Candace Creations: Gluten & Dairy

How Gluten Impacts Children

This is a GREAT video, you just have to get past the poor sound quality...I hope they redo this video because the info is so great.

so much of what he says in the above video applied to J before going gluten free! Some I already knew about but there were a few other things that applied to J that I didn't attribute to Gluten until I saw this video and then EVERYTHING made even more sense and I am just so grateful I went with my mommy instincts and got her off if it when we did! She has made huge improvements physically, socially, developmentally, behaviorally, etc.

The main symptoms that were obvious to me were chronic constipation and gas, we always joked she was a gas machine! along with bad tummy aches at night that had me rushing to her room at the sound of her shrieking and screaming bloody murder without even being fully conscious, as well as being tired after a good nights sleep, irritable and having bags under her eyes all the time, even though she got 12 hours of sleep every night and took long naps every afternoon. After two weeks off gluten, I noticed a huge change in her...she had a relaxed smile on her face while conversing with me (a happy smile I had never seen on her face before), speaking better than she ever had (as she struggled with speech and I was about to take her to speech therapy as she was developing so slow in that area) while maintaining eye contact with me the whole time and her eyes just looked brighter (which she would hardly EVER do before....we used to have to trick her to make eye contact with us...the only way we could get it is if we would ask her to tell us what color our eyes were...then she would look at our eyes to see real quick...otherwise....very little to no eye contact.) and she started pooping regularly without problems and had a normal amount of gas and no more waking up screaming at night. One of the things mentioned in the video is how they grow slower and the delayed development...I always wondered if that was because of gluten but didn't know. She always met her milestones right about the same week or the week after they say you should call a developmental specialist if they haven't mastered it by a certain timeframe. She also was always very tiny and small for her age, she wore her baby clothes FOREVER! Finally in the past year since she's been off gluten, she has grown out of most of her clothes and shoes ( swore her feet NEVER grew) and has even grown out of her new clothes. Now people often comment that she is tall! Which I never thought would happen! It's insane how much she has grown this past year compared to the rest of her life...she was always in the 0-3 percentile at her pediatrician checkups for height and weight.
Also, this may sound crazy, but in my gut, ever since she was born, I had this constant feeling that she was going to end up with juvenile diabetes. My sister has it and it does run in families, although out of a TON of cousins, my sister and our uncle are the only ones with it....so I don't know why I was so worried about J, but I just couldn't stop always feeling like I needed to prevent her from getting diabetes because I just felt like it was in her genes. I now know that Gluten is a major contributor to causing autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes and knowing what I know now, I'm so relieved because when I took her off gluten I had no idea of the connection between gluten and autoimmune diseases so I feel like we may have dodged a bullet. (fyi-most members of my family have gone off gluten and felt much better and most members of my family have some form of autoimmune disease so I can definitely vouch for a connection between gluten and autoimmune disease)

Joint Pain and Gluten

I love being able to braid my little girls hair now that I'm off gluten and my joint pain is gone. This was literally impossible for me with the way my joints were becoming more and more rigid and painful. I could barely unscrew a cap or turn the key to unlock the door!

Gluten Free Diet 3 Days In...

My Gluten Free Recipe Board on Pinterest

Awesome Gluten Free Cookbooks and Guides...especially Cooking for Isaiah...with her recipes...no one will ever feel deprived, actually...you will be making even better food then you do now most likely.