the incredible edible gluten free cookbook for kids (I think I got that right). It had some really good recipes, including one for chicken nuggets which my husband and I both loved - they put McDonalds to shame and we still eat gluten! And from everything I've read, there's a good chance his attitude problems will change after going gluten-free. Good luck!

Michelle

[celiac3270]

The diet may help with his moods, too. He can't just not do the diet. . .it's damaging him. What if you serve him glutenfree pasta (nd food) without telling him it is different. I sereve people all the time glutenfree food and they don't' know that's what it is.

SO TRUE! I didn't even think about the mood issue, but so many on the boards talk about having been depressed or angry before the diet (or some other mood) and after a few weeks on the diet, their moods changed.....good point