Rondar2001

My daughter had me concerned at first with this very issue. She gained weight so fast and grew like a weed. I was especially keeping an eye on it as she wasn't really small to begin with. I have found this slowed down after she had been gluten free for a full year; she is the same size as her peers now.

Like you, I was very hesitant to take away any foods. One thing we have done instead of trying to change her diet too much is increase her exersize and I think this has helped out. I now try to have her in gymnastics or swimming at least once a week.

Good luck, if it is a real concern I would discuss it with his doctor.

I also give my daughter Omega 3s with breakfast everyday. Our doctor suggested it to help with her moodiness.

I would suggest joining your local celiac chapter if you have one. We went to an introductory meeting where they had binders with labels of gluten free foods and we were given a small book with lists of safe and unsafe ingredients. Its also a good place to talk to others that are doing the diet and find out where to shop and any other tips they may have.

For my daughter, I started out by shopping at the health food stores. They tend to have sections of clearly labelled gluten free foods. From what I've read, Quaker's products are not considered gluten free.

I wouldn't buy too many replacement foods at first. I found that my daughter didn't like too much right away. I think she remembered the taste of wheat foods and was comparing the new ones to these. After a few months, she started to like the breads alot more. Try to keep her diet as natural as you can while she is healing, then add in processed foods slowly. Since you are a baker, a good cookbook will help fill in this gap.

One thing that helped out was buying a gluten free flour mix. I used this for breading meats, gravies, soups, etc. I tend to make extra and send it with her to school in her lunch in a thermos. We also buy the corn pastas, I find they taste closest to wheat and our whole family will eat it.

I would definitely purchase a toaster dedicated to her foods as opposed to trying to cover a gluten one with foil. The chance of contamination is just too great. You can purchase bread bags if she needs to use a toaster at someone else's house. Make sure you have dedicated condiments for her to use. I mark hers with green stickers so everyone in the house knows which ones are hers.

Don't worry, it does get much easier.

Ok, these previous posters are way more motivated then I usually am.

My quicky don't want to cook meals include meat (usually steak or pork chops), slather them with BBQ sauce and throw them on the BBQ. A baked potato cooked in the microwave and some veggies in a pot.

An added bonus is the only dish to wash is the pot the vegtables cooked in (I throw the plates ect. in the dishwasher).

I don't buy Christie's as they are made in a facility with the other wheat containing crackers. I have found quite a few other brands that actually say Gluten Free and I purchase those instead.

My daughter likes the rice crackers, the come in quite a few flavours. I also just bought a box of multi-grain gluten free crackers at Costco that are pretty good.

We chose to do an endoscopy for our daughter. The procedure itself was simple with no lasting effects. Knowing that we had a confirmed diagnosis made the process of dealing with family members and her school much easier.

If your daughter is not showing any overt symptoms, I would think that a definitive diagnosis would be even more important. If she doesn't have the immediate reactions that others do, this may be the only thing to keep her gluten free as she gets older. Yet it is still very important that she remain gluten free to keep from developing other issues.

We thought our daughter was pretty asymptomatic when she was diagnosed too. Once she went gluten free we found other issues cleared up that we never would have attributed to it. This may be the case with your daughter as well.

Good luck with your decision.

One thing to consider with the endoscopy, your doctor may be looking for other things besides just celiac disease, especially in light of your other food issues.

I would confirm exactly what they might be considering before turning down the endoscopy.

Good luck and hope it goes well for you.

It sounds like it is the oats. We had tried our daughter on the certified gluten free oats and her reaction was worse than her typical gluten reaction.

Congratulations, glad to hear she is already starting to feel better!

Hi,

Our daughter's experience with the biopsy was that it was basically a piece of cake. Her's was done in our city's children's hospital and we went home the same day.

The hospital had us come in for a group session a week before her procedure. They had all the parents off to one side of the room filling out all the paperwork, while the kids were in a circle reviewing what they could expect for their type of procedure. They showed them the masks that would put them to sleep and what activities they could do until they went in to the OR (i.e., DVDs, colouring). We all went on a tour of the area so we would know where to go, where the parents wait, where the popsicles are kept for afterwards, etc.

The day of her procedure we arrived at the hospital at 7 am. She was taken to the OR at about 9. Less than an hour later she was back in her bed and we were home by noon. She did sleep a few hours that afternoon, but had no pain or issues afterwards. The next day she was back to school.

The only prep was they can't eat after midnight the night before. I was told that they try to schedule the youngest patients earliest so that it is a little easier on them. She was eating shortly after the procedure.

Our doctor saw visual damage and said that we should make her eat gluten free right away. The official biopsy results were ready about 10 days later.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Wow, lets hope this is something that is expanded across North America.

Safeway's chickens up in Canada are gluten free. The national deli manager checked with their supplier of the spices and these were gluten free.

The deli manager at the Sobey's where we shop said that thiers did contain gluten.

I remember feeling the same panic that you are right now. Hang in there, it does get much easier.

I would start with fruits, vegetables, meat (plain) - these are all naturally gluten free. Then you can add in some products specifically marked gluten free. I found that at first I did most of my shopping at the health food stores in our area. They tend to have gluten free sections and more products that are clearly marked gluten free. Ask the clerks for help. Keep a list of the products he likes as we had a few rejects at first.

One of the first products I bought was a bag of gluten free mixed flour from Kinnikinnik (sp?). I substituted it in place of regular flour when making gravy, dredging meat, etc. to make our usual dinners. Corn or rice pasta can be substituted for wheat noodles very easily (we prefer the texture of the corn).

You may want to check with your local Celiac group. We went to a meeting there when we signed up that was very helpful. They had a couple of products to try and binders with labels of regular items that are gluten free. We were also able to purchase a guide through them that included lists of ingredients to avoid, look into further (i.e., call the company), or that are ok. This was really a lifesaver in the beginning.

Good luck and know that in less than a year it will seem so much easier.

Hi, my daughter had an endoscopy to confirm her diagnosis when she was 7. We felt that having a definitive diagnosis would be important as she gets older. There is no questioning a positive biopsy and hopefully this will be a tool to keep her gluten free as she gets into her teens and may want to cheat on the diet. A confirmed diagnosis also gives us a little more credibility when dealing with teachers and family in our effort to keep her gluten free.

The biopsy itself was quick and painless. She was at the hospital at 7 am and home by noon with no lasting effects.

For you son, I would discuss his symptoms with his doctor and see if they would biopsy him as well. In addition to checking for celiac, they may see another issue that could be causing his symptoms.

The choice to biopsy is of course yours, these are just the reasons that we decided to go ahead with it.

Good luck!

Most kinds are gluten free, but no-name brands tend to sneak wheat in.

Thanks for pointing this out. I just noticed that my daughter hasn't had many nose bleeds in the past year that she has been gluten free. She used to get them all the time.

It could be seeing as there looks like there is a family history. Before you take her off gluten, I would bring her in for at least the blood tests, if not a biopsy too. A diagnosis could be essential to keeping her following the diet if her only symptom is gas. It would also help the people around her to make sure she is being kept gluten free.

I had a couple burst when I was in college. After the first one I ended up in an ambulance because the pain was so sudden and severe. The pain passed in about 4 hours. I didn't have any pain or warning that I had any cysts before they burst.

If you have steady ongoing pain, I would have your doctor keep investigating.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story. He's definitely a keeper!

Great article. This would be good to pass on to family members that want to learn a little more.

My only wish would be that it is updated with the information learned in the past 13 years.

Thanks for sharing!

Great idea, I would hate to see someone doing something positive put down because of a reporter that doesn't have a clue.

So I opened my home page this morning and imagine my delight when there was a link to the following article front and centre.

Open Original Shared Link

I think doctors are starting to improve. We have one of the city's top pediatricians for my daughter and he admitted to us when she was being tested, that even 2 years before that he never would have thought to test her for Celiac. At her last appointment I mentioned that my tip off that she has been glutened is her sleep walking, he replied that he found it facinating and because he knows us so well, he knew that this was a true response. He also mentioned that most other doctors would have brushed this off as our imagination as it isn't a typical reaction.

I would send her to a dentist that specializes in kids. Try checking with your own dentist for any recommendations.