New Mama Here And I Have Questions! :)

[TulaneMama]

Hi! My name is Ashley and I am the mother to 3. Our oldest son will be 9 this August. 2 yrs ago his doctor declared that he could eat gluten again. He had been on a very regimented diet for several yrs and they performed and endoscopy the summer he was delared to have "outgrown" his intolerance.

I however, am having serious doubts and need some help in what direction to take. I hope that I am in the right place. We seemed to be okay in the 1st yr but looking back maybe we weren't. We are exoperiencing behavioral problems, DS has random eczema spots that flare up, different from the ones he used to have, and his poop isn't right! He no longer has what we termed "gluten poopy". As in it isn't diarrhea anymore but it is however abnormal IMO. It is always light in color and it is like small pieces of spahghetti. That is the best description that I can give. It always settles to the bottom and if I had to guess I would say there were 20-30 pieces. I wasn't sure what a childs stool was supposed to look like, but now that our 2yo uses the potty and has well, adult poos, I can see that things are not normal with his gut.

I am not sure if this is another allergy/intolerance, a flare up, a malabsorption issue or something else. I would REALLY love it if someone could point me in the right direction. Perhaps we need to do another elimination diet? With his behavior issues right now this might help but getting him to cooperate would also be another story! Should I have a blood test? IgG and IgE?

Thank you!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Hi, Ashley, welcome aboard!

Hate to tell you this, but if your son was ever officially diagnosed with celiac, he will NEVER outgrow it. Your doctor is seriously misinformed--celiac is not something that can ever be outgrown. What happened is that his intestines healed while he was gluten-free--but the damage is starting all over again.

If he wasn't officially celiac, but did much, much better off gluten, you can safely assume that gluten is bad for him, no matter what you call it (and it is quite likely to be celiac, anyway, even without an official diagnosis)--celiac, gluten intolerance, or whatever. Gluten intolerance in many cases is just early-stage celiac, especially if it totally resolves with a gluten-free diet.

You do not need any tests to rediagnose or reconfirm celiac. Once a celiac, always a celiac. You do not need a doctor's permission to take gluten out of his diet, either.

My middle son is 9, and has relatively mild symptoms and no official diagnosis. BUt his symptoms are annoying enough that he doesn't want to eat gluten any more. I try to make it easy for him by making gluten-free pizza from scratch, and all his favorite foods, just gluten-free. If he's at a friend's house and they're having pizza, I just make some for him to bring with him. And I've made gluten-free pizza for him and his friends, and they all scarf it down with no complaints.

If there are any foods that you think your son would miss, list them here or make a separate thread asking for gluten-free recipes for those foods, and you'll probably end up with recipes that actually taste BETTER than the gluteny originals!

[TulaneMama]

he was never diagnosed as having Celiacs. infact the test came back negative. I did not realize that he could possibly still have celiacs disease. I know that I can rfemove gluten from his diet but is there any merit to having this all documented again by a doctor? We move all of the time so I like to make sure that I have my ducks in a row and do not know if in th elong run not having his condition declared by a doctor might cause more problems.

oh and I will have to look for better recipes than what we had. blech!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I've got some great recipes for bread, pizza, and biscuits.

The official MD diagnosis thing has pros and cons. The main advantage is that nobody will ever doubt that your son has a problem with gluten (shame, isn't it? That anyone would doubt the one expert who sees her child's reactions every day? But it happens all the time.)

There are many disadvantages, including being denied insurance (it has happened to members of this board). There is also a very high risk that all testing will come up negative if you have gone off gluten and the intestines are healed. In that case, in order to get a positive diagnosis, you have literally have to eat gluten long enough to DAMAGE your intestines, as that is how celiac is officially diagnosed--by damaged intestines.

It's the most bass-ackward thing I can think of, not diagnosing celiac until you've reached "end-stage" damage. That;s like saying "we won't diagnose a peanut allergy until the patient goes into anaphylactic shock," or "we won't diagnose high blood pressure until you've had a heart attack."

The best cookbook I've found is Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts.

There is a wonderful gluten-free flour called "Better Batter.

If you go to www.betterbatter.org, you can order it to be delivered, and it's WONDERFUL. You can use it cup-for-cup as a substitute for gluteny flour in most recipes, and they give you specific instructions how to use it in bread recipes (where you need extra liquid).

Here is a recipe from Celiac.com member Lorka:

Gluten-Free flax bread

1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour

1/4 cup garfava flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup flax seed meal

2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 cup water or milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons vinegar

1. Combine flours, flax, starches, gum, yeast, salt.

2. In the mixer, combine wet ingredients, then add the dry.

3. Scrape the sides, and mix on medium for 4-5 minutes.

4. Pour into 9x5 pan, and let rise to top of pan (took about 80 minutes). I always, always let it rise in a turned off oven.

5. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes.

6. Remove from pan, cool, and slice.

And a great pizza crust recipe:

gluten-free Pizza Crust

1 packet yeast (about 1 tablespoon)

3/4 cup milk, room temperature

1/2 cup potato starch

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon xanthan gum