loofagirl

My pediatrician seems a bit apprehensive to order up any blood work for my son. He started ticcing about 2 weeks ago and it seems to be getting worse by the day. In many different posts, I've seen mentions and sniplettes about what potential sensitivities your kids were tested for. I've seen mentions of candida, artificial red and yellow dyes, gluten, etc. I want to have, list in hand, of exactly what I would like my son tested for when I approach the doctor. When your child was initially (or subsequently) tested for various allergies/sensitivities, what exactly did they order up? I'd really appreciate it!!

I've seen quite a few reference to a "DAN" doctor. What exactly is that? Also, I took my son to his ped yesterday and although he was ticcing in the office, when I asked about a RAST blood tests (or any other blood test, for that matter), he said that it wasn't necessary. What prompted your children to be tested? I've seen people reference specific food/food dye/etc. sesitivities and I think it would make this a much less overwhelming experience if I knew what to avoid.

annag- Gluten in vitamins too? I'm to the point where, as I'm hearing my washing machine go right now, I feel like there is gluten in my detergent and my son will get it topically. It seems to be in EVERYTHING!!!! My kids are currently on Flintstones vitamins but the ped recommended my son so on something a little more substantial like Centrum Jr. How did you find out that your vitamins had gluten in them? I'm sure it's not as easy as just being listed as one of the ingredients. Thanks so much for the advice and encouraging words.

I posted earlier in the week about my 8 year old son that has just started exhibiting motor tics. I took him to the pediatrician today and the doctor felt confident that it wasn't Tourettes. He explained (as I'm sure you guys already know) it's probably a reaction of an overstimulated nervous system (he more than likely has ADHD as well). After spending just a bit of time on this site and now, after talking to my pediatrician, I'm going to try to feed my family a gluten free diet - even if just temporarily just to see if it works. I just spent the past 10 minutes looking in my packed pantry and couldn't find a single item that was labeled "gluten-free". What I did find was lots of pasta (seminola), canned tomatoes, Ritz crackers, a multitude of sugary kids' cereals, and so on. I've read online that as a rule of thumb, sticking to the outside perimeter of the grocery store is usually a safe bet when buying gluten-free but what about all of the other ingredients in the recipe? What do you use when the recipe calls for tomatoes, soy sauce, cream of chicken soup, or some other known gluten containing ingredient that cannot be easily substituted? Do ALL food colorings have toxic dyes in them (i.e., cheapy ones from the grocery store vs. Wilton's cake coloring). I really want to try this diet out but I'm finding this very daunting. Where do you start when your are just beginning at this and have to put together a meal? And how long should I give this diet before expecting results (if any)? Thanks so much for any guidance/information that you can pass along.

My 8 year old son was "diagnosed" with ADHD last year. I put it in quotes, not because I don't believe that it's possible that he has it, but because the child psychologist diagnosed him after talking to me for about 5 minutes and him for about 10 minutes. Anyway, he seems to be doing well in school so I didn't pursue the doctor's recommendation that he must be medicated (when the doctor initially suggested medication after his speedy diagnosis, I asked if behavior modification or anything else could be tried first - to which he replied "sure we could try something else but you're just wasting your time.") School doesn't come easily for him and keeping himself focused is definitely an ongoing struggle (for him as well as his teacher), but he is doing well enough to where I'm not ready to medicate. Anyway....for the past week or so, I've noticed that he has developed a tic/nervous habit. It's hard to describe but it's sort of like when your shoulder is sore and needs to be stretched so with your elbow out, fist in front of your chest, you shrug your shoulder back as if to stretch those muscles. As he's doing this motion, he quickly turns his head and looks to that side. Thinking back, I can recall him doing this for some time but I never thought anything of it other than he was readjusting his shirt/jacket/etc. - until last week. I was watching him play basketball (which he vehemently hates) and all of a sudden it struck me that he was doing this way more often than I remember. Since then, I've been painfully aware of it. Just in the past week, he has gone from doing it every so often to every 10 minutes or so. I haven't said anything to him for fear that bringing attention to it will only make it worse but I'm afraid that if I let it go, it's going to become a much harder habit to break the longer he does it. I've only spent a very short time looking at some of the posts on this website (I just found it about 30 minutes ago) and I have to be honest, I find the thought very overwhelming to have to do some of these things that I'm reading about (from the most specific like extensive testing and special vitamins to the most ridiculous like not being able to go to McDonald's for a treat). Where do you start when you first begin down this road? His pediatrician? No more red dye #9? Where do I begin? Thanks for any help/information that you can provide. Loofagirl