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Hello fellow CD parents,

I am at my wits end and in need of some help.  My  2 1/2 year old son was
diagnosed with Celiac about 6 weeks ago.  We are having behavioral issues
with him now and I am not quite sure how to deal with it.  I am hoping you
may have some 'pearls of wisdom' that might help me through this.

When diagnosed, he was basically refusing to eat anything and having
severe behavioral problems in any eating situation (at the dinner table,
etc.).  Once we started the GF diet, we were told to try to make
eating 'fun' and not have any battles over eating.  We tried letting him
color at the table, bring toys to the table, etc.  This enables us to put
food in his mouth(he won't self feed but will allow us to put food in to
his mouth wi
th a folk) because he is 'distracted' by the toys, coloring,
etc.

I thought that once he started to feel better, he would start eating on
his own again...boy, was I wrong!!!!

Now that he is starting to gain a bit of weight (and I am sure feeling a
bit better), I really need him to get back to more of a 'normal' self-
feeding behavior (I have a 14 month old as well and meal times are
becoming very difficult with both of them requiring so much attention).
I've tried no toys, etc. and he will just sit there in his seat and not
touch his food, he will throw tantrums for his favorite toys, even started
hitting me/kicking tables and throwing cups, dishes, etc.  All this time
he will NOT feed himself (longest meal was 2 hours with no self
feeding..it is driving me crazy)....

His behavior the rest of the time (i.e. not food related) is fine.  He is
in fact pretty
 well behaved if eating is not involved.

So here is my question:  Did anyone have similar experiences with your
toddlers of having extremely poor behavior with eating?  If so, did you
try to 'normal' toddler approaches of basically letting them go hungry for
a few days/weeks (I have not yet had the nerve to do this since he is so
recently diagnosed and still under-weight).  I am not sure how much of
this is a true disorder(that I may possibly go to a child psychologist
for) or just a 2 1/2 year old taking advantage of the situation (i.e.
getting more attention regarding food, etc.).

Any thoughts from veterans like yourselves would be invaluable.  I will
compile all the responses for the archive..

Thanks!

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