Coeliac daughter went for her annual checkup yesterday. Usually, they weigh and measure her, ask about eating, sleeping and her digestive functions (using the ‘poo chart‘). They check up on development and general health, check her fingernails and skin, and feel her tummy for ‘lumps and bumps’. Finally, they organise blood tests and a bone age scan.
That’s how it has been for the last 10 years. This year her paediatrician was so pleased with her health that we’ve been allowed to skip the blood tests and scan. Daughter is thrilled to bits – she hates the blood tests.
I asked the paediatrician – who was new to us – a couple of questions:
1. would she recommend a gluten challenge?
When coeliac daughter was diagnosed, the doctors were recommending a gluten challenge once her health had stabilised and before she reached puberty. Since then, as she’s seen a number of different doctors, it has become clear that this was no longer seen as necessary. And our new paediatrician very kindly went all the way back through her notes – and she, too, thinks a gluten challenge isn’t necessary.
2. would it be OK for us to add pure oats to the menu?
Recent research has indicated that oats may be acceptable for coeliacs in small doses. And we’ve been given permission to try them out and see. This would broaden our range quite significantly, and if she can tolerate them, would make life just that bit easier. So now I just need to obtain some certified pure oats …
So both daughter and I are very pleased with our day yesterday.
If you have views about either a gluten challenge or oats, please do share – these issues are top of my agenda at the moment.
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I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
I’m delighted to hear how well your daughter is doing. An great news that a gluten challenge will not be needed.
I hope your hunt for certified gluten free oats is successful.
Sheltie Girl @ Gluten A Go Go
Thanks Sheltie Girl. I’m looking forward to making her flapjacks (one of my favourites, so I hope she’ll like them too)
was diagnosed just over a year ago and recently tried free-from oats as i do miss not being able to have porridge, but having tried them have found they still cause me probs, so will have to stick with the very limited cereal range out there, hope your daughter is more successful.
I’ve been a Coeliac for over ten years now and I truly sympathise with the problems you’ve had finding gluten-free products. I am sorry to read that Joy has found problems with gluten-free oats; I have been buying them since I first saw them last year at Waitrose (I couldn’t believe my eyes!) and they’ve caused no problems whatsoever. There are only 2 reasons I can think for Joy having problems:
1. That she’s eating something else that has gluten in and doesn’t realise it (e.g. cornflakes).
2. That she suffers from IBS (as I do) and reacts in a similar way when getting IBS as she does when having gluten. This often happens to me when I eat something I’m not used to and might therefore be her body’s reaction to eating the oats.
Either way, I definitely recommend buying gluten-free oats. They mean the variety of food you can eat as a Coeliac is so much better (porridge, muesli, flapjacks etc…). Just be careful only to buy certified gluten-free oats!