“I really need your help. I'm desperate,” writes Emma from
the UK.
“I need some help with regards to my three-year-old son. He
was waking up screaming in pain in the night, for months. He also had bad
constipation, and bad behaviour (to the point I thought there was something
wrong with him developmentally).
“I read about gluten online, and we cut it out - and instantly he was better. We finally got
an appointment to see a paediatrician, who today told me I have to give him a
normal diet for three months because it is unfair to put him on a gluten free
diet if it isn't that that is wrong with him.”
I can't do this to him. It would be detrimental to his
health and behaviour as he is such a sweet well- behaved boy now. I don't know
what to do.”
I reply: “ Thanks for
your query - sorry that you have this problem – but you do not need anyone's
permission to keep your child gluten free (gluten zero) - have a look at my
book "The Gluten Syndrome" - http://www.theGlutenSyndrome.com
Comment:
Unfortunately I get messages from desperate mums, all over the world,
who know that gluten is harming their children, but who are not being given any
medical/health support – in fact it is worse, because most medics are still
disparaging about the diagnosis of gluten-related disorders. It is timely to remind you about the paper “Spectrum
of gluten-related disorders: consensus on new nomenclature and classification.” This was written by 15 of the leading
celiac-doctors (Including: Sapone A, Bai J, Ciacc C, Dolinsek J, Green P,
Hadjivassiliou M, Fasano A ) who have (belatedly) acknowledged that
gluten-related-illnesses are real.
However, we are all waiting for better blood tests to be developed in
order to make a more certain diagnosis.
Gluten-related disorders are common – affecting at least 10%
of the population.
See this link: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-10-13.pdf
The problem: the community is now better informed about
gluten and its adverse health consequences than is the medical profession. It will take another generation of medical
teaching and research before the health system catches up.
My role: In the meantime, I see my role is to strengthen the community
groups and be a strong advocate for the concept of gluten-zero (GZ) http://www.glutenZEROglobal.com
Hope that this helps you
Cheers, Dr Rodney Ford
