Weight Gain

[KellyR]

I have a 15 year old daughter with diabetes and celiac. She has been gluten free except the occasional errors for 5 years. she always did fine until a few months ago. She has gained 11 pounds since february. She eats a very little and excercises 5 times a week. She went to the doctor and all blood test came out okay. I feel terrible for her, she is in constant tears over this. Any ideas?

[cdfiance]

My fiancee also has celiac and diabetes but both fairly recently so my knowledge is limited. Is the diabetes diagnosis recent? If it is then maybe her body is overcompensating for the metabolic imbalance before the diabetes was being treated. Does she have a lot of highs with her blood sugar? If so then she would be needing extra insulin and that could definitely cause weight gain. We have been told that this is especially true when one has an insulin pump.

The only other thing I can think of is a thyroid problem. My fiancee's endocrinologist checked her levels and antibodies when she was diagnosed with diabetes since autoimmune diseases like to travel in packs. So if you haven't had this done you might want to ask her endo about it.

One other possible thing. Could it be a growth spurt? I don't really know much about this but I remember hearing once that during puberty girls tend to put on weight before they grow taller whereas guys usually get taller and then gain the extra weight. You could always see if her docs can check to see if her growth plates have fused to let you know if she is still growing.

I hope you can figure out what's going on with your daughter,

Ryan

[celiac-mommy]

I have a 15 year old daughter with diabetes and celiac. She has been gluten free except the occasional errors for 5 years. she always did fine until a few months ago. She has gained 11 pounds since february. She eats a very little and excercises 5 times a week. She went to the doctor and all blood test came out okay. I feel terrible for her, she is in constant tears over this. Any ideas?

2 things that stand out to me is "eats very little and exercises 5xweek" She may be eating too little and exercising too much for what she's eating. The body then goes into starvation mode and anytime she takes in food, her body holds onto it because it's not sure when it will get it again, thus causing a weight gain. I'm not saying (at all) that she has an eating disorder, she just might not be eating enough. Have her/help her keep a food journal to see how many calories she is taking in and find out what her basal metabolic rate is (google it to find a calculator) to see how much she should be eating for her height, weight and activity level, then you may want to talk to a nutritionist/dietitian to map out a plan of the foods she should be eating to keep the diabetes under control and still be gluten-free.

-Rachelle

[KellyR]

thanks for your replies. She was diagnosed when she was 18 months old so it is not a new diagnoses but she has had alot of high blood sugars and is on the pump so I will have to look into that. Her doctors did check her thyroid and that was fine and also did confirm she was done growing but I will look into the other things. Thanks again!!!!!