3 Year Old Who Is Still Isnt Gaining Weight

[katifer]

My 3 year old son has been gluten-free for almost 2 years, he was born weighing almost 9 lbs, from birth gagged, choked, reflux type reactions(also horrible diarrhea)...then got pneumonia at 10 weeks old and just continued to be sick the rest of the year his weight continued to decline...doctor gave DNA tests for celiac and had DQ2---soooo.. he has been gluten-free, DF for almost 2 years and he only weighs 25lbs, still can wear 18month clothes...and is in the 2% in both weight and height...once off gluten and dairy he rarely ever gets sick..does act hypoglysemic. Any thoughts?(was checked for 102 food allergies and nothing showed up)

[taweavmo3]

Could gluten be sneaking in through some processed foods?? I have a really sensitive little girl, and we've had to cut out alot of processed foods due to cross contamination issues. She can't eat Rice Chex, even those made her sick. There were some chicken nuggets a while back that were labeled gluten free, but some had over 2000 ppm of gluten. Things like that worry me, so we try to stick with simple whole foods as much as possible.

Are you giving him Rice Dream? Just thought I'd ask....it says gluten free but still has barley. Hmmm....other than that, I'm stumped.

Some ideas to add fat/calories....avocado, olive oil, coconut oil and coconut milk (I mix it with almond milk to boost fat content) and baking with almond meal for cookies and cakes is good too. I wish I could be of more help, hopefully others on here will have more ideas for you!

[conviviality]

Could gluten be sneaking in through some processed foods?? I have a really sensitive little girl, and we've had to cut out alot of processed foods due to cross contamination issues. She can't eat Rice Chex, even those made her sick. There were some chicken nuggets a while back that were labeled gluten free, but some had over 2000 ppm of gluten. Things like that worry me, so we try to stick with simple whole foods as much as possible.

Are you giving him Rice Dream? Just thought I'd ask....it says gluten free but still has barley. Hmmm....other than that, I'm stumped.

Some ideas to add fat/calories....avocado, olive oil, coconut oil and coconut milk (I mix it with almond milk to boost fat content) and baking with almond meal for cookies and cakes is good too. I wish I could be of more help, hopefully others on here will have more ideas for you!

So glad you mentioned Rice Dream. I am so mad at them I could scream. They say Gluten-Free on the label but will admit on the phone that they do use barley in the processing even though its not on the label. I thought this product was save and fed it to my Celiac son for over a year. When I finally got them on the phone after seeing a post on this forum, they admitted that some Celiacs may react to their product but defended themselves by saying that they are legally certified gluten-free because it is less than 20ppm. I feel that this is socially irresponsible, but anything for a buck, right?

My son is now fine with cows milk. Once I took him off the Rice Dream he improved dramatically. Finally got him potty-trained! I couldn't figure out where he was getting gluten but now it is obvious it was the Rice Dream. He was drinking so much of it. Now if he accidentally eats a gluten cracker or something (they gave him some at school) he doesn't even react. But that Rice Dream was screwing everything up. I was about to go crazy. I couldn't figure it out. Thank goodness for the internet. I don't know where we all would be without this kind of resource!!!!

[taweavmo3]

What really ticks me off about Rice Dream, is that before their new boxes were labeled gluten free, they had the barley malt listed. It was in very small print, but at least Celiacs could make the choice to ingest the .002% of barley malt or not. Once they could claim "gluten free", the barley malt information dissapeared. They purposely witheld information in order to deceive the consumer into believing the barley malt was no longer a part of the new "gluten free" formula.

We fell for it too, I went for months trying to figure out what was wrong with my dd. Then recently after Rice Chex made my dd sick (not right away, it took a few weeks), I just quit doing most processed foods altogether. I trust Kraft, and the small companies that are specifically for Celiacs, but that's truly it. I know the food giants are all about money, gluten free is trendy right now and everyone is hopping on board. Some people can eat these foods no problem, and it's great for them, but it doesn't work for everyone.

Sorry for the ramble, it's been a frustrating year trying to get my dd healthy and growing again!

[taweavmo3]

One more thing I thought of....do you give him soy milk? I used to give that to my kids too, but it was hindering their weight gain. Many kids who can not tolerate dairy also can not tolerate soy. Hope you get some help, good luck!

[katifer]

Thank you so much:)- We do not drink Rice Dream because it made him sick (barley!), we use Rice Milk from Trader Joes that has no barley in it. We do use coconut oil, etc. He cant really have Rice CHex, i thought it was the sugar that made him sick with those but i guess it is trace amounts of gluten? anyways i will keep at it- ---borrowing more gluten-free/CF cookbooks from the library tomorrow:)-thanks again!

[amysmom]

I am new to the gluten free diet, 8 months now, but I was wondering if maybe it had anything to do with vitamins. My dietician, I met with her at my daughter's first diagnosis and knew more about the gluten free diet than she did, but she did tell me that it is very important to make sure my daughter gets her vitamins. One because at the beginning she has malabsorption issues and later because of the change in diet a lot of foods that are fortified with vitamins are restricted. With a young child, a picky diet or both can add to these problems. Good Luck I wish you the best because I know this is so frustrating.

[Pattymom]

I also have a tiny one whose weight gain stayed slow even after going gluten and diary free-she just hit 30lbs at 5 years. She is free of painful symptoms now, and is growing along her own curve (about the -1% or so) but her growth is parallel to the curve rather than dropping or a straight line as it was before. So her growth rate velocity is fixed, but she didn't really have catch up growth. The endocrinologist is happy with the normal rate and is only following her every 6 months or so now. Hopefully catch up growth will come later. How is your son's growth rate? The MD are good with this now b/c she is symptom free and growing at a healty rate--it is hard sometimes that she is so tiny, but tiny and healthy is better than tiny and sick. The vitamin supplements do seem important, also extra zinc.

Good luck, and know that you aren't alone.

Patty

[nasalady]

My 3 year old son has been gluten-free for almost 2 years, he was born weighing almost 9 lbs, from birth gagged, choked, reflux type reactions(also horrible diarrhea)...then got pneumonia at 10 weeks old and just continued to be sick the rest of the year his weight continued to decline...doctor gave DNA tests for celiac and had DQ2---soooo.. he has been gluten-free, DF for almost 2 years and he only weighs 25lbs, still can wear 18month clothes...and is in the 2% in both weight and height...once off gluten and dairy he rarely ever gets sick..does act hypoglysemic. Any thoughts?(was checked for 102 food allergies and nothing showed up)

My Emma is the same, except she has only been gluten free since January. She is 3 years old and only weighs 22 pounds. I have had the entire house on the gluten free diet since January since all 4 of us turned out to be either celiac or gluten intolerant.

But I'm slowly beginning to eliminate ALL grains from our diet, along with sugar, refined food in general, etc....sort of along the lines of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or the Paleo diet. I have a feeling that it's not just gluten that bothers us, since my husband and I both still have GI symptoms after eating homemade gluten free bread, or eating rice or corn. I truly think we will have to get serious here about eating healthy....just stick to natural, hunter-gatherer foods, like meat, fish, chicken, eggs, nuts, vegetables and fruits in moderation.

For more info, please see my reply on the following thread:

https://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.php?showtopic=61837

Good luck!

JoAnn

[OptimisticMom42]

I have a son who I suspect is just as celiac'ed as the rest of the family. He's 17yrs old now and has always had hypoglycemia. We recently tried him on L-glutamine. It comes in grape chewables. It's suppose to help stabilize sugar, build muscle and prevent the loss of what muscle you already have. He like it and commented that it seemed to help him work longer without feeling sore. A dose was 10 chewables so it would be easy to break this down into a kid size dose.

Hope this helps

RA

[tarnalberry]

if he's got hypoglycemic symptoms, he may not be eating enough. my experience with my hypoglycemia is that I start feeling nauseous, NOT hungry, even though my body actually needs food. so, I don't really have any interest in eating, but I intellectually know I have to. he may not be there yet, and is just listening to the cues from his body. do you know how many calories a day he's getting?

(of course, he may well have other food issues - my neighbor's daughter turned out not to have celiac, but a soy intolerance that kept her from gaining weight.)