I Think My Children Are Trying To Poison Me!

[ruthla]

At this point, I'm the only family member on a gluten-free diet. Last year, homemade pizza was a big hit with the kids and a relatively inexpensive meal. DD has been begging me to make pizza again, so I agreed, with the caveat that she'd have to make the dough and shape the pizzas (we make personal sized pizzas).

We ended up with flour all over the kitchen table, her refusing to prepare the dough when it was time to shape the pizzas, then her refusing to clean anything up after eating- ugh NEVER AGAIN!!!!! My 11yo is difficult enough normally, but last night and today she's been absoultely impossible to deal with!

Eventually, my 13yo cleaned up the kitchen while I tried to get my 6yo to bed. I'm not sure if my 11yo helped her or not.

I'm feeling sick now. I'm irritable beyond belief, and my nose is incredibly stuffed up, and my right eye felt like it had a piece of sand in it when I was lying down with DS. I now feel like I'm crawling out of my skin- like I want to yank my skin off along with my clothes.

Thing is, I've been sick all day. I woke up kind of sore and achey, and now I just feel a million times worse. I can't figure out if the gluten is making me sick or if it's just coincidence.

Also, we went to the mall earlier today. DD bought a lemonade from Auntie Anns' pretzels (no pretzels, just lemonade) and I had one sip. Could there have been CC in the lemonade? I also could be reacting to the stinky purfumes in Macy's (oh how I hate that store!)

[loco-ladi]

next time make homemade gluten-free pizza.... either they eat it or they starve

oh wait I think my irritated mommy voice just got outta the bag !

Your life, your health, your house....... they eat what you eat PERIOD end of story.

OH CRUD!!!

That sounds just like something my MOTHER WOULD SAY !!!

[babinsky]

I am the only celiac in the family.....luckily I am also the cook I no longer even have regular flour in my house. I do keep things like hot pockets and bagel bites that the family eats but they have a seperate small microwave that is used for anything with gluten. EVERYTHING I cook is gluten-free and nobody notices the difference anymore. Bread was the big challange but I have found some great bakeries that ship and since they are so expensive the rest eat regular breads and muffins. If the husband or kids have a craving for "regular" stuff they are welcome to go to their favorite restaurant and I will take the night off.......it is far easier to fit them into my world than for me to continually get sick in theirs.

[DingoGirl]

next time make homemade gluten-free pizza.... either they eat it or they starve

oh wait I think my irritated mommy voice just got outta the bag !

Your life, your health, your house....... they eat what you eat PERIOD end of story.

Well, you may sound like your mother, and she must be a smart lady, because this is brilliant advice.....

And also Babinsky's system sounds really sensible and fair.

It really is YOUR health and YOUR house!!!!!! It's not worth your getting sick to please them. I say, if they don't eat what you cook, yup, they don't get to eat. Period.

[Phyllis28]

I agree with loco_ladi. Your health should be the priority. A gluten free household is best but a gluten limited household can work. My house is gluten limited, basically bread and cereal. It is this way because I do the food shopping and cooking. I simply don't cook meals I can't eat.

Your kids can eat gluten food outside the house. You might want to consider asking a friend, neighbor or relative to cook gluten food with your kids.

[Ursa Major]

You obviously got glutened. It would be a miracle if that wouldn't have happened with flour all over the place and in the air to breathe it in as well.

I don't allow any regular flour in this house. If anybody wants to bake gluteny foods they better do it elsewhere.

You can make great gluten-free pizza, and nobody will taste the difference. The only difference will be that you can eat it as well, and won't be sick. Everybody wins in that scenario.

It sounds like maybe your 11 year old is reacting to the gluten, too. Two of my grandchildren react to gluten by getting nasty and having tantrums. My youngest daughter gets incredibly rude and moody from it. Not everybody reacts by having stomach aches and D! A lot of people are affected mentally instead.

[ravenwoodglass]

I agree completely with what has already been mentioned so I won't repeat that great advice. I just want to add that Gluten Free Pantry makes a french bread mix that makes the best pizza crust you could ever eat, IMHO. They have the pizza crust recipe right on the box. I doubt your youngsters will know the difference. I also agree with Ursa that you most likely are seeing gluten reactions in the kids. The mental effects can show up many, many, many years before GI problems become evident. Celiac does not follow the general rules for inheritence. Chances are really good at least one of them, if not all, need the diet also.

[ruthla]

A couple of things:

I had an opened package of wheat flour in a plastic container, plus an unopened package, when I decided to go gluten-free. We have maybe 3-4 lbs left from the 2nd package. What am I supposed to do with the flour we already have in the house if we don't eat it?

I can't eat most of the gluten-free foods, especially the bread replacements. I currently can't tolerate beans at all or large portions of rice. If we made a gluten-free pizza, I wouldn't be able to eat it anyway. I'd be able to safely prepare the dough and clean up from preparing it, but I wouldn't be able to eat any of it.

I've been hesitant to make changes in their diets just to avoid CC. If I could eat these foods, then it would be a different situation- cook one meal for everybody. As it is, I'm on a super limited diet and I eat the same foods over and over again- but they want variety in their diets.

Hmm. My pickiest eater is also the one with numerous behavioral problems. They got a lot better when I put her (ok, all of us) on the Feingold Program, but her problems haven't gone away completely. She was definitely worse yesterday when she was working with the wheat flour. I don't know if she'd go for a gluten-free trial. How long would it take to see results in an 11yo?

[Ursa Major]

You may see immediate results in an 11 year old, or it might take a week. Why not have her tested, since she is still eating gluten? Unless you know that you guys don't have the 'official' celiac disease genes, that would be a good idea. If she tests positive, then she can't refuse to be on the diet.

Otherwise, go the Enterolab route. Her results finally convinced my youngest daughter (16) to stop eating gluten (she had a negative blood test), with excellent results.

I use light buckwheat flour for my baking and cooking. I bet you could make pizza dough with it, too, and you could even eat it yourself.

As for your flour, you may have to do what I did, either give it away or toss it. It is poison to you, and you shouldn't have it around, period.

[Cinnamon]

I saw improvement on Day 2 with my own 11-year-old. You might even be able to sneak it past her, at least for a day or two, by just making things that naturally don't have gluten. With my son I just made eggs for breakfast, gave him chili in a thermos for lunch, meat and potatoes and a vegetable for dinner, potato chips for snack, and at first he hardly realized what I was doing. I snuck that Tinkyada pasta past the whole family several times before they saw the package and started making gagging and choking noises, but I told them they'd eaten it at least 5 times without knowing.

[ruthla]

I saw improvement on Day 2 with my own 11-year-old.

OK, if we can see results in only a couple of days, then this is do-able.

I just spoke to her about it (she's homeschooled and playing on the other computer right now.) She wants to enjoy the leftover pizzas in the fridge, and doesn't want to give up challah on Friday night, but she's willing to give it a week. Next Sunday, she'll go completely gluten-free and then she'll have challah the following Friday night- we'll see if she feels better during the week and if she feels worse after having gluten again.

[Nancym]

You could always send them outside to eat the gluten. Sort of like smokers.

2nd hand gluten kills!

[2kids4me]

I agree with other comments - that the 11 yr old may have been reacting to gluten - the refusal to clean up /shape the dough came AFTER working with the gluten flours.

I dont have wheat flour in the house either - If we eat pizza as a family - everyone eats homemade gluten free. If DH wants a gluten pizza for a quick meal during calving season - I get frozen pizza or take out. For the frozen pizza, I use the disposable foil pans that you can get at most grocery stores.

Hope you feel better soon,

[ruthla]

I agree with other comments - that the 11 yr old may have been reacting to gluten - the refusal to clean up /shape the dough came AFTER working with the gluten flours.

I dont have wheat flour in the house either - If we eat pizza as a family - everyone eats homemade gluten free. If DH wants a gluten pizza for a quick meal during calving season - I get frozen pizza or take out. For the frozen pizza, I use the disposable foil pans that you can get at most grocery stores.

Hope you feel better soon,

I discussed this with her and we agreed that she'd do a trial week of gluten-free eating next week, starting on Saturday night or Sunday. I'll have her help me plan out meals for the week so she doesn't feel deprived (and I'll probably get a few gluten-free goodies just for her- just as we did when we first went on Feingold.) Then she'll have some challah on Friday night and we'll see if it negatively affects her behavior.

I still don't plan to restrict what the other two eat away from home, but being gluten-free at home certainly can't hurt them!

[gfp]

I discussed this with her and we agreed that she'd do a trial week of gluten-free eating next week, starting on Saturday night or Sunday. I'll have her help me plan out meals for the week so she doesn't feel deprived (and I'll probably get a few gluten-free goodies just for her- just as we did when we first went on Feingold.) Then she'll have some challah on Friday night and we'll see if it negatively affects her behavior.

I still don't plan to restrict what the other two eat away from home, but being gluten-free at home certainly can't hurt them!

Much as it is obviously better the kids are on board voluntarily I think discussing this is somewhat pointless past a point? Look at it this way, are you going to discuss her smoking or taking drugs or tell her?

I realise that is a bit more drastic but if you believe her health is at risk why discuss it?

[ruthla]

Much as it is obviously better the kids are on board voluntarily I think discussing this is somewhat pointless past a point? Look at it this way, are you going to discuss her smoking or taking drugs or tell her?

I realise that is a bit more drastic but if you believe her health is at risk why discuss it?

I actually HAVE discussed smoking and taking drugs with her- explaining to her the real risks, the social settings she might face to use them in the future, the legal ramifications, etc. I can limit her opportunities for smoking or drug use, but the simple reality is that I can't actually prevent her from using if she's at a party without me and is offered cigarettes or drugs. I have to trust her to actually be the one to say "no".

I am not physically capable of watching every single item that goes into her mouth. What's to stop her from taking a cookie from my parents' kitchen while I'm in the bathroom? There's no lock between my part of the house and theirs.

The fact is that my daughter is eleven, not two. If I don't have her cooperation, it's not going to happen. She will sneak treats if she doesn't understand the reasons behind avoiding gluten during the trial period.

We also don't know for a fact if going gluten-free is going to help her. I will not equate it to drug use, because "recreational drugs' are almost universally harmful, whereas gluten only harms people who are sensitive to it.

[Ursa Major]

You are right in saying that you can't enforce your daughter's cooperation in being gluten-free. She needs to agree and voluntarily refrain from eating gluten foods.

That was so hard with my youngest daughter. I saw evidence of her having reactions to gluten every day. But she vehemently denied that there was a problem, and refused to try the gluten-free diet for two years. It isn't possible to make a 16 year old comply with dietary restriction without her agreement and cooperation.

That is why I decided that I needed to prove to her that gluten was harming her. It was expensive (nearly Can $500.00 including almost $100.00 for FedEx overnight shipping here from Canada back to Texas of the kit) to test her with Enterolab. But it proved that she was reacting to gluten and had considerable malabsorption.

Now she is on board, and will even go hungry at friend's places, if they have no gluten-free options for her. Her diarrhea has stopped, no more stomach aches, and she is much more even tempered. And she has more energy as well.