Type 1, coeliacs and lactose intolerant

[ladybird579]

My son has been dxed Type 1 for 4 years but for the past year he has been more or less constantly ill with weight loss, stomach problems, vomiting, unstable bloods and feeling tired. First he had to stop eating dairy as it was making him sick and now his consultant thinks he has coeliac disease as his symptoms are still ongoing and he is getting worse. He had to be hospitalised for over a week last August and his white cell count was off which they never go to the bottom of. He is having blood tests soon.

My question is if it is coeliac what can he eat if/when he has a hypo? Sugar only helps so far but he needs carbohydrate to keep his bloods up. We are down to bread and biscuits and my home made cake as it is. He can't have a bowl of cereal as he hates lactose free milk. We have tried them all. I know from past experience ( eldest son has gluten issues too) my baking skills with gluten free flour etc are not great.

thank in advance 🙂

 

[Pigeon]

Hello and welcome. If your son does have coeliac disease I would have thought rice cakes or oatcakes would be alright as carby snacks. How about crisps as well - potato ones or nachos? Or fruit - a banana or apple, after the fast acting glucose. Or you can get free-from fruit snack+nut bars in a lot of shops now - I got some in Aldi last weekend.

 

[Bronco Billy]

Hi ladybird579. Thankfully, gluten free products are much easier to find now than they used to be. Every supermarket and some local stores have a ‘free from’ section where these products are stocked. I’m sure you and he will find something tasty. 🙂

 

[ladybird579]

Thanks folks. I was panicking a bit cos he is autistic too. He doesn't like new things and is more then likely to say oh well and get iller than eating things he has never had.

 

[AndBreathe]

My son has been dxed Type 1 for 4 years but for the past year he has been more or less constantly ill with weight loss, stomach problems, vomiting, unstable bloods and feeling tired. First he had to stop eating dairy as it was making him sick and now his consultant thinks he has coeliac disease as his symptoms are still ongoing and he is getting worse. He had to be hospitalised for over a week last August and his white cell count was off which they never go to the bottom of. He is having blood tests soon.

My question is if it is coeliac what can he eat if/when he has a hypo? Sugar only helps so far but he needs carbohydrate to keep his bloods up. We are down to bread and biscuits and my home made cake as it is. He can't have a bowl of cereal as he hates lactose free milk. We have tried them all. I know from past experience ( eldest son has gluten issues too) my baking skills with gluten free flour etc are not great.

thank in advance 🙂

ladybird, I eat a strictly gluten-free diet, and although I also low carb, there are lots of carby things available to you. I also have a T1 friend who is coelic, and whilst she has gluten-free bread and so on (I don't eat bread), she pretty much has the same diet as before her coeliac diagnosis.

There's a great forum called HealthUnlocked, catering for all manner of conditions, and there's a very good group on there called "Gluten Free Guerillas", where I'm sure you'd get lots of help.

https://healthunlocked.com/glutenfreeguerrillas

 

[ladybird579]

Thank you for the link 🙂

 

[novonord]

ladybird

my advice would be not to start a gluten-free diet, if you can possibly help it, until your son has had the duodenal biopsy, if he is willing to have the procedure, which is the gold standard for diagnosis; blood tests can give a guide but the biopsy interpretation will become difficult if your son has been excluding gluten for a month or two and may give a false negative result..since the mucosal coeliac changes may revert on a strictly observed diet: the biopsies can be difficult enough to interpret even in a patient taking a gluten containing diet,

it's very important to get the diagnosis right at the outset since the gluten free diet is very restrictive as well as a lifelong commitment and some items are a good deal more expensive than their gluten -containing counterparts.