My little man seems SO miserable. He's got his GI symptoms, the raw rash on his bottom, belly aches ( didn't know he hurt before, but now I do! ) Going to bed really early, not sleeping well, drinking TONS ( well, with diarrhea like he as it's no wonder...)

Is it normal to react like this~ strongly it seems and for a good bit of time, over such a small amount after being gluten-free for 2 weeks? I am beginning to fear he won't go back to being "normal" He's so miserable, and my heart is breaking....

everyone reacts differently, but yes, it is "normal" for us... not "normal" for everyone else though... What was it that set him off? I can't remember if I read that or not...

Oh poor little guy. Don't be discouraged, we all have occasional set backs. What did he have that glutened him?

Charlene

On Saturday~ his birthday, we were snowed out of our home. He had a small ( baby small) slice of his birthday cake, about half of a roll, and some breaded shrimp.. Monday came and he got a small snitch of said B~day cake ( just a bite before I caught him~ then it went in the trash).... He was feeling much better before this.....

He's sooooooo miserable I swear I won't trial him EVER again if this is how it's going to be...

When I did that to my son the same thing happened. He was miserable for days! It was terrible and I knew he would never be given gluten willingly. My husband and I both felt sorry for him. He layed around and rollled around on the floor from his belly hurting, diarhea, etc. for a few days. It took about 4 days! Make sure that you have him 100% gluten free and no dairy until he gets back on track.
Sorry he so miserable.
Monica

So you know, Cherrybrook Kitchen makes an awesome gfcf cake mix and frosting that would be safe for your little guy to have and tastes like regular cake. It is considerably more expensive but for once a year is well worth it. If you have a lot of people coming over for cake, you could make two separate cakes or make a tiered cake with one gluten-free tier just for your ds (just be sure to use some sort of separater so that his tier doesn't get contaminated. I did this one year for my dd's birthday and it turned out awesome. Plus, no one was the wiser. I made a giant daisy cake with the center cake being gluten-free. Everyone was all excited about how the cake looked and never knew that I'd done it specifically to keep dd gluten-free.

It's also interesting to see that no one noticed the entire menu was free of all of dd's other allergens. They all were quite happy with the food and none the wiser that they had stepped into an allergen-free party. lol!!

Hope your little one feels better soon. I think that birthday parties are the roughest thing to deal with when it comes to celiac's. You can control it at home but everyone else's cake is always off-limits and such a bummer.

I hope that your son continues to feel better each day!

If I were to ingest breaded shrimp, cake, and half a roll, I would probably be sick for a solid month! Even if I get a sprinkling of bread crumbs, I'll be sick for days. So I would say it probably is normal for him to still be sick. Poor thing! Hopefully he'll be feeling better for Christmas.

Yep, sadly that sounds completely normal for a celiac reaction. For my daughter, the longer she was gluten free, the stronger her reaction became. Now I would say it takes her a good solid month to completely get back to normal, and two weeks for the physical reactions to subside. Wish I had video of her moaning in pain to show all the family members who look at me like I'm being paranoid when I won't let her have a "little" piece of b-day cake!

At least you have some answers now, and can continue down the gluten free road with complete confidence. Give your little man lots of cuddles for us, and hope he feels better soon!

Thanks so much for the info~ it helps. I think I was beginning to panic that his "recovery" after being gluten-free was a fluke~ even though he's never been so normal in his life... I was afraid the dreaded medication topic would come back around... I will give it some more time, and strictly gluten-free from now on...


As for the reasons why he was glutened~ we were snowed/iced in at my MIL's home, no gluten-free items to substitute. We figured since we were going to trial him anyhow, may as well let him have his goodies on his birthday since that is what was available. I thought I was giving him a LITTLE bit~ he's a very small 2 year old and didn't figure he could eat enough to do lots of damage.. Boy, was I wrong. Lesson learned.

[quote name='shayesmom' date='Dec 22 2005, 04:40 AM' post='86179']
So you know, Cherrybrook Kitchen makes an awesome gfcf cake mix and frosting that would be safe for your little guy to have and tastes like regular cake.
[/quote]

Yumm, I haven't heard of this brand. I'll have to check it out

[/quote]
If you have a lot of people coming over for cake, you could make ....make a tiered cake with one gluten-free tier just for your ds (just be sure to use some sort of separater so that his tier doesn't get contaminated. [/quote]

Ackkkkk...never ever ever ever ever ever do this! i can see no way to avoid contamination. Have separate cakes or just one gluten-free cake. Anyways, as you noticed:

[/quote]
It's also interesting to see that no one noticed the entire menu was free of all of dd's other allergens. They all were quite happy with the food and none the wiser that they had stepped into an allergen-free party. lol!! [/quote]

Sooooo true No one has said a word about ds's gluten-free birthdays, or the gluten-free xmas coming up, or anything else gluten-free. If the food is good, they will eat it

Merika

LOL!! Normally I would agree but I did find a way to use a glass stand for Shaye's gluten-free cake that completely separated AND elevated her cake away from the lower tier of regular cake. The stand (I believe it was intended as a covered cake stand or possibly even a cheese dish) had a glass lid on it that also kept her cake quite safe from the cake below it. Wish I could post a pic of it as it turned out really well and dd had no issues with being glutened by it. Paper separators would not be an option for sure and it would of course be absolutely necessary to have separate knives and cake serving utensils. I should have been more specific. Thanks for pointing that out Merika!

My husband's grandmother used to make the coolest cakes for him. One year she took bread pans and made separate cakes in the shape of a train. So that could easily be adapted to have a gluten-free train car for the celiacs in the family. For girls you could use flowers or heart shapes and if you have stands....have the cakes "cascade". Heck, I've even done a disney princess castle which I think I could adapt to have a separated gluten-free portion. It takes a bit of time to do these things but most cake mixes freeze quite well and so you up to a week (maybe more) to get the whole thing together. My dd was ecstatic about her birthday cakes as not only was cake on the menu for her that day, but she was all excited about the presentation as well. Makes for a memorable occasion.

Well, it took a little longer than last time to clear up, but he FINALLY did. So, I am certain we will steer clear of all gluten from now on, it is just TOO much on his little body. Thanks to all and the wonderful info!!!

Just a quick question on gluten-free cake~ can you make it, and freeze it? I mean, so that he can have a little bit at other parties, like his sister's bday? I'd hate to make a whole/big one and have it go to waste.....

I've never tried to freeze gluten-free cake, but I would think that it would be no different from regular wheat cake. If you package it well and don't keep it too long (as you would normally do) I think it should be fine.

Yes, it can easily be frozen. I slice up the cake into individual servings, wrap them in sandwich bags and then freeze in either some freezer-safe tupperware or in foodsaver bags so that Shaye can have desserts for other occasions. I have also made gluten-free cupcakes and done the same. It keeps just fine in the freezer if wrapped properly. I do this with gluten-free cookies too as well as pancakes, casseroles, soups (in mason jars), etc.. I've also made it a point when I bake to wrap up separate containers to go to my mom's and mil's homes so that they also have treats for Shaye when she is over. It also gets me out of a "bind" should we ever stay over longer and are in need of gluten-free food for Shaye outside of our home. Even some snack-size bags are useful for trips to the mall or other friends' homes. It's nice to have the extras around to gain a little more "freedom" as far as leaving the house or on the days when cooking isn't feasible (it happens! lol!!).

In reality, the gluten-free food doesn't keep as well and so freezing is a necessity for me. I would watch it on the brownies though as they only keep for about 2 months in ziploc freezer bags before getting that stale taste. The rest seems to keep longer.