caradove

I just have taken my 9yo ds to doctor and had all tests for celiac,
get results soon but from everything I have researched I think he has it.

Do any of you have experience with this? What behaviour signs were
there and was there a fast improvement after eliminating gluten?

I hope that if he has this we can find some other children with the
same thing for support and company.

Cara

Sharissa13

My son is autistic and I have him on a strict gluten
free, dairy (and casein free), and soy free diet (as
well as potato and artificial colors and flavors). It
will take your child's gut a while to heal, so while
you might see almost overnight changes, it will be a
while before things will be "normal" inside his body.

Feel free to email me with questions about the diet,
recipes, etc. We've been on it for over 3 years now.

Good for you, btw, for doing this for your child. You
wouldn't believe how many parents I've talked to
suspect their child has food allergies, but don't want
to be inconvienced into changing their fast food lives.



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Melissa

My three year old has it, and possibly the older ones as well. With Dan there wasn't too
much in signs, he also reacted with shock when first exposed so he never had a large
infraction. Now that he's older and choosing to eat foods that have wheat, we have noticed
that he tends to be more rigid about 'rules' (like we can't change a word in a song without
a fast and furious meltdown) and needful of us. From what I've read (all in relation to
autism) is that it can take months for all the wheat to flush from the system and for the
intestines to start to heal.
Based on Dan's reaction to wheat infractions, we were going to try a wheat-free family all
summer, but Josh has told us he'd rather be dead ;-) It is hard for older children to adjust
to, many of the foods are just not good replacements. Scott's celiac newsletter is a good
one, it doesn't just talk about food, but also toiletries, toys, etc that cause reactions.
Melissa
--- In [email protected], "caradove" <caradove@...> wrote:
>
> I just have taken my 9yo ds to doctor and had all tests for celiac,
> get results soon but from everything I have researched I think he has it.
>
> Do any of you have experience with this? What behaviour signs were
> there and was there a fast improvement after eliminating gluten?
>
> I hope that if he has this we can find some other children with the
> same thing for support and company.
>
> Cara
>

lspswr

Hi Cara,

Ds 7 and I both have celiac. We were diagnosed 2 years ago and life is
a lot better now. Being sick and feeling bad just sucks! We feel
really lucky that it's just celiac -- changing our diet as opposed to
taking medications with side effects is a blessing. Not too many
diseases out there can be completely controlled and damage cured just
by cutting gluten out of the diet.

There are lots of support groups for kids with celiac and allergies.
Please note that celiac disease is not an allergy and is not tested as
one. Check with your GI's office and they should be able to refer you
to resources. The main hurdle is educating yourself on reading labels
and knowing how to be food safe smart. The
http://www.glutenfreeforum.com website is great for finding information
to anything remotely related to celiac.

I would not associate "behavior" with celiac. If celiac is the problem
it's not going to be diagnosed on behavior but on the condition of his
gut. Sometimes a gluten-free diet has been shown to help behavior
issues in some people, but that is not usually the case. Diet can and
does affect many of the ways our bodies function. But if you're
looking to "cure" behavior issues by controlling your child's food you
may be in for more power struggles than cures. I have an "intense"
child -- going gluten free healed his gut.

All the best in finding healing for your child,
Linda




--- In [email protected], "caradove" <caradove@...>
wrote:
>
> I just have taken my 9yo ds to doctor and had all tests for celiac,
> get results soon but from everything I have researched I think he has
it.
>
> Do any of you have experience with this? What behaviour signs were
> there and was there a fast improvement after eliminating gluten?
>
> I hope that if he has this we can find some other children with the
> same thing for support and company.
>
> Cara
>

Sharissa13

Yes, gluten takes 8-9 months to fully leave the
body... dairy takes 2 weeks.

I'm so thankful my son adapted well to his diet. He
never asks for what he knows he can't have... I've
heard some real horror stories.



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caradove

Thanks for the support!
That is a long list of foods to exclude, did you have the testing done
for celiac, the tTG blood test or some allergy testing? We also
suspect blue food colouring plays havoc with his mood, since we don't
buy foods like that at home the few times he drank blue stuff at a
friends house he had a complete meltdown when he got home.

Its a challenge now to think about such a strict set of dietary rules
in an unschooling family, how do you manage that? and do you have
other children not on this diet.

Cara
--- In [email protected], Sharissa13 <sharissa13@...>
wrote:
>
> My son is autistic and I have him on a strict gluten
> free, dairy (and casein free), and soy free diet (as
> well as potato and artificial colors and flavors). It
> will take your child's gut a while to heal, so while
> you might see almost overnight changes, it will be a
> while before things will be "normal" inside his body.
>
> Feel free to email me with questions about the diet,
> recipes, etc. We've been on it for over 3 years now.
>
> Good for you, btw, for doing this for your child. You
> wouldn't believe how many parents I've talked to
> suspect their child has food allergies, but don't want
> to be inconvienced into changing their fast food lives.
>
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________Luggage?
GPS? Comic books?
> Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search
> http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz
>

Sharissa13

The short version of the story goes... my son was
diagnosed autistic at age 5. I knew something was
wrong far earlier, but the ped neurologist had told me
my son would "grow out of it." Autism was never
mentioned.

After he was diagnosed, the doctor felt putting my son
on ritalin would be good. It wasn't... quite the
opposite. When ritalin didn't work, the doctor just
wanted to keep trying med after med after med. I
decided my son wasn't going to be a guinea pig and
that I would seek out an option that was healthy, not
harmful. I discovered the GFCF diet.

We never had my son tested, per se. We removed certain
foods for a test period. Then allow an "infraction"
and watch him to see if there was a reaction. Gluten
made him react with autistic behaviors, as well as
potato. Soy makes him super-hyper. Diary makes him
sick to his stomach. No one needs artificial colors
and flavors, so I never bothered to "test" that.

Yes, my younger son is not on the GFCF diet, neither
my husband or myself. My autistic son never complains
about what he can't eat. I try to explain to him that
it will make him sick to eat these foods. Then I make
foods for him that are as close to normal as I can get
them. Pancakes, blueberry muffins, flour tortillas,
hot pretzels, etc. And I grill a lot too... shish
kabobs, garlic chicken, pork chops. Plus he loves
fresh fruit and veggies. He eats far healthier than
anyone else in my house, and he honestly doesn't even
like cookies, brownies, cake, or even chocolate.

I'd like to say that he knows that the
gluten/dairy/etc make him feel sick, but with his
autism, it's hard for him to tell me things like that.
I try to let him be as free as he can be within his
diet. And as I said, he's adapted very well and really
never asks for anything he can't have. I've been most
fortunate. :)



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