CD is a heritable autoimmune disorder that last a lifetime. It causes damage to the absorptive sites of the intestines with exposure to gluten, a protein that is found in several grains (wheat, barley, rye and oats by contamination). With the damaged intestinal lining, nutrients from food cannot be absorbed and that triggers a long list of medical possibilities. Staying true to a gluten-free lifestyle is the only way to keep your child free from a huge number of symptoms caused by the intestinal damage and the malabsorption of nutrients. This is why keeping gluten out of your kid’s life is something that you need to start at home.
Training your child early in life that there are certain foods that can make him/her very sick is something that the kids must learn and accept for a lifelong management of the disorder. This is certainly easier said than done, but interested parents have many resources available to them. Faithfully adhering to a gluten-free lifestyle is tough but doable. Your success makes the lifestyle adoption for your child and the rest of the family easier. What are some of the elements that are pivotal in managing celiac disease
in children?
C – Consultation with medical professionals and dietitian. Seeking professional guidance is the best way to start a healthy gluten-free lifestyle. A dietitian can help in the development of a gluten-free diet for the kid or for the entire family. Since the focus of treatment and the prevention of relapse is diet, paying attention that gluten will not find its way to the table or to the plate of the CD patient is extremely important.
It is not enough that the diet is gluten-free, it is equally important to keep the meals balanced, nutritious, attractive, with variety and clever preparation. Feeding a normal child is hard enough; ensuring that child with CD gets all the required essential nutrients is a challenge. While a dietitian’s expertise can make the task less daunting, it is not anything you can’t do on your own. Gather resources from the Internet as to the foods that are safe for a CD sufferer. Create your own list of the child’s favorite foods. Expand this on a regular basis by adding other foods that you can creatively prepare and introduce. Fruits are gluten free; why not make smoothies out of these?
E – Education regarding celiac disease. The best antidote to celiac disease is knowledge and discipline.
These days, information is very accessible through the Internet. One can understand the disease, its diagnosis and treatment, and get self-help materials like free menu plans for kids with celiac disease for free. For knowledge to work, the child must learn about the disorder to avoid gluten presented in countless tantalizing, mouth-watering foods.
L – Lifetime adoption of gluten-free lifestyle. Going gluten free for life is a challenge because it has to become a lifestyle. This means modifying the habits and preferences of the family. It does not start and end with gluten-free diets. It means being gluten free in food shopping, cooking and eating. This entails reading each food label and eating in gluten-free restaurants. This means bringing your own food (BYOF) and talking to the school administration to ensure that there will be safe foods for your child in school.
Being gluten free at home is hard enough but attainable. The bigger concern lies in your child’s life outside the home. Growing children face more risk as they start developing relationships and experience influences. This is when knowledge and discipline that you have inculcated since the first time the child has been diagnosed with CD are put to test.
I - Identification and treatment of complicating diseases. CD cases taking a bad turn due to intermittent exposure to gluten can trigger many painful symptoms and complications due to nutritional deficiencies. Parents must pay attention to these signs and symptoms to be able to seek medical interventions if need be.
A – Access to support groups. Meeting other families with the same condition helps in boosting the level of confidence of parents. These groups can offer not only emotional support; they can also share resources, information and various forms of assistance. Joining forums help in learning more about the disorder and in availing services and assistance for their ailing child.
How to Manage Celiac Disease in Children
There is nothing more devastating to parents than to hear that their child’s health and welfare are at stake due to an untreatable disorder like celiac disease (CD). If there is anything good about it is the fact that total avoidance of gluten is enough to heal the kid’s condition and prevent the recurrence of symptoms. This means that the wellness of the kid absolutely depends on the effective management of the kid’s lifestyle. What makes management of celiac disease in children hard is the fact that this lifestyle is for life.
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