She Keeps Sneaking :(

[BeHappy]

My daughter has been doing so well over the past few months...now for the passed three days she has been sneaking gluten any chance she got In a way this is worse than a strong peanut allergy bc she doesn't feel a difference until much later! Poor kid I feel terrible for her!

[kareng]

I don't know how old she is so that may make a difference. Maybe you should not have stuff in your house that are hard for her to resist. I know there were a couple of things we just didn't have in the house when I first went gluten-free so I wasn't tempted or feel sad. To this day we don't have big bags of gluten pretzells only small individual bags. The boys think that is to not tempt me but., now, it's to keep them from eating so many pretzels at once.

[Takala]

Time to get her stocked up on the gluten free special treats.

[Darn210]

How old is she? . . . I think advice on strategies to help her stick to the diet will depend on her age.

[missy'smom]

My son is now 12. We had this problem for a while with a few different things. With all of his allergies/food issues he doesn't notice much in the way of symptoms but everyone around can see the difference that managing the total sum makes, so we're motivated but he's not so. I sat down with him a few times and asked what it was that he felt like he was missing, sometimes it was the food itself and sometimes it was a social issue. For church, I started making a bringing something to share that he could eat, nearly every Sunday for the tea time. A bit of a burden for me but it's important right now for him on a social emotional level. I get that. For school lunches we had ongoing conversations about what was peer approved fare and have worked out a rotation of meals. We tend to eat differently from others anyway because my husband is asian but that kind of stuff is not cool Heck, He got teased for having his mama cut his orange into wedges. That's not cool either, because most of the kids at his school eat cafeteria lunch and are given whole oranges. We've had conversations about standing up to peer pressure too and what is reasonable and what's not. Elementary school was easier on the school lunch front. Maintream package stuff that's gluten-free is important to him too, those widely recognized labels. At home,I have to remind DH that it's just not right to bring certain foods home or set them on the dinner table. He's allowed his gluteny stuff but a huge, doughy pizza is just torture. Saturday we were at someone's home and they were preparing pizza-the kids helping with it, for the group's lunch so when we left(before the meal), we took DS out to the local pizza place where they serve gluten-free pizza. I knew it was just hard for him to watch that. We didn't know ahead of time and couldn't prepare. With everything I strive for balance. He knows I can't cater to his every wish and that sometimes we just have to eat a meal to fuel our bodies. That's part of life, food allergies or not. Hope that helps.

[BeHappy]

She is only three. She has a ton of gluten-free snacks more than anyone else in the house! She took it from my other kid's snack bags for school. A different day it was a cookie in my MIL's house when nobody was looking. Then after that she had major munchies and just went for anything.

[Juliebove]

My daughter has been doing this too. Not with gluten, that I know of. I don't keep much gluten in the house. Once in a while I'll buy bread and I usually have some pretzels. There are also some crackers.

She has been sneaking dairy and eggs. She has outgrown her allergies to these things but the Dr. said she is close to the borderline for eggs so to have them no more than once a week. And dairy no more than twice a week. The eggs are mainly in the form of Ranch dressing or dip which also contains dairy.

She also sneaks cheese, ice cream, Cheetos, buttered popcorn and probably some other things I don't know about.

I told her if it continued I would have to stop buying those things. And I could do it too. I can live without dairy.

[SGWhiskers]

It sounds like it is time to take the whole house gluten free and dairy free. It is tough on a little one to send the message that certain food is OK one day and not others. Same holds true for those foods being OK for some people and but not her. At that age, she needs lots of practice eating the right foods and limited exposure to anything that could harm her. As far as sneaking food at relatives, you need to make it clear to your extended family that it is not acceptable to let her have anything that YOU don't give to her. The all need to be trained that they can't give her a snack and that if they see her reaching for something, they are to stop her and to let you know so you can get her a gluten free alternative. If she is going into cupboards at relatives, then either you will need to watch her like a hawk or you will need to help the relatives get safety locks or move the food.

I was in my 30's and I couldn't deal with my husband having gluten goodies around me for a long time. I still want to cry over macaroni and cheese, pizza, and expensive breads/pasteries. It's normal for her to want access to all the snacks, but you are mom and you have to keep her from the poison. If hubby or a teenage child wants gluten items, they are to be stored where your little monkey can't get to them and they are to be eaten when she is not around. If they can't be responsible with that, the no gluten.

Have lots of suitable alternatives and switch the family to catsup and honey mustard. Cook plain popcorn in a paper bag folded over 3 times in the microwave. Drizzle a little grapeseed oil and salt. Buy soy ice cream and nacho chips and dip. Remember she is growing with a damaged intestinal track and will need healthy nutritious foods. No harm in salting and seasoning them for flavor. Kids have taste buds too.

I'm sure with some changes, you will be able to gain more control over what she has access to.

Good luck

[Darn210]

SGWhiskers gave you some good feedback. Three is too young to understand. You're going to have to take precautions. Two pieces of advice from me:

First, I'm assuming the other kids are older and if you don't want to take the whole house gluten free, you need to enlist their help. They need to keep their food/snacks away from her . . . and not eat them in front of her. I made it clear that if my daughter was cross-contaminated at home, I would take the whole house gluten free. There are a few snacks (her former favorites) that I won't ever buy again. It's just not fair to eat those in front of her.

Second, she is too young to understand which foods are safe and which are not. You've got a couple of choices. You can make sure that she eats nothing unless it was handed to her by you (which requires a lot of supervision and eyes in the back of your head.) Or, implement a segregated system. In my house, all the items in the pantry are gluten free. It holds all of my daughter's snacks and all my cooking supplies. My daughter knew she could have anything out of the pantry and can help herself to it. Even though she wouldn't pick out most items in the pantry as a snack (doesn't a can of tomato sauce sound good right about now?), I think the fact that she saw the majority of the food items in the house were safe sends a positive message. Now, for my husband's cereal and my son's gluteny snacks, those are in a separate cabinet. In your case, I would make it an upper cabinet that she can't easily access and if necessary, I would lock it.