Where Do I Start?

[mum2 charlotte]

Hi everyone

I think my youngest daughter Charlotte may be gluten intolerant. She was an average weight when she was born but has failed to thrive since she was weaned around 5 - 6 mths. She has always had really soft mushy, sometimes watery bowel motions, up to 3 a day- has never passed anything "formed or solid".

She was referred at my request to a paediatrician who ran a series of blood tests which came back negative for celiac, but did show low iron levels. She is now taking an iron supplement, even though her diet is excellent and I can`t see how she could be lacking in iron.

The paediatrician doesn`t feel that she has any type of malabsorption or intolerance problem and the dietitian has started her on calorie supplements, which I believe may indeed help her to gain weight, but won`t help the problem long term. They seem to be dealing only with her failure to thrive, but aren`t concerned with the loose bowel motions, which the peadiatrician is referring to as "toddler diarrhoea".

I`m not totally convinced and have decided for my own peace of mind, against the advice of the dietitian, to try her on a gluten free diet for a short time to see if it makes a difference.

My problem is that I have no idea where to start. How long would she need to be on it before we should see a difference? What sorts of foods will I give her? I could come up with meals for a couple of days, but would soon run out of ideas.

Sorry for the long winded post but wanted to give all the information.

Any advice will be appreciated

[fripp017]

Hi. My children are in the process of being diagnosed as well. Doctors are still getting used to the idea of Celiac Disease. They aren't really sure how to test for it, how to know anyone has it for sure until they are very, very sick. So, I would keep trying. If you want to switch her onto the diet to test it, I think it would be less overwhelming than you think. When I switched to the gluten-free diet myself, I started noticing a difference in about 3 days. By the end of the week it seemed like I was a totally different person. There are all sorts of recipes online and many more foods available in stores today. They make gluten free snacks and foods to replace some of your regular meals. For example, most grocery stores carry brown rice pasta, mixes for cookies, pancakes, etc. I don't know if I helped, but my only real advice is, if you want a diagnosis then you have to keep going until you get the doctor that takes the time to explain the test results to you and to listen to you. If you just want to help her get better, then switch her to the diet.

[mum2 charlotte]

Hi

Thanks. Interesting that a difference may show in as little as a few days. My plan is to try the diet, then if I see a difference, then I can go back to the paed armed with evidence.

It seems that there are loads of foods out there that contain hidden gluten. I suppose it`s just a matter of research?

[fripp017]

LOL! Yes, there is ALOT of hidden gluten! Some research and lots of label reading. The one thing I dread the most now that I am on the gluten-free diet is grocery shopping. It used to just be in and out, but now I spend most of my time checking the labels. Hints that I can give you - stay away from foods/products with: monosodium glutamate (flavor for chips, bbq sauce, snacks), modified food starch (corn, rice and potato are acceptable), and malt (often hidden in cereal that seems to be gluten-free but add malt for flavoring).

Best of Luck!

[LexsMama]

Hi everyone

I think my youngest daughter Charlotte may be gluten intolerant. She was an average weight when she was born but has failed to thrive since she was weaned around 5 - 6 mths. She has always had really soft mushy, sometimes watery bowel motions, up to 3 a day- has never passed anything "formed or solid".

She was referred at my request to a paediatrician who ran a series of blood tests which came back negative for celiac, but did show low iron levels. She is now taking an iron supplement, even though her diet is excellent and I can`t see how she could be lacking in iron.

The paediatrician doesn`t feel that she has any type of malabsorption or intolerance problem and the dietitian has started her on calorie supplements, which I believe may indeed help her to gain weight, but won`t help the problem long term. They seem to be dealing only with her failure to thrive, but aren`t concerned with the loose bowel motions, which the peadiatrician is referring to as "toddler diarrhoea".

I`m not totally convinced and have decided for my own peace of mind, against the advice of the dietitian, to try her on a gluten free diet for a short time to see if it makes a difference.

My problem is that I have no idea where to start. How long would she need to be on it before we should see a difference? What sorts of foods will I give her? I could come up with meals for a couple of days, but would soon run out of ideas.

Sorry for the long winded post but wanted to give all the information.

Any advice will be appreciated

My 15 month old was just diiagnosed w/ celiac and. Unfortunatly it tok us a year to get to here. The only way to truly diagnose celiac deasise is through a biopsy which my son had done. Before they would do the biopsy they had to run more blood and stool tests then I can count for more diseases than I can count. Its rough to get a diagnosis but just keep fighting the dr's until you find one that will listen. We were fortunate to be referred to a very good gi dr who not only listened but wasn't willing to give up when all the different tests they were running kept coming back normal. He looked @ my sons symptoms and his continued weight loss as a problem. We tried increased calories and when that still didn't help we kept digging for answers.

[mum2 charlotte]

Hi

What were your son`s symptoms?