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Last year, as some of you remember, I was trying to figure out my daughter (who os now 6 3/4). She underwent testing (blood and stool) which showed nothing; however, since our food diary showed a significant reaction to dairy, her ped encouraged us to completely eliminate it. The results were dramatic- she stopped having her unexplained vomiting episodes, her skin cleared up, and her behaviour improved to the point that people asked if we'd put her on Ritalin.
Some things did not improve though. She is still not on the weight charts, she still has occasional bowel accidents, and she has the dark bags under her eyes. Reading has shown that sometimes Celiac's does not show up on the first bllod test, or that eithera colonoscopy or elimination diet is inorder. Obviously, with the ED being FREE and non invasive, that would be my choice.
The catch is my husband. Despite the marked changes, he thinks the lactose intolerance is "in my head".He just jokes about finding a gluten free family to adopt her. I will likely get no compliance from him unless I have a test result in black and white. Now, when Livvie goers in for her check up, I can ask for another. But the most accurate tests are supposed to be from Enterolab which aren't covered by insurance and I can't afford. I am going nuts ehere trying to do the best thing for my child. I can't take her everywhere with me.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Has he gone along to the doctor? If not, could he? It sounds like having someone else explain this might be more effective.
I have two friends with Celiac's that I have cooked for on occaision. It's not a diet that I would want to try long term unless I had to -- but it sure made a dramatic difference for both of them. On the diet, thin but healthy. Off the diet, losing weight like crazy and looking like pictures of folks in famine-relief ads.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Hm. I suppose it would be unethical to put her on a normal diet for a week and let him see the difference.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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On the plus side, if you try the Celiac's diet for a few weeks and then it turns out to be unnecessary, the merely lactose-free diet will seem like a breeze in comparison!
How about finding a local support group for parents of kids with Celiac's and dragging your husband to a meeting? If that's what she's got it is going to seriously inconvenience the whole family and it could help to acknowledge that right up front.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Well, I made a glutne free dairy free cake yesterday, and it's damn good. That's a start, at least.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I made choux pastry with rice flour a few weeks ago for a Christmas party and it turned out just as good as with wheat.
Also, if you can get ahold of The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book there's a section on baking with rice flour.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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My wife has Ciliac. She has been diagnosed for over 10 years now. Living the GF lifestyle is not that bad really. You just need to do some extra work.
Granted, the lactose problem makes it a little more difficult. On the bright side, once my wife was on a GF diet for a few weeks we were able to re-introduce lactose and she was able to handle it without a problem. It seems that once your gut is damaged by the gluten it makes everything harder to digest, especially lactose.
I have found some GF cookbooks that have good cake and bread recipes which I make for her regularly. At the grocery store we have trained ourselves to read the labels and recognize some the key words that mean gluten. Eating out is probably the bigest problem for her. She sticks with grilled fish, meats, and vegetables. Most sauces are a no-no as they usually contain flour.
I say try the diet for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Its not that bad and you should certainly see results if this is what is going on. Most people do not realize how common this desease is, and it often goes un-diagnosed.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Baking without wheat flour isn't that difficult. It's a matter of learning how to substitute things so that your cakes or brownies or whatever come out fairly close. (I have a wheat allergy, not celiac disease, as far as I know.) I've managed some kick-butt brownies with no wheat flour at all - we can get all sorts of flours here so very easily. White rice flour, red rice flour (local equivalent of brown rice flour), chickpea flour, mung bean flour, and so on and so forth.
It's worth experimenting with different types of flours to find out what textures work for which kind of recipes.
Edit to add: Oh, and for a lot of recipes, you can substitute either soy milk (although there are potential estrogen problems there, so research this) or coconut milk for cows milk. Sri Lankan recipes call for a lot of coconut milk, so we actually use that a fair bit. I've used coconut milk in a lot of baking and oh, in a lot of things generally.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I hope you get things figured out soon. Keep fighting for your daughter - as a mama you instinctively know what she needs. I don't think dads always have that same sense.
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