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My husband and I look to holistic medicine before seeking the council of
allopathic (standard) medicine, choosing to heal disease by
complimenting the body's natural responses with homeopathy and herbs, as
well as following a healthy diet of whole, natural foods. When we have
exhausted our alternatives, then we pursue an allopathic remedy.
In October '97, I took my then 3-year-old daughter to our new Dr.. (we
just moved to area) with a lingering, congested cough. He is an MD who
is also versed in homeopathic and herbal remedies. He really listened to
us, asking pointed questions about habits, lifestyle, etc. Very
comprehensive. After this exam, he prescribed an antibiotic for her
bronchitis (it's induced by leaf-mold allergy, because she got it again
this fall), and suggested we eliminate wheat and oats from her diet,
based on the fact that those were all she ate most of the time.
By the end of December of that year, my always very small daughter had
gained 10 lbs, and grown 4 inches. After doing quite a lot of research,
we concluded that she probably has celiac disease, based on all her
symptoms and her dramatic improvement once we made her gluten-free. Of
course, by that time, she had been gluten-free long enough to make any
diagnostic tests useless. Not that I'm all that excited about my now
4-yr-old having a biopsy.

Currently, she and I are at odds, because she was too young to remember
the pain she experienced on a gluten-filled diet, but is old enough to
understand that she is not being allowed to eat whatever she wants.
Today, I gave in; we had Chinese food for lunch, standard shopping mall
cookies for snack, and Papa's Pizza for dinner. She does know what she
is not supposed to eat. Frankly, I'm at wit's end. Let her eat whatever
she wants, let her get really sick. Or who knows, maybe she won't get
sick at all, and the symptoms she used to have were just figments of my
imagination!!!

With all that history, here are my questions: are there any other moms
of very young celiacs out there?... anyone "self-diagnosed" whose
symptoms improved with diet changes?... anyone who had the "typical"
symptoms go away with gluten-free diet, and then never return, even with
the reintroduction of gluten to the diet? Please contact me through
e-mail, I need all the information I can get!

Jennifer   8)