myadrienne's Blog

My daughter Adrienne is now 7 1/2. She has had problems with chronic constipation since birth. Although she was 7 pounds at birth she was diagnosed with failure to thrive and started loosing weight and had to have an NG tube. It was horrifying to see her cry with gas all the time.I have brought her to a local GI doctor whom her pediatrician advised would be able to help. Other than using her as a lab rat and sending us to Boston on 6 different occasions and preforming multiple violating procedures nothing ever changed. Her day consisted of eating anything we could to keep the weight on as she had a poor appetite. The liquid she consumed daily had to be forced and she never consumed more than maybe if we were lucky 4 ounces until she was 11 months and gave up the bottle. I even discovered without the help of doctors after a year of suffering with migraine headaches it was due to her not having a bowel movement for 3 days consecutive. It was so horrible to have to give her a glycerine suppository and see her cry and bleed. The doctors told me to continue daily to give stool softeners but still they never were. She was a medical mystery due to the fact she was tested for everything under the sun and never tested positive for anything. They said she would grow out of it when she grew older but it wasn't until I went to a parent teach conference with my 6 year old sons Kinder-garden teacher when she asked me if I ever tried her on a gluten free diet. She explained to me her husband had the same issues as well as others in his family and with the diet all of his issues miraculously went away. She stated sometimes there are some who have celiacs or even just a gluten allergy and it goes under the radar. I have to say she is our HERO. My daughter Adrienne has been on her diet almost a month now. She has not used any stool softeners and goes almost every day now without pain. Her appetite has picked up and she even drinks more. I also always thought she just didn't like milk until I bought her some lactaid milk. She drinks it now and with her vitamin supplements the dietician recommended she is gaining weight. She is such a different happy girl and smiles and laughs all the time. I just wonder why none of the doctors ever suggested this for her? I have had my share of issues going through many different foods and finding the ones she likes. Boy there expensive but so worth her happiness! I use this site often to check out different foods to make sure they are gluten free. I was so happy to hear on the news the FDA is starting to make it mandatory all products are labeled if they contain gluten. This discovery couldn't have come at a better time! Thank you all for being there for me and my daughter. I look forward to helping others the way I did my daughter and just realized what I want to do when I graduate nursing school. Help others just like my Adrienne!