If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know that after a period of much distress with the little one we removed wheat from her diet when she was 2 and as a result discovered she was wheat intolerant.
We adapted.
I started baking with her a lot more.
And it wasn’t easy because so many things have wheat flour in them. Silly things like sweets.
And there are very few quick and easy things you can make when you can’t have wheat flour.
And going out to eat is a nightmare although it is getting better with companies like Pizza Hut introducing a gluten free base.
But we made it work. And we discovered that it really was only wheat that she had a problem with– and luckily she’s not hypersensitive.
For example I missed the wheat flour in smarties and she ate a whole tube but was totally fine.
School is really good and gives her snacks that are ok and now she is old enough to refuse food until she’s sure it doesn’t have wheat in it.
We haven’t had any recurrences of accidental wheat intake in at least 6 months.
We talked to the doctor eventually and were assigned a dietician at the local hospital. They got us a monthly prescription for 10 units of GF product from the pharmacy.
We missed our November appointment because they are made a year in advance so we ended up going in January. All was well. She was weighed and measured and was happy. She loves the play room in the children’s outpatient department!
Last week I got a reminder on my phone for our next appt the day before we were due to go! Why do they not send out reminder letters closer to the date when there is a year between appointments?!
Anyway, once more she was measured and weighed. The doctor was very pleased. Her numbers are tracking comfortably just under the 50th centile. We are doing something right in the way she is eating because she is growing totally normally.
I was relieved because young kids are fussy at the best of times and with the challenges of diet I was extra worried that she wasn’t eating enough of the right things.
The doctor suggested we specifically give her barley in soup or risotto to make sure it is just wheat not all gluten. We should then start to gradually introduce wheat and see if she has any tolerance now it is 2 years+ since we removed it from her diet.
The doctor was so happy that we have it all in hand that she says we don’t need to keep going back for annual visits. She has given me an open appointment so I can go back if I need to, but now it’s all down to us (which is pretty much has been anyway!)
All in all it was a successful visit. I’m really happy that the limitations of her diet aren’t really impacting on her development in any way.
I’ll keep you posted on how I get on once we start trying her with wheat again.
