Great Doctor Visit Today! And A Question

[e&j0304]

Well, we met with our new family doctor today (we switched the kids from their former pediatrician after all we've been through with Ella) and we LOVED her. Not only was she very nice and personable, she seemed knowledgable about celiac disease. She actually has an aunt who has celiac disease, although all of her blood tests were negative. She just tried the diet and had great results. Her symptoms were actually similar to Ella's. She said that blood tests for celiac disease are not always that reliable, espcially in young children. She did think that we were doing the right thing for Ella by keeping her gluten-free. I don't think we'll have any problem getting a dr's note for school stating she is gluten intolerent.

I brought in pictures of Ella were you can see her tummy both before and after going on the gluten-free diet and the changes are so dramatic. She was amazed at the difference in only 3 weeks. She also said that it may take awhile before we see less of her hair falling out. It's really disturbing to me to see her hair falling out like this, but I hope that it will end soon.

She actually called me 1/2 hour after I left the office with the name of another mother with a child with celiac disease. She apparently called this woman and asked her if she would be willing to talk with me and give me advice if I wanted to call her. Apparently she is active in a celiac disease support group and goes to conferences or something. I thought it was nice that she took the time to contact this woman right away.

I was very impressed with this woman and the nurse. They were all so nice and seemed as though they were on our side, which it didn't seem like anyone else was. I honestly don't know if I could have taken another disappointment from a dr. I feel like we're finally getting somewhere with all of this...

Anyway, just wanted to share!! Also, a quick question. Does anyone have a gluten-free playdough recipe? I would like to make some to donate to Ella's class at school. OR maybe it would be better to just buy some to send?

Thanks!!

Shannon

[lbsteenwyk]

I'm so glad you found a supportive doctor! Sometimes you just have to shop around . . .

[Guest Lucy]

Here's a recipe that someone else posted on another thread here and my daughter (not celiac disease but a great help to her little brother) and I made some batches this weekend.

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Actually, first we got out all the old playdough and threw it away and then we washed the old containers and cutters and such in hot soapy water.  We made 2 batches of dough, both came out light.  She wanted pink and light blue (which we mixed to get purple) and that's what we got.  Since there's no kneading bread any more this was really fun to do and easy.  Each recipe made 3 Play-Dough containers of gluten-free playdough.  It actually works better that the commercial playdough (according to my expert) but it dries out faster.  This is easily fixed by putting a few drops of water on your hands and then mixing the dough to get the water worked in again.

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There you go!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest nini]

Shannon, I'm so glad you had a good experience with this new Dr., that can make all the difference in the world if they just LISTEN and are SUPPORTIVE!

That recipe for playdough that was posted is the one we use. to get different colors , or to get them more vibrant, I add the food color BEFORE cooking the mixture, after adding everything else and mixing it together. The color you see in the pan is pretty close to what you end up with. The more food color you add, the more rice flour or corn starch you will need to add at the end so that it's not sticky.

For white I don't add anything

for pink I just add a few drops of red

for red red, I add almost an entire bottle of color and then add extra rice flour AND corn starch at the end when I am kneading it all together... (after it's cooled!)

for a really pretty blue I use about 15 drops of blue color

same with green

for purple I use about 3 or 4 drops of red and 1 or 2 drops of blue. (too much and it comes out gray)

yellow I use about 15 drops

orange add 1 to 2 drops of red to the yellow

[Guest Lucy]

have you ever used kool-aid to color it? I have to make it for my sons preschool class and someone suggested this. They want red.

[e&j0304]

Thanks for the support and suggestions for playdough! You are right...having a supportive doctor is crucial with this! I seriously felt on top of the world leaving that appointment. It was awesome!

I will definitely try making that playdough. If it turns out, I want to make some to donate to Ella's pre-school class. That way I won't have to worry about her accidentally ingesting some regular playdough at school. There's already enough to worry about at school without adding playdough to it!!

Thanks again!

Shannon