Gluten free diet blog

When my dd’s supervisor showed me this letter from one of her otherclients, I immediately wanted to share it with all of you. I wasamazed at how articulate this boy is and his depth of thought on thetopic.

He is 9 years old, nonverbal, and diagnosed with severe autism. Hejust began using a Facilitated Communication device recently. Thequestion my dd’s supervisor posed was “What does autism mean to you.”Here is his reply. I have typed his words verbatim. I have notaltered his sentence structure or thoughts at all.

“What do I think autism means. To me it means not to be able to fullyconnect with myself. I can not control some of the things I say or do.I feel at times out of control. Other times I feel scared of whatothers may think. I have all my life had to prove to people that I amreally intelligent and kind. Huge amount of people have finallybelieved in me. The toughest part of being autistic is the sillythoughts that go through your head. People don’t understand what I amthinking of. It’s frustrating. Autism is not easy to define to somebodywho isn’t but, the easiest way to put it into words would be probablydisconnection from yourself and others. People are now understandingthat it more prevalent. There needs to be more research on infantswhile in the tummy. I know there is some clues there. As to why thereis autism. I’m just happy to be alive and healthy. I’m just lucky tohave my family and friends. Having them helps me cope with life. I’mvery lucky.”

When my dd’s supervisor asked him if she could share this letter withothers so that they could understand what it’s like to have autism, hetyped the following response:

“Yes. Yes please. I want others to know. I think it’s important forpeople to know. I’m really proud of my paper. I worked really hard onit. Thank you.”

I was blown away by the complexity of mind that this boy displayed. Itaught typical 9-10 year olds in 4th grade for 5 years and this levelof thought is rare indeed.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Even after the establishment of GF diet, one or more of the original symptoms may continue. If this happens, it is important to consult your physician because there may be additional food sensitivities or other health considerations involved.

Lactose Intolerance
It is common condition in those who have CD. If lactase is not present to assist digestion of the milk sugar, lactose, the body responds with symptoms such as bloating, gas and diarrhea. Lactose intolerance can be simply monitored during a usual physician visit.

Molds
Sensitivity to food and air-borne molds is also common for those patients who diagnosed CD. This is likely to include such common foods as mold-based cheeses, mushrooms, yeast and yeast products and xanthan, which may be used as a binder in some gluten-free breads.

Food Allergies
A lesser number of celiac patients tell that one or more food allergies also influence them. About 90% of food-based allergies are connected with eight main categories: milk, soy, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts and wheat. Remember that one can have an allergy to wheat and not have celiac disease.

For each of these conditions you have to make necessary dietary changes and related adjustments with the help of your monitoring physician. But for the majority of celiac patients the gluten-free diet is the entire treatment.

If symptoms go on to persist after adopting a GF diet and checking for additional sensitivities, further refinement may be needed.

There are many perfect wheat flour substitutes and it is often hard to know where to start.
Try the following first:
1. For flouring or breading meats: refuse; or try cornmeal, potato flakes, almost any blend of rice, bean or sorghum flours you usually use; crushed potato chips, gluten-free cereal or gluten-free bread crumbs. Select a product similar to what it substitutes.
2. For gravies and sauces: sweet rice flour or cornstarch. Pay attention to product packings to see proportions of liquid or thickener as well as cooking instructions. Note that starches break down and get thin under high heat or long cooking times.
3. For pudding and pie fillings: cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca or arrowroot. As starches get watery after about a day, you can use a mild flavored gluten-free flour. Look for a gluten-free flour combination such as sweet rice flour or a general rice flour and starch blend.

Here are some tips how to adapt almost any food to become gluten-free:
1. Concantrate only on the items of the recipe that are necessary to be adapted. Select recipes with foods containing very little flour or gluten. Sometimes the flour can be excluded. Focus on the major flavors. Serve simple fruit and vegetables. While reviewing a recipe mark problem ingredients in it.
2. Refuse recipes containing convenience foods. Go back to the “from scratch” recipes - the convenience food substitutes. Learn to make the basic sauces and gravies often used in casseroles and soups.
3. Look in a gluten-free cookbooks for a similar recipe. Proportions are the key so compare them. Flour and other components acting as thickeners are compared to the amount of liquids in the recipe. Keep proportions almost the same for your recipe. Adding the same amount of liquid, it takes less starch to thicken than flour.
4. Eat commercial or home-made gluten-free substitutes. For instance, gluten-free bread, macaroni and corn tortillas.
5. Try not to complicate anything but take family health concerns, likes, dislikes and food dollars available into consideration.

My son’s IgG food allergies came back to show Sean is severlysensitive to peanuts and only mildly sensitive to casein and wheat(and no other glutens). Our DAN! doc suggested removing peanutstotally and rotate all of his mild sensitive foods. I feel like weshould be gf/cf, but does it work on a rotation basis?We need a substitute for peanut butter - has anyone tried GoldenPeabutter from Mrs.

Rice Dream rice milk as I have been told is not gfcf due to the fact thatthey use barley in their processing. Does anyone know if their ice cream isalso tainted?

Well, the first week on the GFCF diet I was thrilled. Because after 10years of constipation, the child had regular bowel movments all week!!! Butnow, we are back to more serious constipation. Could it be that I’m usingrice milk rather than soy? I heard soy is so close to cows milk, so I’veused the soy. almond is not available here. I’ve removed bananas andapples and he eats pears and drinks pear nectar. . and prunes prunes,prunes! Still it’s a struggle!

OK..I’ve been allowing my son to eat this 1-2X per week and we haveseen a return of eye stimming (mild), humming, hyperactivity, poorfocus. Is this cross contamination from wheat or the oats themselves?

Has anyone tried these and if so, are they good? Also, I havechecked the web and can’t find any ingredient information on thesebars. Do you know if they contain eggs?

I think I got the information I need to make the pizza crust, but nowwhat can I use for sauce since my son can’t have tomatoes. I have afriend who had a recipe, but now she can’t find it.