One Week Gluten Free...

[lizbeth93099]

Hi, I am new to these forums (reading for a while, but first post) and new to gluten free. My daughter, 9, has had several issues for years-unexplained stomach pain, diarrhea, heartburn, eczema, dry cracking bleeding fingertips, but her most difficult issue has been severe anxiety and panic attacks.

I mentioned celiac to her doctor about 2 years ago after doing some research myself. Her sister has a peanut allergy and my husband has an unspecified IBS, so I knew food allergies run in the family. The doctor never really gave it a second thought. So, as we tend to do, I just tucked it away thinking the doctor knows best.

My daughter has been in therapy for her anxiety since she was 6. It's hard seeing your children face unreal and irrational fears that cripple them. We went to the doctor again in July and I talked to the doctor again. I told her, "It may be wishful thinking as a mom that there can be a quick fix for her anxiety, that I can cut out some food and see her get better, but I'd like to know." She agreed to an allergy testing and we did the blood test. Sure enough she came back with a peak to wheat. The doctors response was that it wasn't enough to cause her any concern, just don't feed her any whole wheat bread. That really didn't make any sense to me at all.

We talked to her therapist and he said that we should definitely give gluten free a try, that he believed food did affect so much.

We started last week. It's been difficult because she feels like she is being deprived. For the past few days she has been complaining about headaches and saying that her stomach feels weird and hurts at times. I'm guessing that could be her body withdrawing from the gluten?

If you have managed to stay with this long intro, thank you. I'm hoping to learn a lot from others and gain strength when needed...and maybe eventually be able to help others too.

[missy'smom]

There are many of us here who suffer from anxiety, whether due to gluten or not, so I feel your pain(for both of you). My son also tested pos. to wheat in allergy testing(both blood and skin) and the docs dismissed it. It was a difficult decision and a process of testing the waters out but we found that gluten did affect him and then took him gluten-free. He has eczema that goes away when all gluten is removed from his diet and comes back when it is re-introduced. He'll never get a formal celiac disease DX with the symptoms that he has and even with clear reaction to wheat/gluten the docs don't agree with my decision. As a mom you have to do what you think best. If there are any things that she misses, maybe we can help point you to some alternatives. Sometimes we have a hard time digesting the new flours/grains and other things at the beginning when our bodies are still healing so that could account for some digestive discomfort.

[lizbeth93099]

Thank you for your reply.

I made her a homemade gluten free bread-which is pretty tasty if I do say so myself. It's from Bette Hagaman's book, "The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread." I picked up a copy at the library. For some reason my daughter won't eat it. In fact for some reason, she is barely eating anything at all. Breakfast is a struggle, lunch is minimal and dinner is the only meal she eats and then, not to much. I'm almost ready to call the doctor again, because she is eating so little. School has just started and any change causes more anxiety...probably a bad time to start a new way of eating, but it just happened that way. I'm hoping that in a couple weeks (maybe sooner) we will see some positive changes.

Thanks again for your reply.

[chiroptera]

Hello. This is a great place to get help and suuport and many really good ideas on how to manage eating gluten free. In a nutshell, about 2 years ago my twin daughters started to have really really bad digestive issues (one mainly severe pain and diarrahea, all the time and the other GERD). One started getting bad migraines, both were diagnosed with asthma and all of a sudden seemed to have seasonal allergies. Nothing sounded "right" and I, like you, just knew something was wrong and wasn't getting enough help from our doctor. I put two and two together and thought maybe they were gluten intolerant/celiac, as their paternal grandmother has been officially diagnosed with the disease. Long story short, the last day they had gluten was June 10 and they are like two different little girls. I started their brother on gluten-free in August as well, although he didn't show any digestive issues, but you know a problem with gluten can manifest many ways.

Yes, it is not easy!! I waited until the end of the school year when they would be home with me all day because I thought it would be simplier. What we have done as a family is focus on more whole foods (I had already eliminated MSG and most processed stuff in the spring anyhow). But I think most importantly is I have tried really hard to make fun substitutions for their favorite foods, like pizza. I try to bake their favorite desserts, just make them gluten free (well now they are off dairy and egg to but that's another story). I try so hard to focus on what they can have, not what they can't. They like to be given choices about what to eat, especially what I pack in their lunch. They really want to make sure they like their lunch that they eat at school. They were excited about a gluten free trail mix I put together. I actually have added some amounts of mainstream treats I would have never bought before, like scittles, because they are gluten free and they were so happy to have a real treat. We try to make it fun, all this label reading and such. Their maternal grandma has been a huge help as well, helping us all along the way. Maybe just try to focus on the part of trying new foods instead of oh no we can't eat that.

And about the anxiety, one of my girls was full of anxiety and I feel she calmed down while off gluten. But then on a weekend trip she ate gluten (chicken nuggets) and oh my goodness, she flipped out. Her sister will not touch gluten at all btw. She knows it makes her sick.

Try to hang in there; it is so true; mothers really do know best!!!!