Question for those who are gluten-free

[Nestof3]

My mom has Celiac Disease, and I am calling Monday to get tested. In the meantime, prior to my mom finding this out (she found out while he was being tested for totally unrelated things), my stomach had been bloating and gaseous, and I was wondering what was going on.

 

So, today, I have been gluten-free. I felt fine after breakfast (which was lighter than usual) -- a chocolate almond banana "milkshake" with flax seed.

 

I then rode mu bike. I was feeling great -- no bloating, no gas.

 

For lunch, I made some brown rice, diced apples, pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon and ground flaxseed with milk. I also had low-fat cottage cheese with pineapple and pears.

 

My stomach feels a little puffy now. Edit -- actually, it doesn't feel puffy anymore. ????

 

Do these sorts of symptoms go away as soon as one cuts out gluten or does it take time?

Edited March 1, 2009 by nestof3

[Lawana]

To my knowledge, Celiac symptoms do take time to resolve. Meanwhile, have you considered lactose intolerance?

 

Lawana

[athena1277]

First off, if you are going to be tested, DO NOT start a gluten-free diet yet. There is no way to get a correct diagnosis if you are already gluten-free. Wait til after all your testing is done, including endoscope/intestinal biopsy if needed.

 

Secondly, about the symptoms. They do go away, but it takes time. Dd was almost 2 when she got her diagnosis as CD. At that point she was becoming very malnourished. It took a few weeks to get better, but a month later when dh came home from a deployment, she was a totally different child. People at church even made comments about how much better she seemed.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have questions about celiac disease. I have done lots of research on it and even have ds enrolled in a study on infants and CD.

 

HTH!

[Nestof3]

Thanks Melissa. I was actually only doing this for two days -- I'm sure I won't be able to get an appointment for a few weeks.

 

Lawana, I have the bloating and gas even when I go the entire day without dairy.

[dragons in the flower bed]

The immediate after-eating belly pain I had felt all of my life (and presumed everyone felt) stopped the same day I stopped eating gluten. The tendency to have random moments of unpleasant digestive issues, and the lethargy, went away a few weeks later. I remember getting very sick a few days after I stopped eating gluten, though, and wondering if there was a detox effect or I had inadvertently re-contaminated myself or if it was something else.

[Maria from IN]

I don't have celiac disease, but I am allergic to several different grains. When I found out what they were and quit eating them altogether, it still took about 3 weeks for the bloating and pain to go away.

 

Once it did, though, I felt much better. :001_smile:

[Nestof3]

Update: I have had no belching, gas pain, or bloating since lunch. I fell great! :D

 

My mom is having a hard time -- though she has been perfectly gluten-free for over a week -- because she is almost 70 years old and has eaten a pretty narrow spectrum of foods her whole life. There are just so many things she won't try.

 

I gave her some of the rice I made today, and she liked it. I am going to make some flour mixture (one I found online) and invite her over to make something with it. I am proud of how well she is doing.

 

She's not big on beans or rice, but she will eat them, so I am going to help her with making some meal plans. Though we have been eating a lot of wheat, we also eat other grains a lot along with lentils and beans.

 

I don't know for certain at this point whether my issues are related to gluten, but I am willing to eat however I need to in order to not experience that gas pain anymore.

[keptwoman]

Like Dragons the immediate crippling stomach pain went away right away but I still got random bloating and pain for quite a long time.

 

Dairy is the same too btw. It takes about a month to get it out of your system.

[yarrow]

before I felt better and about a year before I really stopped craving wheat all the time. One of the best websites I've found for gluten-free cooking is http://www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com.

 

She has lots of great recipes and talks about different flour combinations.

 

Karen

[Nestof3]

Thanks Karen! I found her blog last night and thought it was great!

 

I'm okay without wheat, but not being able to order out pizza or chinese will be a pain, and worrying about cross-contamination sounds like a bigger pain!

 

Oh, Karen -- have you tried any of her desserts? I was thinking of making one and inviting my mom over for dessert and coffee.

Edited March 2, 2009 by nestof3

[SonshineLearner]

If you can get some gluten free oats, I have an amazing Crepe recipe...that's Oat groats ground to flour ...with yogurt/kefir...and arrowroot powder.....

 

Carrie:-)

[ElizabethB]

Teff flour is a nice flour for dessert type things.

 

Oat flour is a good replacement for wheat for many things, and oat milk is nice in coffee if you're also giving up dairy. I'm avoiding things I'm allergic to, not gluten, but I've read that oat should be gluten free if not cross contaminated.

 

Most larger health food stores have nice selections of gluten free products.

 

Plantain flour was also nice for dessert type things, but I reacted to it (but not bananas, who knows, very strange since I don't think I've ever had a plantain!)

[klmama]

Just wondering if you might have a problem with certain veggies or fruits that you hadn't eaten yet when you posted. I tried going gluten-free and dairy-free at one point, thinking that might be my problem, but all that happened was I lost a lot of weight. (Not a bad thing at all, but that wasn't the goal!) It turned out that I needed extra digestive enzymes to digest many veggies and fruits. After taking them for a couple of years, along with some good probiotics, my digestive tract is much healthier now, and I can skip the digestive enzymes when I eat small amounts. Meals heavy in veggies, like stir-fry, still need enzymes, as do any cruciferous veggies. Just something for you to consider while you wait to be tested.

 

I agree with the others, though, that you shouldn't eliminate the gluten before the test. You want an accurate test so you can know for sure. If you do have celiac, you want the diagnosis to be "official" so you can claim the financial difference of any medically necessary changes in diet on your taxes (if it makes up a significant enough portion of your income).

[oceandaughter]

Have you tried gluten free girl's blog. She is such a good writer. It helps to read her stuff.

 

We are gluten free as a family for Lent (we aren't usually the type to do Lent but we decided to this time) to support one of our kids who has a mild asd and is helped by a gf diet.

 

He was gf for a while, over a year, and it really helped. We thought maybe he had outgrown it so we let him have gluten again for two months and symptoms started reappearing. So now we are back on the gf train.

 

First advice is to give up on bread for a while. Focus on things you can eat. There really is a lot. Find a good brand of gf pasta you like (we prefer it to regular now). My favorite pastas are made with brown rice. My boys like corn pasta as well.

 

Try a few brownie recipes to start. The gluten free gourmet (a book) has a good one. Look on google, too. I think that Bob's Red Mill makes a brownie mix.

 

Go to your local health food store and buy some cookies for those occasions when you are going to be somewhere and want a treat. Also look for gluten free (wheat free) tamari instead of soy sauce.

 

Once you have found some nice cake and brownie type recipes you like, make up batches of cupcakes for the freezer. When you are going somewhere where there will be cake, grab one or two.

 

Offer to bake birthday cakes for people even. That way you can make it gluten free and most of the time, people don't know the difference.

 

I can email you some more ideas and offer support. I'm coming from a different perspective as I'm mostly working on keeping a child gf so I have all sorts of tips for kid friendly food. I have made people's birthday cakes for them many times and in the town I used to live in (I'm in the UK now), I was just starting to bake cakes for people's parties.

 

Watch out for candy, it can trip you up. Barley in any form has gluten. Also Walmart's marshmallows are guaranteed gf, my sister has possible celiac and has looked into that. If the test comes up negative for Celiac, keep trying the gf diet. Sometimes it just helps. My child hasn't got any tests that say he is allergic or sensitive to gluten, but we can tell the difference when he's been eating it. Honestly since being gf, I am starting to feel sharper and more aware.

 

Also watch for oats and beer. I have some leads on gf beer if you are interested. I can't stand beer myself, but my husband has been looking into it since we are as a family going gf for a bit. His skin cleared up when we were gf before.

 

Good luck to you. Try to focus on what you can eat. What is already gf. After a while, it will all become second nature. If you are in the UK, I can give you lots of good things to try and tell you where to get them. I forgot the brand names of the US stuff unfortunately.

[yarrow]

of the Gluten-free goddesses desserts. My favorites are the coconut carrot cake and the flourless chocolate cake. Everyone else in my family can eat gluten and they love these desserts.

 

Yes, it is difficult not being able to order out for pizza and having to check labels more carefully but feeling better is much more important. I'd reiterate the importance of not going gf before your test. After hearing from my dr. about the impact a gluten-free diet has for some people in eliminating migraines I went gluten-free. Three different times I went back to eating gluten because I couldn't bear the thought of having to give up gluten. I was a former baker! I baked everyday! Well, each time I went back to gluten, all my symptoms returned and then it took another 3 weeks for them to disappear again. When my doc finally referred me to a gastroenterologist, I had already been gluten-free for a year and he said the tests wouldn't be accurate. I decided to not officially get the diagnosis because I wasn't willing to go through it again. I think that it takes 6 mos/1 year for your body to try to repair the damage done by eating gluten.

 

Also, most oats are considered unsafe because of cross-contamination but there are two companies that sell certified gf oats. I only remember the name of gluten-free oats in wyoming because that's where I buy mine.

 

If you have any other questions, please feel free to pm me.

 

Karen

[BonAmy]

I have one child with celiac, and my other 4 kids have all kind of diagnosed allergies too..

gluten, dairy, eggs, kidney beans, beef, peanuts, soy, sugar, etc.

 

Just wanted to encourage you that you can change your diet fairly easily. It took about a month for my kids to get over the effects of their dairy allergies. It took my celiac boy about 2 months to be able to have relatively normal bowel movements without the horrible pain, bloating and stench.

 

Everyone, everyone, everyone told me how hard it would be to change our diet. It actually was not hard!! We drink rice milk, rice cheese, buffalo, rice, lots of fruit and vegies, ezekiel bread, homemade baked goods (lots of great websites with recipes are out there, plus great cookbooks available). Agave syrup is good, you should try it.

 

Our whole family follows the diet of the most allergenic child. It has benefitted all of us. There is nothing in the house that we can't all eat, and that has made it alot easier on all the kids, no one feels left out or different, kwim?

 

Best of luck, this is fun, you can do it!

BonAmy