hi, my 3 year old was diagnosed with coeliacs in september of last year, i change his diet straight away and his symptoms slowly vanished, however over the last couple of months some symptoms are returning, he is toilet trained, but his bowel movements are so loose again he can't get to the toilet on time, i don't know what to do, i always cook gf foods for him and the family and i use different coloured plates, chopping boards etc, he has different spreads, jams and so on, where am i going wrong? help
Danielle xx
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danielle76
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It is so hard when this happens, I would start again with naturally GF foods rice, pulses, corn, veg, meat, fish etc so no GF bread, cakes etc with wheat codex as sometimes as we get better we get more intolerant to any form of gluten. I can't eat anything with wheat in it even at 20ppm. I would also check his spreads etc as sometimes the manufacturers change the recipe. It might also be worth limiting the dairy as sometimes we also become dairy intolerant in the first year.
thankyou for taking time to respond, i'll take your advice and start again, it's hard isn't it, i just want him to be a happy healthy little boy, i thought he was doing really well, now it seems we're back to square 1,
I'd recommend you avoid all items that are made on the same line as wheat/ gluten or say 'no gluten containing ingredients'. The former are meant to include checks to regularly clean the line but it's pretty much optional so there is risk there. Likewise 'no gluten containing ingredients' is a new term following a change in the EU legislation last year. In actual fact it means ...nothing. The food producers are meant to have their own due diligence procedures in place to ensure there is no cross contamination in this case - however there are no checks on them or testing of the levels under that wording. See the UK FSA site for more details.
Have you also got separate tea towels for his items? Separate toaster? Ensured people wash their hands when preparing his food? Checked what he is drinking? Another area that can cause problems is artificial sugars especially: mannitol, sorbitol, aspartamene. I don't know what but I and many other coeliacs now react more severely to these than ever before since we were diagnosed.
If you keep a rough food and drink diary on your phone you maybe able to spot a pattern of when he has issues and see what could be causing the problem.
Of course it's also worth mentioning it to your GP as he may have a stomach bug or something else going on as well.
As others will also confirm, no matter how vigilant we are...we still slip up. Its human. I certainly do...
What your little one cant tell you..is how he is feeling...he is not a lot more than a baby.
You will sort this...
He will soon be back to into everything and generally causing chaos...(does he have access to playdough??). And when hes sorted...just watch him grow....
It is difficult to do but so many things contain up to 20ppm of gluten and are called 'gluten free' so make sure that he never has malted food like Rice Krispies, Cornflakes and any of the other leading brands.
There are quite a few items that are listed as safe in the CUK food guide that I and other coeliacs have problems with so you may well find that one or more of these could be causing problems. The other probablity with children is gluten may be passed on by touching - that is to say if an adult or other child has handled biscuits, sandwiches, cakes .. etc and touches handles on doors or toys specially cuddly toys then gluten - albeit in small doses - is passed on. Children tend to put fingers in mouths, etc. There is no easy answer and you can't live life in a bubble but it pays to be aware of the possibilities. All of the advice that others have given above is your best option to follow.
If he likes standard cereals then ..
There is a really lovely cereal that children love (I love it myself too) it's called Nature's Path Organic Gluten Free Crispy Rice - and it's made from whole grain rice that is small and extra crisp and is sweetened with raw cane sugar and molasses - it tastes quite similar to Rice Krispies - so far I have only seen this available in Sainsbury's at least in my area.
again thank you all for your responses,and kind words, they have been really helpful, i will ensure we all carefully wash our hands after eating, and wipe tables down correctly, i am doing this, but maybe not enough, i didn't know about the wording on certain products actually meant zilch, but will try to be extra careful, when buying food products, again thank you,
My 3 year old was diagnosed at Christmas and has been gluten free since. Initially everything changed and we were able to completely toilet train him. However in the last few months he has been experiencing skin rashes which don't follow the pattern of DH but are in an obvious way linked to his diet. Eg they first flared up when we tried the Glutafin Fresh bread which is gluten free but not wheat free. Our house is completely gluten free (my husband has CD too, recently diagnosed too). We have changed to Genius gf/wf bread and his skin calmed down again, but the rashes remain fairly constant. At his check up with his consultant, we discussed wheat/codex and agreed to go wheat free (avoid codex wheat levels) as well as gluten free. My Consultant said we could test for a wheat allergy but that the test was fairly unreliable - if you got a positive, great but you could easily get a false negative. And I'm not putting my boy through eating large amounts of wheat for tests either. I'm hoping that we will see an improvement over the school holiday where I have complete control over his diet, then we will get an idea if there's cross contamination at pre-school with say play dough or just the way children handle foods/themselves. We are also considering switching his milks to soya/lactose free as my husband has found that change has worked for him and the other day my son told me that milk on his cereal makes him feel tired. It is hard to get your 3 year old to communicate how they are feeling without putting words into their mouths. Tired is J's consistent descriptor of how his tummy feels when he eats something that upsets him.
No improvement yet though, and he's got prickly heat to boot!
my little boy has red patches under his eyes, and on the creases on his arms, he has been checked for wheat/dairy allergies, and got negative results for both, it's difficult isn't it, to get them to explain how they feel, he goes to pre school, and they have been amazing with him and his diet but, as you say i'll have total control over his diet during the holidays,so will be able to pinpoint any issues. Thank you for replying,
I don't have an answer for you Danielle but feel for you and your fam. I have big enough problems keeping tabs on diet for myself so think you should be commended for also having the added problem of coping with GF for a toddler. I hope it all works out for you and your wee one. xx
thank you, hopefully we'll learn as a family, i've tried to educate my older children on the importance of washing hands after food, not sharing drinks etc, it's a steep learning curve for us all, it is lovely to have support on this site for those times life seems hard,
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