Since I have been home with the crew fulltime, it has come to my attention that food seems to make Little Critter sick. Our daycare provider had told me of a couple occassions when she randomly threw up, for no apparent reason. She always is hungry and chants, “my tummy huuuuuuuuuuuuurts” about 50 times a day. Now that I spend all my time with her, it is obvious that something is going on in her little body. The first thing I did was take her completely off dairy… to see if that would make a difference. Two weeks without dairy didn’t seem to affect the tummy aches, straining to go to the bathroom alternating with loose stools and constant “I’m hungry” cries. Everything I have read about Celiac indicates that the tests are not reliable in kiddos under five… and heck, the first time K3 was tested at less than a year old she was negative. So, for now I have opted to not test Little Critter and put her on the diet to see how things go. We started the GFCF diet on Monday and so far I think things are looking up. I am hearing a lot less about tummy aches and she isn’t constantly asking for food. I will give the diet a couple weeks, then put her back on a regular diet to see what happens. Little Critter is a small child, coming in at the 5th percentile during her 3 year check up. The Doctor said she is destined to be about 5 foot tall and she is definitely my smallest child… although all the kids are on the small side. She didn’t go through a failure to thrive period like K3 did, but we also didn’t see signs of celiac or food intolerances until the last several months. I believe that K3’s disease was set off during her VERY traumatic birth. Little Critter came into the world via a peaceful c-section (because of the seriousness of my previous deliveries). She has had some recent stressors in her life that seemed to correlate to when her symptoms began… like going from being at home with Grandma’s to starting a daycare. For now, we are taking it one day at a time… but I am pretty confident we are on the right track. And maybe its just me… but she seems a little less MANIC about everything since we changed her diet.
March 29, 2008
March 30, 2008 at 7:59 pm
My child was diagnosed with Celiac at age 5. Did your little critter have the tTg blood test? Has she been DNA tested? Both will strongly indicate Celiac disease without the invasive endoscopy. If you haven’t already, you may wish to investigate the following reputable web sites:
http://www.celiacdisease.net/testing
http://www.celiac.org
http://www.celiaccentral.org/
http://www.gluten.net/
http://glutenfreedrugs.com/
The book by Dr. Peter R.H. Green — Celiac Disease, a Hidden Epidemic — is also very helpful.
Best of luck to you.
March 31, 2008 at 9:23 am
My daughter was also diagnosed at 5, but when she was tested at younger ages, they were always negative. So, when Little Critter started showing symptoms we decided to test out the diet modification before we go in for any testing… that way we have an idea if the GF diet is helping her. We are doing it for 2 more weeks…then back on a regular diet to see how she reacts… I am in the process of looking for an MD Allergist who is trained in alternative medicine. I love our Naturopath, but the tests are expensive and not covered by insurance and our previous MD just poo-poo’d us. Thanks for the sites!