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I would appreciate anyones opinion on a dairy and Gluten free diet for a child (or adult for that matter). You see I am seeing an ND for my daughter, and saw her the first time this monday. My daughter has congenital hypothyroidism, and has had to take med for it since she was 2 weeks old. I am trying to threat the cause not the symptoms, in hopes that someday she will not have to take these drugs. She has never shown any signs of having this disease, it was just her numbers, and it has baffled even the specalist she sees at Childrens hospital. This ND specalizes in thyroid problems, but she wants my daughter to go on this diet to see if she has food allergies, and that might be making her thyroid issue worse. My daughter is 15 months old, and has been on cows milk since she was 12 months old, I breast-fed up to a year. I am just so new to the whole thing that milk is so bad, and still need to learn a lot about it. She doesn't even want her to have goats milk. No yogurt nothing like that... She said to use Almond or rice milk. Everything in the store though (even like whole foods) is just LADEN with sugar, bad things like soy lethicin, and only has 1 gram of protein! So if I do go the almond milk rout, I will make my own, which seems very easy to do. But that doesn't help with all the questions of how my daughter can get all the protein, and more so calcuim and vit D she needs. I don't think cows milk is all the great either, but was always taught it is a must for children till atleast 2. She gave me a list of things that she can get the things she needs, as far as food goes, but this is just all really overwelming to me, and I don't really know what to do. So until I can talk to Matia about this, does anyone have any suggestions, or have dealt with this kind of thing? I should stress my daughter has never shown and signs of being lactose or gluten sensitive. My thing? I need to decide wether to follow this 100% or not.
I am sorry that was so long, but anyones opinion on Gluten and dairy free diet with tips and such would be helpful to me right now, this is a very important thing right now for me, and I feel like it is stressing me out so much on what to do. I talked to Matia about it at my first app about 5 weeks ago, and she said I needed to really look into trying to get her off of the meds and that meds like Synthroid are an underlying cause for getting things like IC one day(I have ALWAYS felt bad about giving them to her, and I didn't know what else to do, and am just not learning so much more, AND they scare you have to death into it). Scares me so bad, because I would NEVER want my daughter to deal with this horrible disease that I have....
Ok I'll stop rambling...
Thanks
Kelsey
Could you try raw milk?
Could you try raw milk? Matia's a proponent of that, depending on the individual.
Separately, here's some further info on considerations on milk: http://www.westonaprice.org/Milk-It-Does-a-Body-Good.html
Dairy
Greens are very high in calcium. Could you somehow put them into soups or something? Kale and collards are especially high in calcium. There are other sources of protein besides milk too - meat, beans, etc. I think I remember reading that you can create a wholel protein by combining certain foods. Meat would be a whole protein as well as eggs. She is so young to be on those medications. I hope you can figure out the problem. There are food additives in many things too, so maybe one of those is bothering her. I sure hope you find some answers. You have to be your own detective these days.
Hopeful,Email me if you need
Hopeful,Email me if you need more support, but I have been gluten and dairy free for a few years now, in addition to the IC diet. It's completely overwhelming at first, especially for kids, but I urge you to commit to it 100% in the beginning until you find out for sure that allergies are not her issue. it's getting easier and easier to follow this lifestyle believe it or not. The hard part is cutting out sugar on top of it all. Don't worry, you'll figure it out. It comes down to being creative and very mindful of reading labels (which you are already accustomed to being with Matia). Whole Foods is a great place to start. As far as calcium, also canned sockeye salmon with some bones crushed up is good (not that kids like that) and dark leafy greens for sure. Dairy is absolutely NOT good for most people and it is purely a myth that kids NEED it until 2 years of age. Raw milk is a much better option, but if your ND is having her avoid milk, it's the casein and lactose she's really wanting to avoid, and as I understand it raw milk has that as well. So raw milk may be an option down the line, but you need to eliminate all milk for now. Hemp, rice and almond milk are all good alternatives. Whatever you do, avoid soy as much as possible. You may ask her if goat milk may be a better choice as it's much more easily tolerated than cow milk. It also most closely resembles human milk as far as protein content goes so their little tummies can digest it more easily. As far as gluten, it's tough to be gluten free, much more so than dairy I think. I basically cut out all breads for a while and sometimes used the sprouted grain GF ones later on. Ask your ND about using those. We aren't allowed them as they have other things added like flax and other nuts we do not tolerate with IC. Bob's Red Mill makes a great gluten free all purpose flour that I use frequently to make quiches and muffins. Pamela's is also another really good brand.It's a HUGE adjustment, but trust me it seems daunting at first and as you get used to reading labels and shopping in the right "section" of the store, it gets easier. Also, switch your daughter over to quinoa which has a really high protein content for a grain. I also suggest Tinkyada brand rice pastas and another brand of "quinoa" flour pasta...I forget the name but it comes in a bright turquoise box. Delish!!
your daughter
HI Kelsey, I had a thyroid problem at the begining of my illness. I was cold all the time and tired and had a blood test that showed my thyroid was really low. A friend of mine that is very knowledgeable recomended trying a thyroid called " Westhroid". There is also another brand out there, not sure if it is still available called " Armour thyroid". Westhroid is a much " cleaner" thyroid, it is made from lamb or sheep and does not have a lot of the other presrvatives and chemicals that the other thyroid's have. It is not synthetic. ( Synthroid= Synthetic thyroid). My friend told me that she herself went on the Westhroid for about a year or so and then once her body got into balance she went off it, the body does not get as dependent on it as it does on Synthroid. I found my body did well on it and I am really super sensitive to medications, after a year or two my body did not need it anymore and I went off it without any problems.Most endocrinologists give people the impression that Synthroid is the only thyroid available on the market, but its not , there are other options and I would urge you to check them out:stopthethyroidmadness.com/armour-vs-otherbrands/All the bestCecilia
Milk
I agree with flygirlsam about the goat's milk. It is much easier to digest than cow's milk. The lady at the farm I used to buy it from said that babies that couldn't tolerate most other milks seemed to be fine on goat's milk. It might be best to avoid all milks for awhie though until you can determine what is going on.
I appreciate
All the good advise! Thank you!As I said above, I asked the ND if I could use goat milk, and she said no, she doesn't want any milk from a mammal. Not even raw milk ( I was thinking of switching her to raw milk or goats before I met with her ) So I am confused on what to do. She is not lactose intolerant, so how much could that have to do with her thyroid? Also this ND thinks that ANY milk from a animal, humans should not consume. So you see, I have tried to find someone to help me the natural way, and I really hope this is the right thing to do! It is so expensive paying out of pocket for my treatment and my daughters, and when I start to worry that maybe this person isn't really going the right rout it is very hard. But I don't know!!!! I know that store bought milk is sounding more and more like it is NOT the way to go.Ic-Hope, thank you for that article. Very interesting, I printed it out for my husband to read too. But then you get down to the comments of some dairy farmers, and they have things to say that make you wonder what the heck is going on. Horizen Organic is what I have always bought my daughter, I did look at it and it didn't say it was "ultrapasterized" ? But still poor cows : (I do feed her lots of veggies, and she loves grilled broccoli and steamed carrots and I put lots of Kale in meat loaf and make lots of veggie soups and such but I can't get her to eat what I want her when she wont! I tried gluten free brown rice bread yesterday, toasted with a little fruit sweetened jam and she just spit it out!flygirlsam thanks so much, it is so daunting. Thank goodness I can have the Pamela's mix too, so it makes that a little easier. It is just so hard to find things for kids, like crackers and such that are gluten free but not loaded with sugar of things like yeast extract. I am trying to find a good recipe to make my own. I will have to look for that pasta... I did get some quinoa the other day, but just in the whole seed... so I need to figure out how to use make things out of it. I ordered a good blender to make Almond milk and my own grains. Have you ever used almond flour to bake with? You can get lots of it online (good brand) and I have heard that is turns out really good in cooking. Do you know why we can't have it? The pamelas has some almond stuff in it, I was suprised Matia said it was fine for me?Cecilia, I have tried over and over for all the specalist and Dr she has seen to put her on Armour thyroid, or another natural one. But they won't, first because it is not FDA approved (bunch of buil) and second because right at the pharmacy in Colorado they said they can't even get it right now... something weird about that don't you think. I would have to have a Dr to get it for her... and even the ND asked me if the other Dr had ever considered it, and I told her what I just told you, so she acted like it wasn't an option then.I am so sick of all this. My daughter has a "rare" case, because her TSH stays high AND her T-4. it has just in the last month that her numbers have finally started to come down in the normal range. They told me when she was first born and they found this on the PKU test, that if she wasn't started on medication within a few days, she could be a mentaly delayed or be a creten. I didn't know what else to do, and her numbers are so baffling to even the DR, that it makes it always even harder to understand myself. But she has NEVER shown any signs of having this, even when her numbers showed that they were still WAY off, and she was taking the medication. So they don't and I don't get it.i want you to know I feel so greatful for those who take the time to read this all! I am sorry it is so long, but I have felt so alone and in the dark with this for so long. It is nice to let some of it out....Kelsey
Gluten Free Recipes
Kelsey, Here is a great site for gluten free recipes using almond flour. http://www.elanaspantry.com/Sharon
Sharon!
I had already found that sight through you posting something a while ago on it. Thanks so much! I ordered her cookbook from amazon. She lives in the same state I do!Do you know when we can have almond flour?