I'm considering Gluten Free diet for DS

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-05-2003
I'm considering Gluten Free diet for DS
8
Sat, 04-05-2008 - 11:11am

For those of you who took this on, what kinds of differences did it make in your child's life and how long did it take to see a change?


My only

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-28-2007

First of all you can get a gluten/cassein level done and sent out to a lab to make sure ds needs gluten free diet. I sent a urine sample to The Great Plains lab and Liam's levels came back within the normal range. I believe the entire gf/cf test cost $99. We still tried a gf/cf diet and nothing helped, so the test really was spot on. It is possible of ourse that your pedi may refer you for the test and your ins might cover it.

The nice thing is The Great Plains lab send you the kit for free and you only pay when you send in the sample. Actually I just sent away for the lead hair test (for both boys). Once I get results then I can decide whether I need to find a DAN doctor or not (DAN docs are few and far between here and VERY pricey).

Here's the link,

http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/

Dee

Spring sig 2008


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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-05-2003
Thank you very much, Dee!
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-29-2004

Dee, you amaze me, really. For my son, we ask the pedi to write up blood work and got the test done. He was was < 1 for all. But started the gluten/casien free diet anyway for 6 - 8 months. It was very pricey, but did not see any improvement. SO now we watch for dyes and cook more naturally. THe one thing that helps Sravan is the B-6 /Mag and we continue to do that. WHen we did GFCF diet, I mail ordered food and rest I got from Whole foods and trader joe's


iVillage Member
Registered: 09-10-2004

My DS has been GF/CF since last Sept/Oct.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-13-2004

Dee,


That's a fantastic resource!!! Thank you! Do you know offhand how much the lead test is?


Thanks,


Eris

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-28-2007

Around $225 I think. I know they now accept BCBC ppo also. Click on the link, they will give you all the prices too.

Dee

Spring sig 2008


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003

I don't know about gluten free but I found when we had to do dairy and egg free because of allergies, couple with a low carb thing for me, that it made more nutritional and financial sense to cut the thing out altogether, rather than subsitute. I also had to do gluten-free for a coeliac, but I don't remember much about it, except that we did the same thing - didn't bother with subsitutions. So, in your case, don't bother with gluten-free bread or pasta, just don't eat bread or pasta. Get your carbs through rice & potatoes instead. Have pasta sauce with salad and crunchy veggies instead of pasta. Do lunch boxes with crudites (veggies) instead of sandwiches. Cut out fast food (burgers) or cook burgers at home with salad rather than buns. It means changing the way you eat radically, and it's very difficult to adjust in the short term, but in the medium to long term it's far cheaper, and easier, (and in my opinion healthier) than tracking down specialist foods. Soya milk and cheese were a complete pain the arse for us, it was far better to just not drink milk or eat cheese and get calcium and protein in other ways. Rice pasta is horrible anyway, it turns to mush. We found that we ended up cutting convenience and junk food out altogether because I was too lazy to read ingredients religiously, it was a lot easier to cook simple things from scratch,

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-19-2005

Hi there,


I just wanted to support the idea of getting tests done before you start.