New Here

[Katrinamm]

My daughter was just diagnosed with celiac disease and has been gluten-free for almost a month now. Her 6th birthday is Thursday. She was adopted at birth and is the only one in our family that has to be gluten-free. We have decided at the house we are going to be completely gluten-free as not to risk contamination and I can't bear to eat something here she can't. She is in full day Kindergarten and I send all of her meals and snacks. Her school has been really great about getting rid of all craft things that have gluten and making sure her area is gluten-free at snack time and meal time. I bought gluten-free play dough for the whole class so we didn't have to worry about anything there.

I go back and forth between thinking everything is fine and we can do this and then crying when I think of everything that will have to be changed for her for the rest of her life.

This all started out because she was throwing up after every meal since school started. We took her to our local Dr. and he ran every test he could think of and said he couldn't find anything wrong. I finally found a pediatric gastro in another state that we could get her into ASAP and they did a EGD and bloodwork and said it was celiac. The bad thing is even though she is gluten-free she is still throwing up after every meal. I really don't think the two are related but don't know what to do.

Sorry - I know I am rambling and doing really know if I have a question here. I just need someone to talk to. I live in a small town and had never heard of celiac disease until we found out she had it.

[luvthelake21]

I just wanted to say welcome. My daughter was 10 when we found out and had the same symptons as your daughter. She is now 13 and does not have any problems now. I hope she gets better.

[Mom of a Celiac toddler]

I too live in a small town making it difficult to get support locally! You have found the right place! From what I hear a month isn't that long to see results after so many years of damage. Have you started keeping a food log? You could then begin to eliminate one product at a time for several days to see how she does. It may also be psychological (unconsciously obviously) because her body is just so used to throwing up! I don't know, just throwing it out there!

Good luck and check back as questions come up and to let us know how she is doing!

My daughter was just diagnosed with celiac disease and has been gluten-free for almost a month now. Her 6th birthday is Thursday. She was adopted at birth and is the only one in our family that has to be gluten-free. We have decided at the house we are going to be completely gluten-free as not to risk contamination and I can't bear to eat something here she can't. She is in full day Kindergarten and I send all of her meals and snacks. Her school has been really great about getting rid of all craft things that have gluten and making sure her area is gluten-free at snack time and meal time. I bought gluten-free play dough for the whole class so we didn't have to worry about anything there.

I go back and forth between thinking everything is fine and we can do this and then crying when I think of everything that will have to be changed for her for the rest of her life.

This all started out because she was throwing up after every meal since school started. We took her to our local Dr. and he ran every test he could think of and said he couldn't find anything wrong. I finally found a pediatric gastro in another state that we could get her into ASAP and they did a EGD and bloodwork and said it was celiac. The bad thing is even though she is gluten-free she is still throwing up after every meal. I really don't think the two are related but don't know what to do.

Sorry - I know I am rambling and doing really know if I have a question here. I just need someone to talk to. I live in a small town and had never heard of celiac disease until we found out she had it.

[Wolicki]

My 9 year old son is Celiac. We are 100% gluten-free in the house because I have Celiac as well. I suspect my 12 yr old has it because of vitamin deficiencies. My 9 yr was vomiting also. I took out dairy for him for the first month and it helped dramatically. I realize it's hard to limit a young child's diet, but it pays off when you have a healthy child.

She probably has some significant intestinal damage, which will heal in time. The challenge is that many foods are difficult to digest while healing. Don't sub in processed replacement gluten foods like gluten-free bread, cookies, etc. They are highly processed. Stick to a clean whole diet. Lean protein, fruits and veg, and try to stay away from the main allergens: corn, soy, nuts, dairy, eggs and obviously gluten.

Perhaps you can try giving her 6 small meals during the day, so she is grazing. Since she has not been able to keep food down, starting slowly may help.

Once she has healed, she won't have to do without. There are many fine gluten-free products, and you can learn to bake. I used to hate to bake, now I get some satisfaction from it because it makes my little boy happy.

We're all here to help you through

Be well

Janie

[Lisa]

Dairy can give someone with Celiac, similar symptoms due to absorbtion/villi issues. I would suggest eliminating all dairy for several weeks until some healing can take place.

(EDIT - Great minds Janie )

[Katrinamm]

thanks for the suggestions. Of course she loves Dairy. We will both be home for 2 weeks over Christmas break so hopefully we can get some things regulated then. Would Silk soy milk still be considered dairy? Sorry, I am so new to all of this. We have always just ate what we want when we wanted to.

[chiroptera]

Soy milk isn't dairy. There is also rice milk, almond milk and even coconut milk. The other thing I did want to mention is that sometimes people who can't eat gluten are also casein intolerant. That is different than "just" dairy intolerant. Dairy (or lactose) intolerant refers to one part of the dairy, casein refers to the milk protein in dairy. So, even soy and rice cheese has casein.

Yes, it is very very confusing at first! Maybe the two weeks she is home, you could just take her off dairy (and try things like soy milk/yogurt, etc) and see if that helps. If not, she may also be casein intolerant (my twin daughters are as well as gluten intolerant/celiac).

I had to learn all of this myself too. This is a GREAT place to learn and to get help

Also, while I totally agree about limiting the gluen free processed foods, I found that with my kids, I did have to balance that with them wanting to eat treats like everyone else. It's one thing for an adult to just eat the basics, but for children, you don't want them to feel deprived. And if you go with the goodies marked gluten free on the box you should be fine. All kids like a cookie in their lunch, kwim?

Good luck! Btw, one of my twin daughters was vomiting constantly right before we took her off gluten. It did take a few months for her to not feel like she was going to throw up. Sometimes it does take time but the good news is children usually heal much faster than adults.

Happy Holidays!!!