Gluten Free Diet and Your Child
A gluten free diet is not easy for adults to follow. But this challenge is made ten times more difficult for a child with gluten intolerance or Celiac disease. If you have a child on a gluten GF diet this presents many of its own difficulties you will have to overcome. A lot of common grains contain gluten and these grains are used in recipes for many foods. It is true, however, that being on a strict gluten free diet will dramatically improve a patients condition and relieve all symptoms associated with Celiac disease and gluten intolerance.
It is nearly impossible to tell if food has gluten in it solely judging by its name. It is important to know how to read food labels if you are on a GF diet. These facts present especially difficult situations for children. First of all children, even teenagers (even adults), generally do not know the main ingredients in most foods. To make matters worse if a child who is on a GF diet cannot read or of a child can read but cannot understand a food label it is beyond difficult (sometimes dangerous) for them to choose their own meals, eat with friends or at another persons home.
As a parent you will have to be especially careful with monitoring your child’s eating habits and GF diet. You will have to know what foods they can and cannot eat so that you can teach them which foods they can and cannot eat (this gets easier as time goes on). For your child to be relieved of all symptoms it is necessary for them to remain on the gluten-free diet for life and not “cheat” and go off of the gluten free diet because doing this can cause permanent damage.
It doesn’t matter if your child is just beginning a GF diet or your child has been been following a gluten free diet for a year now. Because it is apart of your child’s daily life there are always more questions about how to effectively follow the gluten free diet.
There is a lot of GF diet information available to help you make the best gluten free decisions for your child and to teach them how to make GF decisions on their own.
