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[Claire]

As funny as this sounds, you are so lucky it is not corn. It is so hard to do gluten, milk and eggs. But many many gluten free products have corn. (e.g. they have gluten free pretzels).

 

Definitely worth getting recipe ideas on that Braintalk link I posted, if you have questions. They are wonderful and you will get 3 answers to your recipe question in a couple of hours.

 

You are fortunate that your child is so responsive to all this in terms of school. For some this takes sooo much detective work in its own right. Wow.

 

Claire

[Guest Guest_halfpint]

i am new here with tourettes i could really use some advice.my son is 7,in first grade the teacher showed concern of a learning dissability.i think tourettes, he use to blink then noises at night now hes snapping his fingers.the original diagnosis was adhd. im not so sure. is this hereditary? can concerta bring about tics? he never had them before. his tics arnt loud or dissruptive,should i talk to doctor? i do not want any more drugs. i think they could of caused these tics. someone please help me. halfpint.

[Claire]

Halfpint,

 

It is commonly believed (though still controversial) that many ADHD medications cause tics.

 

There are plenty of natural ways to try to help adhd. I am pretty anti-drugs, as are most here, and hope you will investigate them.

 

The same health approaches discussed on this board for tics, have a good chance at helping adhd.

 

The doctor thread at the topic of this board that MD's that use natural ways to help adhd and tics. I have read that other learning issues can be associated with food allergies.

 

 

Claire

[Claire]

Alison,

 

Let me state my strong opinion:

 

Most packaged gluten free items (breads, cookies) do not taste good. I spent a lot trying almost every brand.

 

The mixes are often great. (bread, pancake, brownie). Home baking with a good GF flour is wonderful.

 

I just remembered, the GF pantry sandwich mix (bread mix) requires an egg. There are egg subsititutes, MC post on this, but I haven't made it that way.

 

Claire

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Thanks for the info Claire - my son did try several gluten free store bought breads - all disgusting to our palates...not to mention expensive. 6$ for a tiny loaf - I have wasted lots of money already. We did get the gluten free pasta and it was fine. I think I will be buying a bread maker and trying that. I did buy some egg replacer today and hope to get a few good recipes for treats to bake. The teacher continues to be very supportive and she is going to store some safe treats for my son in the school freezer so when the class celebrates a birthday etc. he will not feel left out. Tomorrow he has skating at school and I will be sending along a flask of chocolate goats milk - as the rest of the class has hot chocolate. He did not like the rice milk at all but seems ok with the goats milk mixed with chocolate. My middle child is now on rice milk and likes it just fine, he had a lot of stomach upset on soya - not sure if I have already mentioned here that we decided to do the ELISA test on my middle child as well - he is a huge milk drinker and eats very limited foods - much the way my eldest was. I am still so surprised about the food allergy that I wanted to see if allergies were affecting my other kids as well. He was getting blood work anyway so I just added it in. Cha-ching, Cha-ching. Oh Well. Should have the results by the end of the week on him. My oldest is still trying so many new foods and seems to like many of them - I am just back from the fruit market and bought tons of veggies and fruit and will start making soups for him - something I love to do, but have not had time for in ages, now I have to make time. We certainly are eating so much better these days. The baby is now back to formula and has been for about 10 days - he has started to sleep through the night again and is content during the day - homo milk made him miserable - it took me several weeks to figure out the problem.

 

Just an update - my son continues to be tic free - he did have some exposure to CRT screen at the barbers today - I saw a few tics that I had not seen for quite some time - again other's would not have picked up on them as they were very infrequent. He has had none since coming home. Last time he watched a CRT screen was before Christmas and his whole body would be jerking and moving constantly - lots of vocal, eye and all sorts of other's tics - so clearly we have come a long way!!!

 

 

Halfpint,

Just wanted to add something about the ADHD my naturopath told me, my son does not have it but we were talking about it the other day - she said the orange colouring in foods is a big problem with ADHD - the colour in the goldfish crackers - she said if you have ADHD to stay away from anything with the orange colour.

[Claire]

Hi Alison,

 

I tried so hard to get my son to eat chocolate goat's milk, but no such luck. Do you make your own?

 

Your son's teacher is so nice. My son just went without at all the school things (people brought in cupcakes all the time).

 

Yes it is all expensive, but worth it to me. Allergies are extremely genetic. Our doctor says if one parent has it, the child has a 50/50 chance of it. If both do, just assume the allergies are there.

 

I didn't realize that the CRT reaction was that low, that is GREAT. Maybe for your son, solving the food issues is enough--I think Ronnas had the same experience. It was just more complicated with our son.

 

Claire

 

As for adhd and colors-- I forgot about goldfish, a mainstay for kids....other colors do it also...

[Claire]

Here is the Gluten Free Pantry website. I didn't know they had one..

 

http://www.glutenfree.com/

 

It lists the stores that carry it by state. I didn't realize they had recipes.

 

 

We use the dough to make cinnamon rolls (need extra GF flour to handle it well), plus we wrap nitrate-free corn-syrup free hot dogs (from Whole Food) in it for pigs in a blanket. Yum.

 

Ok, here is my gluten free flour recipe. (from my research).

 

GLUTEN FREE FLOUR

1 C brown rice flour

½ cup potato starch

¼ C tapioca flour

Add 3/4 tsp xanthum gum or guar gum (replaces the gluten).

Makes 2 ¼ cup of above. I make a bunch at once, but these are the ratios.

 

I read to freeze it (don't worry, it doesn't clump).

 

I have now used it as a simple replacement for flour for sugar cookies and Betty Crocker toffee bars (you know the blondie type desert with toffee and chocolate chips? We get milk free toffee and milk free semisweet chocolate chips.

 

Loaded with sugar--but if your son is at an event with sweets, he would be having the sugar anyway. For us it was a Christmas treat.

 

The trick of baking gluten free is that the gluten holds the baked goods together. So egg-free and gluten free combo is an art. I am trying to master gluten free first and then will go back to egg free.

 

Also, dip chicken in water and potato starch and favorite seasonings for chicken nuggets. Works with fish. To me, rice flour has an aftertaste there...

 

This is the extent of my knowledge here, Braintalk is the real source.

 

 

Claire

 

ps To me, gluten free living for kids is only doable with a decent bread.

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That is so sad that your son just went without.

 

The goats milk - is just regular 2% goats milk and I add the Nestle Quick powder to is - it is free of the things we need it to be free of. He seems to think it is ok - I found there was an after taste. I also bought some marble goats cheese which tasted quite similar to regular marble cheese.

 

I am hoping the food is the biggest issue that has been compromising his immune system - we have seen such great improvement just with removing the milk - that I wonder why we need to remove the eggs and gluten, although we will. Glad my biggest concern these days is what kind of cookies I can make - it is much less stressful searching the internet for answers about that than answers about PANDAS and tics. We are still waiting for the results of the heavy metal testing.

 

Just thinking about the orange colour - is that also the colour in the canned Pokemon, Bob the Builder pasta?? My son used to eat that every day.

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Thanks for the further info - I was posting while you were, but got sidetracked with one of the kids getting up. I assume milk free chocolate chips have soya- is that right? So, you do give eggs in cooked goods?

Where do you get xanthum gum? The regular grocery aisle in baked goods? I will get the ingredients listed for the GH four.

 

I did find some recipes for cookies/cakes on the site you BrainTalk site - thanks for the lead.

[Claire]

No soy, we avoid soy in all of our foods except occasionally a soy 'ice cream'.

Guittard semi-sweet chocolate super cookie chips are great to me. Really I found the right gluten free flour made all the difference. Do small batches first--as I was told. We make gluten free muffins too--zucchini are great.

 

Notice that the glutenfree site has egg free recipes too. I really want to know what ground flax seeds instead of eggs tastes like. I tried it once and it was bitter, but maybe they do it differently.

 

Yes, our grocery store carries xantum gum.

 

My next goal is GF corn dogs.

 

I didn't notice changes with removal of gluten, other than the excema. I think it just helps the gut to heal in some cases. Reintroducing it though, oddly THAT I noticed--wiredness or sleepiness!

 

Claire

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Alison

 

Glad that your son is tic free after removal of milk. Does he take Goat's milk regularly without any reaction ? I read somewhere that people who are allergic to cow's milk MAY also be allergic to goat's milk..

 

For how long was your son on antibiotics?

 

Is your son free of ALL dairy or only milk? Does he not take cheese, yoghurt too?

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Hi efgh,

 

Initially we took my son off drinking cows milk and giving him cheese, yoghurt etc but still allowed milk ingredients in cookies etc. I was not reading any labels just eliminating the many glasses of chocolate milk he would drink a day. We initially switched to soya choc milk and limited to 2 a day - at that point we saw tremendous improvement although I would still see subtle tics a few times a day that no one else would notice. Once we got the test results back that said he we should eliminate all milk and reduce soya we decided to eliminate both - probably within a week I no longer saw any tics - and I notice them all!!!!!!!! We eliminated ALL milk products - so I had to clear out my pantry of many things that he had been eating. With respect to the goats milk - on the test he had a reaction to the goats milk but in the normal range - 1.3 - normal is between 1-8, milk was at 40 - anything over 12 should be eliminated ( soya was 8.5 - anything between 8-12 should be reduced). So, I have allowed goats milk but limit it to one glass a day - probably about 5 oz in his size of glass.

 

My son remains on antibiotics prophylactically. He started on antibiotics the last week of August and had been on a full dose of several different kinds of antibiotics from August to the first week of January, he was off them once in September and once in October about 3-5 days each time - he would have a relapse of tons of tics when off them.

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Hi Alison

 

Thanks for your quick reply. How do you compensate the Calcium and protein for your son now that he is totally dairy free?

 

There is a thread with a lot of info on soy milk in this forum and you can search for it and get a lot of useful information.

 

Is you son free from antibiotics since second week of January since you mentioned that he is on a prophylactic course till Jan first week?

 

thanks.

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Hi efgh,

 

Just to clarify - my son was on a full dose of antibiotics from end of August to the beginning of January - minus a few days in September and a few days in October. He reduced to a prophylactic amount of antibiotics at the beginning of January and remains on that dosage. He has been getting a Cal/Mag supplement since the end of December which is when we started on the vitamin/supplement routine. I will have to look into whether he is getting enough calcium - still in the research phase of this new chapter. I did buy orange juice with Calcium and make sure he drinks one glass a day. I am assuming he is getting enough protein in other foods. I think I will ask for a referral to a nutritionalist to ensure he is getting all that he needs - although with no question he is eating SO MUCH BETTER than he ever has.

 

We are not having any soy due to his reaction to that as well- the only cheating I am doing on that is with his chocolate milk powder there is some soy.

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Just thought I would add an update as it has been a few days. As I mentioned we are now milk, gluten and egg free so much of my time the last few days has been spent searching for recipes, reading labels, buying a bread maker and experimenting in the kitchen. My friends keep telling me how sorry they are for me, that I have all this work to do - this is hardly a hardship when I know how much it is helping him. I am truly amazed by how much junk I have been feeding my kids all this time.

I have seen a slight increase in tics since the barber shop and CRT exposure - last Tuesday. There are a few possible factors ( I doubt it would still be the result of CRT although Claire your opinion in how long the reaction lasts would be appreciated) What I think is more likely is he is fighting a cold so his immune system is working hard. He complained of a sore throat on Thursday am and Friday am when he woke up, some juice seemed to make things better, he also sounded a bit horse when he first woke up, he has had some real coughs ( not the throat clearing he used to do) and has sneezed a few times and had clear gunk come out - and he has wanted to blow his nose first thing in the morning. Tic wise - he has had a few eye and a few other subtle tics - more like twitches. Nothing too obvious - and nothing like last time he had a viral illness where he had a severe neck tic all day long. He remains on prophylactic antibiotics and his throat does not look red so I am not rushing to the doctor but if things were to get worse I will go Monday. Of interest is he is currently showing symptoms of a cold - which he has NEVER done - since age 3 - I hope this means his immune system is somehow working more normally. The other possible contributing factor could be a healing crisis??? Is this possible - that he would have a minor increase in tics as he has come off all the dairy and gluten and eggs? Any feedback would be appreciated. He has been more grumpy today - he hasn't been like this for weeks - asking for help then being upset that you helped - that sort of thing.

I did talk to the teacher on Friday -our weekly update - she said he is like a completely different child in the classroom - so focused and aware of everything that is going on, so sensitive and concerned for others, contributing so much and getting so much accomplished, his reading and writing has improved 10 fold. This was music to my ears - I always knew he was a great kid!!!!!!

 

 

 

PS - If anyone has any great recipes for cookies, breads etc that are gluten free, egg free, dairy free ( and soy free - although this I do cheat on) they would be very much appreciated.