Type 1diabetes And Possible Celiac

[Cazo]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and would love some advice about my daughter please.

She is 11 years old and is having some new health issues. I'll give a brief history.

As a baby she reacted badly to formula and we put her on soya formula. She still drinks soy milk. She was tested as a toddler for milk allergies which came back positive and later she out grew, (according to the docs).

Anyway at 19 months old she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Since then we have suffered from skin rashes and chronic constipation among other things. We had blood work done to test for celiacs which came back negative and therefore her doc says she is fine. However her dietician says that she could still be sensitive to wheat and it is quite common with type 1's. Now we have some new health issues arising. Very sore shoulder muscles that are very tight, reoccuring swollen lymph nodes in neck, skin rashes, bloating, constipation,bad gas,reoccuring cough, sore joints and fatigue. The doctor does not think arthritis but who knows often autoimmune disease travel in packs.

So heres my questions,

1, she is growing fine so can you have celiacs and still grow and thrive?

2, how can I get her to change over to gluten free products? We have been trying but she is such a picky eater and because of her diabetes she has to eat something.

Any ideas would be greatly appriciated. Thank you.

[missy'smom]

I hope that this article will be helpful.

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It sound like she really needs to be off gluten and dairy.

If you are going to make dietary changes anyway, I suggest that you investigate a low carbohydrate diet and stick with simple fresh foods as much as possible. In the end it will make her diabetes more managable, she may need less insulin and it will help with her possible food allergies as well. I find that I feel so much better on so many levels with this kind of diet. There are T1 kids out there who follow this kind of program so there are resources and support available if you are interested.

As for the dairy, I had the same experience from infancy on. I still test neg. but so clearly have troubles so limit my comsumption to small quantities that don't bother me. I've done some dietary experiments since my diabetes DX and too much, the wrong kind, too often has caused significant increases in my blood sugar. Now that I know that I stay clear.

My son(10) does not have diabetes but here are some things that I pack for him that are low carb and diabetes safe. All his lunches are packed in the am, a small icey added in and eaten room temp. Lunchinabox.net is a good resource for packed lunches. You can pull out things/ideas that will work with your restrictions. Knowing a few garnishing/cutting and presentation tricks can make the same old standbys fresh and fun.

hot dogs(check for sugars-I use Hebrew National or Boar's Head, both are gluten-free and low/no sugar and carbs) can be easily cut into octopus and carp(fish) and flower shapes(Lunchinabox has tutorials on how to do this) they can be cut in batches ahead of time, frozen, and pan fried in the a.m.)

chicken sausages(check for sugars)-we us the ones in Whole Foods meat counter

broiled salmon-I like some kind of seasoning/mustard glaze but kiddo likes just salt and pepper

steamed califlower and broccoli-briefly steamed or boiled and shocked in ice water to preserve color and crispness, then drained well on paper towels

thin "crepes" made with egg-can be wrapped around things or rolled up

one egg omlettes

boiled quail eggs are kid sized- can be found in cans in the asian markets

hard boiled eggs can be cut like flowers or a laughing face

ham(if the sugars are not a problem) can be wrapped/rolled around steamed asparagus spears-I cut the spears to fit the ham and place 3 pieces of asp. on it and roll up

mini cheeseburger patties-I make the patties ahead of time and freeze uncooked and gently defrost in the microwave in the am and pan fry, placing a piece of cheese on top after flipping-you can cut the cheese with small cookie cutters, like a star so that there is a star on the burger

roasted chicken cut in slices or cubes also works well-you may be able to make kebabs by skewering the chunks of chicken and alternating with something else-you can buy cute skewers around the various holiday times at grocery stores, Walmart. Target

I'll probably have more thoughts to share later. Gotta get my lunch!

[kaiess]

My son has had Type 1 for 5 years and we are just waiting for his biopsy results for Celiac today. He has no symptoms of Celiac that we can see other than explosive bathroom visits (to put it nicely). But...he has had this as long as we can remember. His is growing completely fine and the only reason it was caught was b/c our endo screens all the type 1 kids. His TTG came back elevated last year and he then had a negative scope. The TTG was retested and it was double what it was before. We waited another 6 months and it was once again way higher. They scoped him again last week and discovered a small inflamed red area which they figure is the start of Celiac destruction. As for what to eat that is a tough one. My son, 9 is extremely picky too. We've replaced our pasta with rice pasta. We'll eat lots of fruits and veggies and dip (just make sure the dip is gluten-free). Yogurts are popular here too, rice crackers for snacks, Rice Works brand rice chips (not sure if available in the US though...it is in Canada), plain minute rice with a gluten-free soy sauce (b/c he's picky), rice with Indian Butter Chicken sauce, mashed potatoes, salads, gluten-free pizza crusts with pizza sauce and cheese, corn tortillas with chicken and cheese. For lunches, we haven't really figured this one out yet b/c he won't eat gluten-free bread yet and our usual Alphaghetti, chicken noodle soup are out now. We did find single serve Minute Rice cups that are ready to serve, you just have to heat them. Campbell's Chicken Rice soup is gluten-free so that is also an option, although not as loved as chicken noodle soup.

I hope you find out what is causing all the symptoms. Good luck

Kathy

[missy'smom]

A few more thoughts.

The Paleo Diet may be a good resource and tends to be free/low in of the things that bother people like your daughter and I and many others-dairy, gluten, grains, refined carbs.

Those arthritic symptoms could very well be from gluten, I would be willing to bet on it. I used to have the same problems for years. No more. Fatigue as well. And the dietician is wrong. If there is any sensitivity, it is to gluten not wheat. If it was wheat alone, it would have to be an allergy. All of the symptoms you mentioned are associated with gluten/celiac disease.

The pickiness could be because so many things bother her. I was always accused of that but in fact I like quite a variety but with multiple ingredients in every dish and so many things that irritate my system, no wonder. I am just now as an adult starting to understand it all. Now that I eat plain simple foods I feel so much better and can see what bothers me. She may come around when her diet gets cleaned up and she starts to feel better. Introduce new things from time to time and if they aren't accepted at first, keep bringing it around. It takes several time to get used to all the aspects of a new food-color, taste, texture. Make sure it is available to the family as well. Just seeing it around often makes it more familiar and accessible. Getting her involved in the food tasks may help too. My son wouldn't eat tomatoes and still won't but we started growing cherry tomatoes at home and now those are the only ones he'll eat. He also has chosen to go bunless with his hot dogs and hamburgers because he would rather go without than eat gluten-free ones that don't taste that good to him. You can also wrap sandwich fillings, burgers, dogs in a lettuce leaf with all the fixins.

All the best to you.

[Cazo]

Thank you for your replies to my post. We are both sitting here looking through our gluten free cook books for baking ideas. I think she has chosen about 10 receips so far. I really am glad that she wants to help me figure this out. She is a bread and pasta kid, which is not great for her blood sugars anyway. I think it would be good for me to go gluten free also as I have had some similar health issues to her. Besides might help me lose some weight.

Thanks again for you lunch ideas. It's so hard packing lunches.

[missy'smom]

If you are interested in more ideas for lunches that are gluten-free, you can click on my profile to see a link to a place where I post photos of our packed lunches.

The earlier we get our kids involved in their dietary management the better I think and yours and mine are at an age where they can do and learn quite a bit.

You may very well feel better going gluten-free. I hope so!

[Cazo]

WOW!! those lunch ideas look amazing. Thanks.

Well we just finished making chocolate chip cookies and she loves them. Yay!!!

Making gluten-free pizza for dinner with soya cheese and salad hope this goes as well as the cookies. I'll let you know.

[missy'smom]

That's great that you had a positive, successful experience! If you are not using a mix already and are using a from scratch recipe, you can mix up the dry ingredients ahead of time and put them in baggies and write the rest of the ingredients on the bag with a permanent marking pen-with amounts and baking temp. Then you can have a bunch of your own homemade mixes on hand ready to go. Reuse the same baggies next time.

I baked pizzas for kiddo for camp last week and froze an extra one for this week. My crust recipe for one small pizza fits really well into 2 smaller pie pans that I inherited from grandma-just the right size for deep dish personal pizzas and just the right size to fit into lunch containers. BTW the Vegan Gourmet cheese is good IMHO.