My name is nick and I am 8 in a half years old. I had a problem when I had gluten, so my mum found Doctor Ford to help me. He helped me get off gluten. When I tasted the first chocolate biscuit it tasted weird but not I'm getting used to it. I had troubles when I was on gluten, every day I got mad with myself and sometimes with others. I didn't want to me mad.

When I'm off gluten I still sometimes have dizzy spells but not usually .Before I had dizzy spells every day and I did'nt feel well.
You will lose weight when you first start being gluten free because you are getting used to it.

They thought that I had a heart problem when I was 8. I went to the doctor and hospital lots and lots as they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I wasn't very well, I was grumpy. At school I found I had to get off gluten, as I couldn't sit still on the mat. I have got more energy to run. I can sprint now. I can sleep better to.

When I were on gluten I had sore tummies at least twice a week. My mum buy's this medicine called Body Balance that helps me act better. I've achieved in my spelling now and I'm much better at school.
My doctor Ford is a nice man because he talks nicely, tunnies of people need to go and see him.
Please come to our diet because it helps you breath better, it helps your attitude change. It makes you be stronger.

Me and my brother used to fight a lot when I was on gluten but we like one another now. I liked gluten foods but I can't have it as it's not good for me.

In my family we have got a dog and four human's. Jordan, dad, mum and me. We are all gluten free but my dad doesn't have to be gluten free. It's unfair when my dad eats gluten and it makes me feel Hungry.
I used to not have enough energy but now I have enough energy to sprint around the cross country.

Our ginger bread bakery bakes us nice food .When I found out I was allowed Gluten free birthday cake I was very happy. We go to ginger breads once a week. I buy chocolate chip biscuits they taste delicious

World come and be gluten free as it makes me delighted.

We have a favorite pizza place as it's Pappa's pizza's. I love people that make yummy Gluten free foods.

By Nick

My brother say's that being on gluten free diet is like being in china with no noddles. He finds it hard and say's he just wants to be normal. I say he will get used to it.

Nick Newland Mum's comments

hi well I learnt a lot from that from Nick, as they were all his words and I just wrote them for him. Little did I know about how he was feeling. We could write plenty more if you need it ,as Nick didn't really get into what has been happening that made us look at gluten. Also how a parents experiences it all you may want I'm not sure. I was very impressed with Nick and he was really pleased to have written it for the book. It made me laugh how he worded some of it. Thanks Feebee

I had a sore tummy
In May 2004 I saw Doctor Ford as I was having trouble with my tummy. When I was a baby my mummy said that I had very bad reflux. I used to cry a lot. Later she said I had constipation.
He did some blood tests and found out that I had gluten intolerance.

I am feeling much better
This meant that I had to stop eating everything that has wheat and gluten in it. I have now been gluten free for about six months. I am feeling much better and it is much easier to go to the toilet and I have grown quite a lot too.

Sometimes I feel sad that I can't eat all the things that my cousins and friends are eating and it is very hard at birthday parties as I can never eat the birthday cake.

Mum and my sister are now gluten-free too
Mum and I are finding lots of interesting "gluten-free" food available now as mum and my baby sister aren't allowed to eat gluten either. We try all sorts of new recipes for school lunches.

I am hoping that on the gluten-free diet I will continue to feel much better.

Emily

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Ebony was born 10 weeks early weighing 2lb 3oz. She was growth retarded had chronic lung disease and fought hard to stay alive.

Over the next four years she was slow to grow, developmentally delayed and vomited almost every night, she was also very hard to handle and her behaviour was a constant battle. We were under the paediatric doctors and saw them every three months.

I breastfed her for nine and a half months and then put her on formula until she was 15 months old, when we introduced cow's milk.

After an awful six weeks of her crying almost all night and vomiting up what I would describe as lumps of rubber I put her back on the formula and it made a very slight difference.

Being slightly dairy intolerant myself I felt she must have inherited that, but every time I went to the doctors I was told an intolerance was unlikely and I shouldn't deprive my child of dairy products.

Being a first time mum I went home and carried on watching our wee girl vomiting and worried constantly about her weight, height and behaviour.

As time went on things didn't improve. She would go to bed and wake-up an hour later and vomit, she screamed in pain, but seemed to get relief after vomiting.

More visits to the doctors and I came our feeling like a neurotic first time mother. I was told she had a behavioural problem. She was anxious and maybe we should just walk away and shut the door when she start6s to vomit and eventually she'll learn to stop making herself sick. We failed to see how a child could go to sleep and wake up and vomit just to annoy her parents.

More visits to doctors and still no answers was really distressing us. When she was 3½ years old I went back to the doctors and demanded that they test her for everything they could think of and I asked for her to be tested for coeliac disease. They weren't keen to do this but after me insisting they did the tests and told me the results showed nothing up. I asked for her to be allergy tested and was asked why I would want to put my child through that.

Another 6 months passed and Ebony got really sick, she was losing weight, her hums were bleeding, she had ulcers all through her mouth, she was vomiting 2 or 3 times a day and wouldn't eat or drink anything except her milk which cam back up and she was in so much pain.

I took her to the dentist to be told her teeth were in the state of someone with bulimia.

As a last resort I rang Dr Ford and luck was on our side, we could get an appointment.

After explaining everything to Dr Ford and doing skin prick tests it revealed that she was dairy intolerant and from that day she was on a dairy free diet. More blood tests and an endoscopy revealed that she was highly gluten sensitive which we could have been told 6 months earlier by the paeds doctors, to this day I still don't know why they couldn't have told me when a normal reading should have been from 0-20 and she was 111.

We then started a gluten free diet and the results to us are amazing. She had only vomited about 6 times in the last year and that was a result of having something she shouldn't have had. She is growing, although not fast, she has become better behaved and has caught up developmentally, she is very active and is really enjoying school, gymnastics and swimming.

The relief that we felt after walking out of Dr Ford's office was wonderful, we finally had someone who believed us, listened to us and was helping us. We have completely lost faith in the medical profession and have become very sceptical of their decisions and suggestions.

We have found that "allergy" is like a dirty word and is a thing they aren't interest in investigating. We are very angry it had taken so long to get answers we could have had 4 years ago.

We have become a lot more assertive and think that doctors need to know that sometimes parents to know best after all its us that have to live with the effects of such problems.

It is also mentally and emotionally damaging as a parent to see their child going through such pain and the feeling of hopelessness is enormous. We also realise that not all doctors are as negative about allergies as others and we often say thank goodness for Dr For and Doctors like him.

My name is Charlotte and I have just been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Ever since I can remember I have always been tired and needed a lot of sleep.

I was the perfect baby I would sleep anywhere and anytime. When I was little I used to go to sleep at the tea table and always ask to go to bed early, despite having had a good nights sleep.

I enjoyed playing sport and always had a lot of energy but by the end of the day it ran out quickly.

Every little thing started to frustrate me. I had to have things perfect or I would cry or get upset.

Becoming a teenager made things a lot worse I was tired and grumpy. I felt irritable about things and didn't know why it was more than just normal teenage stuff.
Going to friends houses was really hard for me because they would stay up late to watch a movie with me but I would just doze off and leave them watching it by themselves.

I started to sleep in, in the mornings as well as going to bed earlier needing more sleep as I grew older. I was always the first to go to bed.

One day I told mum that I was sick of being so tired and not being able to stay up with my friends and family to watch TV or even hang out. Mum told me that because I was healthy and growing well that it was the way I was made and I just needed more sleep than some people.

But I didn't agree with that because I wanted to be able to stay up and watch a cool programme on TV, so mum took me to the doctor soon after to see why I was always so tired, they couldn't find anything.

As the years went but I was getting worse and people around me were getting sick of me being grumpy at them for no reason. So I went back to the doctor. This time I had a blood test and then found out from the results what was really wrong with me. It told me that I was not allowed gluten so I went on a gluten free diet for several months and back on a normal diet to have a gastroscopy done.

The gastroscopy showed no signs of gluten, and was told to stay on a normal diet. So back on a normal diet I went.
I found out being on a normal diet made me really moody and tired, my skin was really bad with acne and I had a lot of palpitations. The palpitations scared me a bit as I love riding my horse and would need to stop because they would make me short of breathe and dizzy. I also got them at school and would need to sit down or take it easy. I got blackouts every morning when I got up is well.
I found out that I was low in iron and a lot of minerals that weren't getting absorbed into my body.

When I went off a normal diet and onto gluten free all of the things that were affecting me finally went away.
I was happier and healthier although I didn't like the gluten free foods I got used to it, however it made me feel a bit happier and healthier so it is worth it.

-Charlotte Beach-

After 2 or 3 visits to our local GP blood tests were requested for Josh. Results showed that there was a possibility of Coeliac Disease (we hadn't heard of it before) and a biopsy was arranged. The results of the biopsy were positive.

At this stage we started to realise the difficulties that we would encounter and initially found it very daunting. There were many questions, How were we going to cope ? How would Josh cope with the change in diet ? What effect has the last couple of years diet had on him for his future health ?
There was limited information available until were managed to get in contact with the Coeliac Society and information in regard to Gluten Free products was more available.

Initially difficulty in shopping, what can Josh eat ? What products & what brands of products are OK ? The guide book from the Coeliac Society was a god send and very helpful, admittedly shopping took a lot longer, checking labels is a very time consuming chore. This now seems second nature and poses no real problem, other than having to go to different supermarkets to get what we require. Eating out also can be difficult, normally there are limited items on the menu that Josh can eat

After changing diet Josh reverted to old self quite quickly. It was a trial and error to what he likes but realistically there is now a wider range of foods and ingredients that are Gluten Free - bread mix, muffin mixes and the like are readily available and the public in general are now becoming more aware of the Gluten free products.
Healtheries have bought out some new lines and we get pizza from Popa's Pizza Shirley which is good for school lunches. Gingerbread Man panini's are good.

It is just over 2 year since Josh was first diagnosed & now doesn't remember being sick and having a constant sore stomach any more and at 8 years old is very aware of what he can and can't eat. Even saying this there are times when he "cheats" and no doubt will be times in the future when he will as well, but he knows the consequences that it will have on him and is another one of lifes learning experiences for him.

In the last two year the improvements in Josh's health & well being have been noticeable:
o He has gone from being in the 50th percentile for his height to the 90th percentile. His latest blood test showed that the diet is working really well and his levels are now in single figures.
o A huge improvement in his school work.
o Getting more involved with his peers, enjoying & wanting to get involved in weekend sport.