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Hi

My daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 4 years ago at the age
of 3 ½.  Six weeks later she was diagnosed with Celiac also.

Like your son, Jessica showed almost no signs of Celiac prior to
diagnosis - she had the odd gastro bout with vomiting and diarrhea, but
what kid doesn't?

Since going Gluten free she is now extremely sensitive to any gluten
whatsoever which I guess is to be expected - any thing that you're
sensitive to will have a much greater impact if you haven't had it for a
while, rather than having a constant level of resistance to it.  Now, if
Jessica has the slightest amount of gluten (and we are very vigilent)
she will be vomitting within the hour - severe stomach cramps in about
30 minutes.

We probably have one bout like this every two months, usually we can
not pin point the cause of the attack - most likely cross contamination.


We've also had two bouts of gastro in the past 4 years which have
resulted in Jessica having to go to hospital as she couldn't keep
anything down.  For a 'normal' kid, they'd just weather it and be back
to normal next day - it's hard to explain to family and friends that
yes, Jessica was in hospital yesterday but today she's running around
with the other kids!

As a result of the strictness of the diet and also the impact of
getting it wrong, we've found that Jessica is an extremely fussy eater
who is not very willing to try new foods or tastes - in many ways this
limits her diet, but again, I try to remember that most 7 year olds
don't have a very broad food range anyway.

We rarely eat out, and when we do, we take along a meal for Jessica to
be served - certainly the combination of diseases has meant that there
is no impromtu or spur of the moment activities in our family - we can't
just decide to stay out later, or to drop by a friends house and stay
for dinner, or eat take away in the park - things that most families
take for granted...but we also know that other families have it worse.

Jessica says that the worst thing about her diseases is the celiac -
she could live with the needles and blood tests, but it's not being able
to eat any of the food at birthday parties that she hates!

We consider that it's our job as Jessica's parents to show her how she
can live in this society with Celiac Disease - teach her how to order in
restaurants, and how to take her own food with her, and be prepared - at
7 though it's still a tough journey.

Best of luck

Leanne

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