OptimisticMom42

Well, you are going to learn quickly that taking your child off gluten before testing will limit your testing options. However, since you've already started you may as well remove dairy and soy also. Give his stomach a week or so to settle down then try one at a time to see how he tolerates them.

ALSO DOES ANYONE HAVE A CHILD THAT GAINED WEIGHT GREAT BUT HAD CELIACS ?

Yes, some children gain weight just fine with celiacs. Some children are even overweight with celiacs.

CAN HE REALLY HAVE RELIEF IN ONLY 2 DAYS?

Yes, your child could find relief very quickly.

Sounds like you are on the right road.

Best Wishes to you and your family,

OptimisticMom42

I don't want to subject him to a lifetime of a this strict diet if it is not needed.

hello raquelita_83,

I don't have any advice about the testing but being divorced I can understand your needing a dr to tell your ex and ex-in-laws not to posion your child.

But what I really wanted to say is that the diet doesn't feel as restrictive as it did at first. I've been gluten/dairy/soy free for several months now and it seems that each week I find some other fun thing I can eat. This week we've been stirring marshmellows into our squash! yum We bought a box of fruity pebbles and a box of cocoa pebbles. I ate gummy worms! The sloppy joes sucked. The taco seasoning and avacado/tomato dip (not sour cream) was awesome.

My #2son anounced to everyone that he really likes olive oil! and #1son said he has learned so much since the brain fog went away and he can think. My ex-MIL is having classes on nutrition (blood type diet, eye reading) at her house for the extended family. My DD found them boring cause she already knew that stuff. She was proud of herself for being ahead of the adults but was respectful and just went off to play outside with her little cousins.

Please don't think of this diet as a chore. It has at times been challeging but so worth the rewards.

Just a thought but have you checked out Celery (and it's plant family)?

I'd never had itchy eye lids until last week when I tried to bring ketchup back into my diet. My eyelids turned purple, itched and burned like crazy. The itching is higher up on the bony area under my eyebrow now and my eyes feel dry. So there was probably celery in the sloppy joe mix I ate a couple nights ago also. Carrots and parsnips (same plant family) now give me blisters on the back of my head. I haven't even thought about parsley and fennel.

I ate tons of carrots and celery before celiacs with no obvious problems but tested positive for allergy a couple months ago.

Celery is a common allergy in Europe according to Wikipedia. The strongest reactions being to celery seed.

While waiting for the Dr.s to do thier thing, you could eliminate the celery family and see what happens.

Is it possible for Gluten to affect you that quickly???

I was sick about 20 minutes after a cup of "I swear, my elderly aunt made it from scratch, just coffee grounds, sugar and cinnimon" flavored coffee. So yep it can happen that fast. Took me about a week to be able to sh** again. Oh, and as an extra treat I overheard the co-worker with the elderly aunt, telling my boss that she thinks I'm a hypocondriac. My boss said, "I think so too. But I would never say it to her."

Since then the co-worker has been caught in many a lie and the boss has started helping me read labels!

My only experience with bs is with my #2son who was diagnosed with lowbs in the third grade. He never could tolerate carbs. He started reading labels and disregarging anything that had more carbs than protein when he was about 12. I found that many diabetic adults would disagree with him. They were so unwilling to give up thier carbs. As the years have gone by, we have seen these cousins and parents of friends get fat and go on to insulin while #2son remains thin and healthy. We were lucky, we had a good dr. and I was able to homeschool him until he was able to control his bs on his own.

My point....are you getting a good protein source (not one with carbs like milk) every 6 to 8 hours?

I don't think I would attribute all of it to your monthly but I know I am less tolerant of fats the week before I start. I'll get sour stomach and gas. I think it's just because I overeat to comfort my pms. I also b***h at my bf, put the dogs outside and make the kids do extra chores!

Hot Dog! I can have them! Googling Starbucks locations! Thanks

Yep. I was so hungry I would get heartburn. The dr gave me prilosec and sent me to a dietician who wanted me to eat yogurt. Hmmm, taking corn syrup out of my diet did help for awhile which led me to atkins which led me to celiacs. Now I'm all celiacs and have the scars on my elbows and knees to prove it. So yep it all started with being so hungry I could out-eat my boyfriend and two of my teenagers. Incidentally, the teen I could not out-eat, has celiacs. One more thing, through all this overeating we never got fat. I was at the high side of normal and everyone else in the house is thin.

Take Care,

OptimisticMom42

I also have the tendency to vomit any type of iron supplement.

Hi Mommida,

I've always thrown up mutivitamins. Never even questioned why. I just thought they were to big and hard. I will question it now.

Thanks,

OptimisticMom42

Hi, i'm new here and have a quick question. Has anyone noticed a large decrease in appetite since going gluten free? i'm to the point that there are times that i have to force myself to eat something.

Well, I'm not starving all the time like I was before. But I do get hungry at meal times. Also I had not realized how bland milk and flour were. The foods I am still able to eat are so full of flavor that sometimes I can only eat a small portion. I've been using rice, rice chex or potato chips to fill the gap. But mostly I just go do something else and the hungry goes away. Does this make any sense at all? I must be eating enough because my weight is only going down a couple lbs a month.

Take Care,

OptimisticMom42

I found that the gluten free processed meats sold at the grocery store usually contained dairy or soy. Both are major no-no's for me so I went to a butcher shop instead. The butcher makes brats, sausage, jerkey ect. that are free of grains, dairy and soy except for a little corn syrup solids in the brats. We also found that the meats are fresh, locally produced, and cheaper than at the grocery store.

Hope this helps,

OptimisticMom42

Are they dairy and soy free?

Why not just take both kids off gluten and see what happens?

Thanks to you all for your help and advice. I will be posting more in the future. This webpage seems like a God-send. We were invited to birthday party at Chuck-E_Cheese next week. I guess I will be calling the restaurant to see if I can bring in our food. I am really nervous about how he will react to having special food at one of his favorite places. Hopefully by next week he will see how much better he feels and will understand.. again, he is still 3 yr old!!

Hello cgwilde,

Could you plan something even better than Chuck-e-Cheese? So you could pop in, deliver the gift, play for a few minutes and then "have to go get......grandma, the new puppy, his own shovel and pumpkin plants" Maybe the one near you is better, the one near us is like the inside of a old toaster. Crumbs everywhere. I would be afraid to spend much time there.

Take Care,

OptimisticMom42

The elimination diet would help you figure all this out.

Out of pure frustration I went to a liquid diet and then brought simple foods back into my diet one at a time to figure out which ones were causing which problems.

The liquid diet I used was ...... the broth from meat cooked all day in the slow cooker (with sea salt, pepper and onion), lemon juice concentrate, cherry juice concentrate, maple syrup as a sweetener, black coffee and lots of water. That was it for a couple days. Then I brought first poached eggs and then bananas back into my diet. Then I started testing other foods bringing them into my diet and taking them back out twice. If I got the same reaction twice that was good enough for me.

I learned a lot. It was interesting and made me feel more in control of what's happening to me. Control is important to my mental health!

I hope there is something in my experience that will help you,

Take Care, OptimisticMom42

I would think CC on the grill or in the polenta. Also check your spices. Some of the off brand ones have fillers. I found a "chili pepper" spice that my son purchased that had three ingredients. Although they all seemed OK I haven't been the same since using it to make taco seasoning. I'm in the C club rather than D so I'm not up on the fruit and fiber part but it sounds like you have recieved some great advise in that area.

Take Care,

OptimisticMom42

Wow, lots of great advice! I would agree with the posters who said........

Cook gluten free for the whole family - just meat, potato or plain rice and a veg

kid friendly - we have a butcher here that makes fresh brats that are gluten free! So brats, oven fries and green beans would be fine. OK and my kids would want ketchup and koolaid!

Or spag with rice noodles, hamburger and sauce that doesn't contain grains. There are alot of them on the market.

We don't really do desert but we do an after school snack and a bedtime snack. Usually ice cream or cereal (rice chex, fruity pebbles, cocoa pebbles).

I know this sounds like taking the easy way out but think about what your kids actually like to eat. My kids would vote for scrambled eggs, sausage and applesauce!

Best wishes,

OptimisticMom42

A lot of us found out we were celiacs by going gluten free thanks to the atkins diet and then could not return to the normal American diet. For me it was my 2008 New Years resolution to lose 30lbs. I did really well. Then gave up in July, was sick for six months before going to the dr. Three dr's latter, I'm a celiac, my mom's a celiac, my son is a celiac. Whoooo hooo! Atkins for life plus Fruity Pebbles

Welcome aboard, you're one of us!

OptimisticMom42

It would make sense to me that if you caused damage and inflammation by eating gluten that you may not be able to digest the raw veggies for awhile. But four months? Maybe you are reacting to one of the vegetables you are eating. A lot of people on here are allergic to carrots and celery like I am.

Take care,

OptimisticMom42

Hello Fringfring,

This one is brand new to me. But I'd be interested to hear more on the subject as I also have problems with yeast overgrowth (candida). What are the negative qualities of apple cider vinegar and raw honey for this condition? And which condition are you refering to, the yeast or the celiacs?

I had read that apple cider vinegar was OK for celiacs because it is not made from grains. However my mold allergy would probably react to it. Are mold allergy, yeast and fermentation related? Hmm, I will defintley research this a bit more.

I had read that honey helps to restore the good bacteria to the gut. Does honey encourage yeast growth because of it's high carb count and natural bacteria content?

Thanks for introducing a new and interesting subject!

OptimisticMom42

Does Nebraska have Meijers? I liked thier organic beans. I tried several varieties and had no problems.

Nope, sorry, just checked and you don't have Meijers Brand stores.

For those of you in the Great Lakes area though..........

OptimisticMom42

Hello Kmama,

My son's blood test also came back negative. His symptoms are also pretty obvious. He's 18 yrs old and wants to be a normal guy so he'll tell you he doesn't have celiacs. But given the choice between cheerios (and D) or rice chex, he'll eat the rice chex. He also eats my gluten free cookies and drinks my rice milk

Most of the food in our house is now gluten, dairy and soy free and my kids have been very good about the changes. Last night we made gluten free spag and Fruity Pebbles (not rice chrispy) treats. That's not a huge departure from what our meals looked like before we found that I have celiacs and that at least one of my children probably does.

You know Kmama before you found out about gluten you made other choices for your child. You decided that to much candy was bad for his teeth, that he needed to eat his fruits and vegetables and that maybe ramen noodles were to high in sodium. This is no different. You are the MOM. The dr is only the dr. Offering your child healthy alternatives to processed foods is a good thing!

Take care,

OptimisticMom42

Hello all,

I am also having a problem currently with cadida. How do I attack the cadida problem?

Pre-diagnosis going low carb would kill it off but now I'm finding it impossible to do that. Many of the foods that made low-carb tolerable are no longer safe foods for me. I would be left with eggs, meat, lemon juice, strawberries, blueberries and greens.

I've seen the SCD plan and it will not work for me. I'm allergic to carrots, celery, parsnips, dairy protein and at least two kinds of yeast. And soy and...blah blah blah. Anyhow it isn't for me.

Any suggests would be greatfully welcomed,

OptimisticMom42

Hello Wolfmare,

Let me lend you that support you've asked for. I do understand.

Last night I dreamed that I was the editor of an online women's magazine for celiacs. While taste testing a blueberry-lemon bar recipe for an article, I realized it was not gluten free and began spitting it out, rinsing my mouth and listing in my mind all the things I could use to get this out of my system.

The thing is when I woke up, I still had the memory of what a really good lemon bar tastes like and I wanted to cry. I'm a horrible cook and my mutiple allergies make it so hard to substitute all the ingredients successfully. I'm mourning the loss of freedom to choose my food by taste and to share good food with good company. Let me say that again. I'm in mourning!

Have you read about the stages of mourning?

1. denial, isolation - I was sick for 6 months before I even went to a dr, then I went to 3 of them

2. anger - don't eat that in my house, don't you care about my feelings

3. bargaining - well, maybe if I only eat a little

4. depression - I'll never be able to have fun again, lots of days that I don't even get dressed

5. acceptance - not there yet

So, I'm somewhere between stages 3 and 4. Sounds like you are between stages 1 and 3. You don't want to beleive it and you've already given up so much.....how could this situation ask you for more sacrifice?

The good news is that there is a stage 5! And maybe knowing what is happening to you will lessen the anxiety you are feeling.

Hope this helps,

OptimisticMom42

Wow!

You've got it tough. I'm still hoping that some of my allergies will subside as my intestine heals. This morning I'm trying hard not to itch my eye's. I tried ketchup a couple days ago and found it had enough celery to make my eyelids swell and itch. I can't imagine trying to avoid all the things you've listed.

Are you able to use an antihistamine? So far the meds scare me as much as the foods do. My co-worker (celiac with OCD) uses dapsone. My son is using zyprexia (celiac with bi-polar). I don't have any of the brain/mental symptoms and I had a reaction to sudafed so I'm not taking anything. Just using topical allergy cream on the itchy spots, tart cherry juice for inflammation and magnesium to keep my digestive system moving.

You are the only person I've seen on here that shares my allergy to the celery family. Nice to meet you! How do you deal with it?

Most Humble Apologies for using my Mom voice on you

OptimisticMom42