Anybody Else's Kids Missing So Much School?

[srall]

My daughter has now missed 16 days of school. (3 of those were a trip to WDW)

She missed most of her days right before she was diagnosed last October. I think she missed 9 days by Halloween. But this is really driving me crazy. She's only in second grade but it's freaking me out. She had D last night and I'm trying to figure out where it came from. Maybe an old Easter egg or I made her some muffins with potato starch, which I don't use very often. She has also been complaining of heartburn. Other than those two things I don't think anything in her diet is different and she's pretty vigilant about what goes in her mouth.

Has anybody had a kid who has been diagnosed for awhile who has seen some improvement as far as frequency of illness?

[dilettantesteph]

The year my son was diagnosed he was in 5th grade and he missed a third of school. I think about half of that was before diagnosis and half after. It took us a long time to figure out the diet because he reacted to so many of the gluten free foods that were available at that time. They also exposed him to gluten in the classroom against doctors written instructions, and then threatened to call social services on me when I kept him home because he got sick. They were not very reasonable at that school, but fortunately that was his last year there. We just kept getting the doctor to send in notes.

Then he had more problems at the start of 6th grade and we had to remove more gluten free foods from his diet.

In 8th grade they put him in the lunchroom for study hall and he missed 17 more days until we figured out what was going on and got him out of there. He's been in good health since then.

I hope that you school will work with you to help you through this difficult time. Some schools will provide a tutor for days home sick. Sometimes you can arrange with teachers to pick up missed work for your child to do at home. You are fortunate that your child is only in 2nd grade where it is easier to make up work.

[Medusa]

The sheer ammount of time missed off school was one of the things that got us started down the road of looking seriously at food intolerances in the first place. Not only were my kids sick more often than their classmates, they were sicker for longer. When the rest of the class had chicken pox mildly for a week, we had it violently for a fortnight. A bout of flu twice resulted in pneumonia. Add to this time off for endless tummy aches, some so severe they had us rushing to casualty thinking it was appendicitis, and comments along the lines of "your kids are always sick!" and you get the picture. Coming off gluten was nothing short of miraculous for us. Sure, my kids still get sick now and again, kids do, but nothing like the frequency or severity with which they used to. We've noticed a huge improvement in the family's health since we all went gluten free. When they do get sick they recover faster too. A sympathetic school is essential - we had a huge fight with our daughter's previous school after they fed her a heap of ordinary pasta which put her in a coma. I ended up sending her with her own food (everybody eats school lunches here in Sweden!) and we changed schools when the chance came. You have to be able to feel you can trust your school with your child's wellbeing!

[Juliebove]

My daughter has missed 18 days and is in the 7th grade. Mostly due to D and part of that was caused by an allergic reaction to a med the Dr. prescribed. That took 5 days to get out of her system. Oh joy!

[srall]

My daughter has missed 18 days and is in the 7th grade. Mostly due to D and part of that was caused by an allergic reaction to a med the Dr. prescribed. That took 5 days to get out of her system. Oh joy!

Yikes! At least, as D.Steph pointed out, my daughter can still catch up when she misses so much school. I'm hoping that even by next year we are normalizing. I sort of feel like this year has been a throw away year, and hopefully next year we have a good fresh start. (She also didn't have a great teacher).

And Medusa, my daughter's chronic illness was what led me down the road too. She had flu, strep, high fevers, sore throats, nausea all the time. Since going gluten free I think she's only missed 4 days and she wasn't really sick, not like before. In fact the days after the diagnosis are the ones she missed due to D and stomach aches from something she ate. Before the diagnosis her body couldn't fight off anything. I kept wondering how she could get so sick, including influenza and my husband and I didn't get a trace of illness.

Here's hoping 3rd grade, and 8th grade and high school next year goes much much better!

[mommida]

My daughter was diagnosed with Celiac before she was even 2. She did fairly well with starting school but she was still getting really sick compared to most kids. A bad virus, strep, and that awful Rotovirus all put her in the hospital on an IV for a few days. She was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitus when she was 6. It is being managed very well avoiding more allergenic foods. This causes GERD like symptoms and difficulty sleeping. She was starting to miss even more school. I talked to the hospital's counselor and said she could be considered "homebound" and do her lessons from home from any public school (MI). We switched to Public Charter Cyber School (public school (FREE) on the computer) It has been great for her! No accidental food allergens and she doesn"t have to see people eating food she can't eat. (For the record, I made sure she had replacement everything from allergy free pizza day to cupcakes.) At first I didn't think it seemed fair at all. She was one of the top students and really loved going to school and learning. From her hospital trips she was like a wiser older sister to her classmates.

What happened in reality, she has more time and energy to pursue her own interests. She has been taking dance classes. Joined 4H vet club, rabbit & cavy club, and community service group.

I just wanted to let you know there are other options out there.

[SilverSlipper]

My daughter has had significant absences as well. We have a 504 plan in place to address this and as long as it's related to celiac disease or doctor excused, the school has no problem. When we realize that she will be home for a few days, the school sends home assignments (or at least what pages to read) and we work on it. It helps that I'm a SAHM. Also, the 504 allows us to keep a set of books at home for her - partially because absences happen unexpectedly and also because she's so small, she literally can't carry all of her books.

If your child is having heartburn issues, you may want to look into reflux problems. You can try some over the counter medicines for a couple of weeks and see if it helps.

Also, if you haven't done an allergy test, that may be helpful. It could be that she has allergies in addition to celiac disease.

Good luck!

[shadowicewolf]

My daughter has had significant absences as well. We have a 504 plan in place to address this and as long as it's related to celiac disease or doctor excused, the school has no problem. When we realize that she will be home for a few days, the school sends home assignments (or at least what pages to read) and we work on it. It helps that I'm a SAHM. Also, the 504 allows us to keep a set of books at home for her - partially because absences happen unexpectedly and also because she's so small, she literally can't carry all of her books.

The 504 plan does cover it, and the school, by law, has to accomidate for it.