Behavioral Effects - How Do You Cope?

[crimsonviolet]

We ate at Chick-fil-a yesterday as a treat for my little guy's birthday. We've had CFA a few times and had really good luck with ordering grilled nuggets for the kids with no ill effects. But yesterday a couple hours after lunch both DH and older DS had tummy troubles, and today DS's behavior has been really off the charts.

If your child has behavioral issues from gluten exposure, what do you do to cope while they're "under the influence"? I know he really truly can't control his behavior, but it affects the entire family negatively and I just don't know how to keep it from making us all crazy until it passes through his system.

[dilettantesteph]

What happens to us is that I am usually as glutened as my son and we go crazy on each other. I don't recommend that though. LOL Try teaching him some techniques to help cope. It took me most of my life to get diagnosed. I had years of behavior problems and did learn to cope somewhat. There are things like counting to ten, going to your room etc. As he learns this one, do leave him alone in there. He needs to learn these coping strategies because he will have to deal with glutening the rest of his life. I try to tell myself that what people are doing isn't as bad as it seems, it is because I am irritable because I am glutened. It will all seem better when I am no longer glutened.

[crimsonviolet]

That makes sense - I probably got glutened, too and as a result I may be overreacting to some of DS's behavior. Today was another bad day. He's being very "intense" - he literally cannot be more than a few feet away from either me or DH and needs one of us to be paying attention exclusively to him at all times. He follows us around, even to the bathroom, constantly talking, moving, bouncing, jumping on/off the furniture, freaking out over every little thing, and being very aggressive. I had to leave the house for a bit to get a break from it. I think DH will take his turn when I get back. lol

I just want this gluten out of his system so I can have my sweet boy back.

[dilettantesteph]

Sorry to tell you this, but some of that behavior is normal even for a not glutened kid. Annoying, yes, but normal. (For short periods, due to some source of stress.) That is, unless just about every kid I've been in a playgroup with had undiagnosed celiac. LOL Being glutened yourself makes it much harder to deal with.