alot of dental work

[Anonymous]

Hi Christine — it’s great to be “talking” with you again, even if it came about because of problems. I am actually happy to have an answer to so many of my health issues, even if the answer has to be celiac. My mom is actually relieved as well, since all through the years different doctors & dentists have tried to somehow place the blame on her for my teeth enamel problems. The enamel started flaking off my milk teeth right around 2 years old (according to my mom), and my permanent teeth grew in with most of the enamel missing and just got worse over the years. My mom had doctors even accuse her of lying about not taking tetracycline while pregnant.

I’m actually still in a little bit of denial I think, and haven’t yet cut out gluten…even though I know I need to. I’m hopeful that once I’m off gluten for awhile that maybe my allergies will start to get better — right now I’m on 3 different allergy medications and they still aren’t completely under control. We’re actually moving in a little over a month (from NC to Indiana), and once we’re in our new place we’re planning on setting up a gluten free home.

We’re not planning on getting Palmer tested at the moment. Todd was really great about keeping a wheat-free household when I was off wheat before and is just planning for having a gluten-free home now. Palmer’s doctor said that in his experience kids this young often don’t show up on bloodtests as celiac, even when they get a positive biopsy. We may get the gene test for him after we move. He’ll be staying home with me from the beginning of the year until he starts preschool in August, so I’ll be able to keep him gluten-free and to gauge the results. Hopefully once his body has cleared out the gluten he’ll stop having as many problems with allergies, sinus infections (always one of my biggest food-allergy/intollerance indicators, so maybe it is in him too), constipation, and maybe even reflux. I know that it’s more common to have diarrhea with celiac, but chronic constipation can also be a symptom so maybe it is with him.

He’s never had growth issues (he’s 40″ tall and weighs almost 34 pounds at less than 3 years), so we never thought about celiac with him. His doctor likes the idea of doing the gluten free diet with him, though, since he’s seen such an increased number of hereditary celiac cases in the past few years.

I’d love any information you want to share with me about gluten-free products, recipes, oats, etc. you’ve found. I don’t have a problem with giving up rye and barley, but the oats will be more of an issue. Palmer and I both love oatmeal, and it will be a difficult thing to give up. You haven’t happened to have found any gluten-free chicken nuggets have you? That’s the only meat Palmer will eat (still relies on beans as his main protein source) and it will be hard to have him give that up.

By the way, my GI initially told me I had tested negative for celiac. I had him fax me a copy of the lab results and had them evaluated further and was told that I had a “low negative” but definitely fell within the celiac range. I think that my GI may have just been covering himself for not having done a small intestine biopsy when he did my endoscopy (just did biopsies of the esophagus). Celiac wasn’t on our radar at the time of my endoscopy until my new PCP started to put the pieces of the puzzle together, so I’m guessing he didn’t even think about it.

Palmersmom2006-11-30 11:6:46

[Anonymous]

christine—-there are some gluten free chicken nuggets—i think the brand might be “ian’s”—-they also have gluten free fish sticks. my girls have tried the fishsticks, but not the nuggets. i think someone even makes a gluten free corn dog.

kinnikinnick makes some really good products. they are a company out of canada. i have been able to order some things from them that i have not attempted to make–sweet rolls, donuts, bagels. they have a sandwich bread that is good, too.

tinkyada past is really good—i don’t think anyone would be able to tell the difference if you served it to them, celiac or not.

i think it is a lot easier to be diagnosed with this now, rather than 20 years ago. since there is so much more awareness of it, there are getting to be more and more products available—-and since they now realize that it is not the rare condition that they used to think, doctors are starting to look for it.

i’ve heard a lot of celiacs mention constipation rather than diarrhea, and the only celiac that i knew before my girls were diagnosed is overweight. so much for the “standard” symptoms!

can you post your e-mail for me? i’m not sure if i have it still since we have changed servers.

[Anonymous]

Christine — I actually just got a new email since my email at work will be gone at the end of December. christine _ nemcik @ yahoo . com (without the spaces) I’d love to keep in touch about gluten free ideas. The town we’re moving to in Indiana has a co-op health food store and members get pretty good deals, so hopefully that will help some with the cost of things. Our financial situation is going to change drastically once we move, so I guess it’s not a great time to have to go gluten free. Oh well, we’ll be much closer to family so I guess it’s a trade-off.

Funny about the celiac you know who is overweight. I actually know someone who had all kinds of health problems (thyroid, constipation, overweight, etc.) before she was received a positive biopsy diagnosis for celiac. After going gluten free her thyroid disease improved, and she LOST weight. I think what doctors are starting to realize is that there really aren’t “standard” symptoms anymore.

[Anonymous]

To both Christines- I have a great recipe for GF homemade chicken nuggets. You use GF mashed potato flakes, rice crackers and Perkys nutty rice cereal. I use equal amounts of each. Grind cereal and crackers in blender to a fine ground then put in bowl and you can add whatever seasonings you like. Then I dip chicken in a egg and water mixture, roll in breading then fry in coconut or canola oil. They are very crispy but you can add more crunch by adding GF corn flakes to the breading mix. We like them here! I’ve not tried it for fish sticks but I’ve been told you can use same breading mix.

[Anonymous]

Lynn — thanks for the recipe for the GF homemade chicken nuggets. I’ll definitely give those a go with Palmer. It’s perfect for us too, since we eat lots of chicken. So I can just cut up one of the chicken breasts to make nuggets for him while I’m baking for us.

[Anonymous]

Hi both Christines – I don’t know if you remember me from the “old” days when Sylvia, Palmer, and James were babies, but I still pop in here now and then and came across this thread…coincidently, I’ve just been tested for celiac as well (bloodwork only – no results yet) – was discussing some bloating/constipation issues with my ob while following up on an ovarian cyst…she asked about food intolerances and I mentioned how oddly good I felt (and how much weight I lost!) while James was a baby and I was off so many things, including wheat…will be interested to see if I’ll be joining the gluten-free club as well!

Sorry to hear about Sylvia’s dental problems – keep us posted – and take care –

[Anonymous]

hi tricia—–i haven’t heard from you in ages!!!! it’s good to see you around. which tests did they run on you? we’re waiting to get genetic testing results back so that we know who needs to continue being tested for the rest of their life—-so far we only know that ian needs yearly testing. gluten-free is really not as hard as other people think—-but it can be inconvenient at times. let us know how the tests come out.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tricia — of course I remember you…I’ve often wondered how you’re all doing. Hopefully you’ll get good news from the tests, but then again it was definitely a relief to have the answers to some of the health problems I’ve been having. Keep us up to date when you get the results.

By the way — Happy (almost) birthday to James! Can you imagine that our little ones are all (almost) 3? I can’t believe we’ve been around here that long!

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