Gluten Free Birthday

[momof2]

My daughter had her 2nd birthday party, the 1st since being diagnosed 10 months ago. We put on an art party for her, full of painting and arts and crafts. The hit of the party was the dessert though. The kids each got to make an ice cream sundae with toppings such as chocolate chips, sprinkles, m & m's, chocolate syrup, etc. It was a huge hit, and I felt so good knowing that everyone was eating the same dessert and loving every bite of it. We put a candle on her sundae, and she was on cloud nine! My 4 year old, non-Celiac daughter wants to do ice cream instead of cake for her birthday now.

[Boojca]

Having attended about a dozen birthday parties in the last year (my son was diagnosed last June 3...hard to believe it's been almost a whole year...) I can honestly, without hesitation, say that I now believe that cake is a waste of time for birthdays. I have killed myself a dozen times to be sure my son has a GREAT cupcake to eat at these parties, and each time he takes two bites (of the frosting) and eats all the ice cream and leaves the cake. And I started looking around the table, and realize almost all the kids do the same thing! No more cakes at our birthday parties, why waste my time?? I'll do sundaes too...they love it, they actually eat it, and it's gluten-free!!!

Bridget

[jenvan]

Good for you Christi! I can only imagine how hard it must be feeding and regulating food for a Celiac child. A few years before being diagnosed I got tired of that sick feeing I got from cake, so we switched to root beer floats or sundaes too. Yummy !

[sara78]

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself. I am new to the board. I am not sure where to post my introduction so I chose here, because my 3 year old has Celiac and since we are discussing little ones here. I thought this was a great place to start. My son has been diagnoised since March of 2004 after 6months of constant vomiting and no growth a wonderful peditrician finally discovered what was wrong after many many tests. My son now sees the best Pediatric GI Specialist. We went through the scoping and praise God he only had a small amount of damage. He is doing much better now. We have no one in our familys that have or have ever heard of Celiac. I also have a one year old that has not started showing any symptoms. I guess at this point my biggest concern has been my sons eating. I had hoped that once we went Gluten Free that he would start eating again like crazy, but even after a year he still picks a food, somedays doesn't eat at all then other days he pigs out. I am not sure if that is normal or not, but he looks and feels better so at this point I am just happy to have my baby feeling better again. It has been an emotional rollercoaster as I am sure you have all experienced. I still strugle with guilt that my son is dealing with this, but I keep faith and we work through it each day. It is getting much easier. I love to read the posts and to know that I am not alone in this.

Thank you all for being here. God Bless you!

Stay Gluten Free!

Love, Sara and Celiac Son Mason

[Guest taweavmo3]

Yayyyy! That is a great idea......I think we'll try that one next year. That is so true about kids not eating the cake. At my oldest son's 6th birthday party, every single plate still had the cake left on it. The only part they actually ate was the frosting. So, cake for birthdays is way over rated! I had a quick question for ya too....you said your daughter tested positive 10 months ago? What symptoms did she have at that age that made them test her for it? I only ask because I think my 13 month old also has celiac. He is showing symptoms earlier and more severe than my daughter did, so I want to get him tested sooner rather than later. But everything I've heard says you really have to wait until at least 18 months. I may end up not doing the test at all, but there are some positives to actually having a diagnosis.

Oh, and welcome Sara! I am new to the board too, we've only been gluten free for two months. I have a 3 year old little girl, who has done a complete turn around on the diet. She still has some developmental delays and speech delays, but I'm hoping now that her physical growth has started to take off, that her brain will start to catch up too. As far as pickiness goes, Emmie does the same thing. Some days she seems to never get enough, then some days she'll just graze all day. I figure it all evens out in the end!

[momof2]

My daughter started showing symptoms at 12 months old, and at 14 months old, she had a blood test that had very high numbers. Her pediatrician was so convinced by the numbers, that she assumed the GI Doc would say no to a biopsy. We ended up getting the biopsy done, 2 weeks after the blood test, and it proved the findings. If we would have waited until 18 months old, she would have withered away to nothing. She started having diarhea diapers continuously, and so much, that we had to stop going places. Her arms and legs looked like sticks, and she had a huge belly. She became very clingy, and took 4 naps a day. She always wanted in her crib. She was a late crawler, and didn't start walking until 2 months after going gluten free! It definetely affected her development. I assume if your son is showing signs of celiac disease, then it wouldn't be too early. It wasn't for my daughter.

About eating: My Abbey is the same way! One day she will love her spaghetti with corn pasta, the next day, she will turn her nose up at it. She is so unpredictable, I always have a load of snacky foods around the house, and I agree...it all evens out! She is happy and growing, so she must be getting nutrients from somewhere.

[sara78]

My son development picked back up big time after going gluten free. He was diagnoised a few months after his 2nd birthday. He had no growth, energy, vomiting, slow to learn, but it is amazing the diffrence just in a year. He learns so quickly now, and lots and lots of energy. I am glad to hear other little ones are picky eaters too. That has worried me so much. I just thought he should be eating like crazy by now. Then I worry he may still be getting gluten somewhere. I give him a muliti vitamin everyday, but I just try to judge by how he looks, acts and his development.

I am so happy to be here chatting with you all.

Love, Sara and Mason

Celiac since March 04

[debbie-doodles]

Sara, you are not alone. My daughter is 2 and a half and was just diagnosed at the end of April. She used to eat so well and liked everything and always ate. But then she'd get sick and throw up or have diahrea. Now she is gluten-free for about 3 or 4 weeks and she just doesn't want to eat. I'm not sure if she is afraid of food, or if she just doesn't want to eat any more. Whatever the reason, she just picks at things and only eats a few bites. She hates all the new gluten-free food I've been buying her to try. What a waste of money. But I know that she is feeling better and that's all that matters I guess.

[Emme999]

I just want you guys to know that you are *awesome* !!!

I don't have any children - but I have a mom And when she did something special for me for my birthday (even though it was my 32nd birthday!) it meant the world to me

It was *before* I was diagnosed with Celiac - but had just learned that I am severely allergic to eggs & dairy. She used a milk-free, egg-free cookbook to make me a very dense cake - but I loved it more than any other cake because of all the extra effort she put into it.

I hope that you realize what wonderful moms you are to take such special care of your little people!

- Michelle

p.s. Next year I'll remember the ice cream deal But I'll have dairy-free, gluten-free sorbet!

[momof2]

Oh Michelle! You made me get teary eyes! Thanks!

[fatherof4yearold]

Debbie,

We went through the same thing, my son eat nothing once we switched him to gluten free, we bought gluten-free cookies, Flour, snack bars, pasta, bread, crackers, pretzles eveything and he ate none of it.

He was living on hotdogs and french fries! But as our nutristionist told us it takes 10 to 12 times to get a taste for certain foods. We are into this since Oct 2004, and we really started making strides in February.

Plus it took time to find products he liked. He still is a very slow eater painfully slow, 45 minutes to an hour to eat a meal.

But the diarehha stopped and he has thrown up once since Oct and that was because he was actually sick.

Stick with it they come around eventually, we tried all this new stuff which he refused to eat so we gave him stuff we knew he would eat and slowly worked the other stuff in.

Start with the Van's waffles I think they taste great and so does my son, plus anything with butter and syrup on it has to taste good!

He eats the rice crackers with peanut butter on them, we make corn tortilla pizzas, we bake his bread and if you toast gluten free bread it taste a lot better, makes great toasted cheese sandwiches.

The flours have a distinct taste that take some getting used to we found if we can mask the taste we are more successful

Good luck!

[debbie-doodles]

Thanks so much for the advice. I have purchased the Vans waffles, but she wont eat those either.

Its not just the gluten-free things that she won't eat. She just isn't eating, period. She won't eat normal foods that she used to chow down. Its like all of a sudden she has zero appetite. She doesn't ever even act hungry or ask to eat. Its very strange, but we figure her little tummy is going through a lot and we will just try to go with the flow here.

I will keep trying things and hopefully soon we will have a breakthrough. haha

[connole1056]

Often times, toddlers graze rather than eating complete meals. Eating 6 small meals per day is actually better than 3 large. My daughter was 4 in January and wears a size 2T. She is perfectly healthy though(her sister is the celiac). Because of rude comments about her size, I did question whether or not she was eating enough. When I really looked at her eating habits I realized she was getting alot more than I had realized. So my advice is to look at everything your child is eating. And be sure to do it over a few days. Everything I have read says to monitor the food intake this way, as with toddlers one must look at their intake over a week not a day. Just remember toddlers are notoriously picky eaters! I bet any mother of a toddler will tell you the same thing.

Also, I had my daughter tested as an infant. Our doctor thought it was important to get her tested as soon as she was born to be certain we knew whether or not she was a celiac since her sister was. There is no way I would wait until 18 months and risk harming her. Did you ask your pedi and GI about this?

As far as the parties are concerned, if the kids are happy with ice cream only parties then give it to them!! It's their parties, they might as well choose the themes and foods!!!

[debbie-doodles]

I didn't realize that you could have positive results when the child was so young. My daughter was tested at one year and at 18 months because she was so sick all the time. Plus we had other tests (blood tests and others) done even before that. Everything came back that she was just fine. her latest biopsy just came back positive. I would have put my daughter on gluten-free diet long before this, but the tests kept coming back negative and my doctor said you can't get reliable results before they are 2. i guess he was wrong?

[connole1056]

I am not a doctor, but I do not think the results have anything to do with age. Is the doctor to whom you are referring a pedi GI? I do not know if that makes a difference, but maybe it does. I just do not see why two pedi GI's would have different information. This is why people get second opinions! I would think specialists would have the same, current information. I can see if it were a specialist vs. a non-specialist, but can the specialists please get it straight? It is scary. But it must be horrible for you and I feel for you and your family. If you are near RI though, try Hasbro Children's Hospital. And if you are far away, maybe you could call and speak to someone in the Pedi GI clinic and ask for a referral.

Also, think about the issue of taste. No matter what anyone says gluten-free food is nowhere near as good as regular food. So, it could be a problem of not liking the food. My daughter dismissed most gluten-free food because she liked her regular food better. In the beginning she wanted only the food she'd eaten before that we found out was gluten-free. Does your girl eat any fresh meat or vegetables she ate before the transition? As one of the fathers mentioned, it can take many times of trying to get used to a new food. I think that with gluten-free food it is even different because the tastes,textures and consistency are so different. I know some people do not like when others say "regular" or "real" food, so I hope no one gets upset. My daughter does not have a problem with it so that is what I say.

[connole1056]

I think it should be mentioned to those who want cake at a gluten-free party that ice cream cakes are generally well received by children and adults. This way a cake and candles are presented to the Happy Birthday song, the child gets to blow out candles on a cake, and even attempt to slice the cake (It usually needs to be left out for an hour before cutting, but it does stay frozen.). My daughter is happy to have a cupcake and serve her guests cake, but I can understand why this might upset younger birthday children. I know that Carvel cakes without the crunch filling were gluten-free a few years ago. I have not checked lately because, as stated, my daughter does not mind a gluten-free cupcake at her parties. But anyone interested could certainly call. I did want to put this out there for anyone who had a child who did not go for that cool sundae idea or the separate cupcake idea and really wanted a cake. Whatever your child chooses I hope he enjoys it!

[brdbntL]

This is another idea for kids that must have a cake. Try a Boston Creme Pie. The cake is thin enough that you can't really tell that it is gluten-free and at least my daughter loved the pudding in the middle and the fact that I melted frosting and put it on the top. It is pretty easy too if you use Jello instant pudding (make it like you would make for a pie) We used sugar free vanilla. I made it for my mother-in-law, but my 4 year old asked if we could have it for her birthday in August.