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Post by shayne on Nov 13, 2012 16:45:54 GMT -5
I am new to this discussion board but have read through several posts... several times. My daughter is 5 years old and we have been trying to figure out what makes her so sick for the past 3 years. She is allergic to all forms of dairy and has sevral environmental allergies so the HFI was not thought until recent months. A very long story a little shorter, she has been "pre-diagnosed'" as HFI. Her bloodwork is at Boston University for genetic testing. Since starting a form of an HFI diet 2 weeks ago, her liver enzymes are already much lower. But, WE NEED HELP with the diet please. I have everything very limited right now but am struggling with flour. I know white rice is safe but it was suspect that she could not tolerate it some time ago so I am going to start that challenge this week. We were also told she has a wheat allergy based on her symptoms but not sure now if it was HFI or a true allergy. I do not want to introduce it right now and her GI specialist would not be okay with it. So, for now I am using Oat Flour and Quinoa Flour and Tapioca Starch. I have researched for hours and cannot find any information as to if these are okay for her to have. I would like to continue to use them only if they are okay. Also wondering about Amaranth or other flours??? Can anyone help? Thank you so much for any help you can give us! ***Also, she eats corn and quinoa flour pasta. Any information on corn flour would be great!!!
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elilly
Junior Member
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Post by elilly on Nov 15, 2012 6:08:27 GMT -5
Personally, I would stay away from any flours made from whole grain at this point. I would stick to tapioca, corn, and potato starches and white rice flour. Once we got to a baseline ( normal liver enzymes and no more diarrhea), we added in brown rice flour. I don't know why I am okay with brown rice flour yet not quinoa, amarnth, or sorghum. Maybe it's just because we've been safely using the brown rice and I don't want to rock the boat.
Any other GF HFIers out there want to comment on alternative flours? Maybe I need to be broadening our horizons!
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Post by ukbill on Nov 15, 2012 7:35:42 GMT -5
Plain white wheat flour is my vote, the finer ground the better, if her liver is baddly compromised (a fatty liver) then go for a low gluten varieties to start with. The Fructose in wheat is mostly in the germ part which is removed in the refining but left in in wholegrain flours. You will find a lot of her "allergies" should start clearing up with time as her liver recovers and mends itself.. Depending on the amount of damage already done this is likely to take more than 6 months before she really "turns the corner" so to speak. IF she is responding to the HFI diet then great keep her on it and you will see a fantastic improvement in her health and well being  Welcome to the board by the way. |
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Post by jejns1 on Nov 15, 2012 8:53:11 GMT -5
Plain white flour is what works for my kids. Brown rice flour still has some fructose in it and was not good for my kiddos. My daughter had a reaction to vitamin supplements with Brown Rice Flour added as either filler or to add B vitamins to the pill. When buying flours, watch out for Malted Barley Flour added to the white flour. We found the kids reacted to that also. It is hard to find flours without it, but it is out there.
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Post by jejns1 on Nov 15, 2012 8:54:06 GMT -5
Plain white flour is what works for my kids. Brown rice flour still has some fructose in it and was not good for my kiddos. My daughter had a reaction to vitamin supplements with Brown Rice Flour added as either filler or to add B vitamins to the pill. When buying flours, watch out for Malted Barley Flour added to the white flour. We found the kids reacted to that also. It is hard to find flours without it, but it is out there.
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Post by shayne on Nov 15, 2012 12:19:19 GMT -5
Thank you for the advice. And, thanks for the welcome Bill. Her liver enzymes have been mildly elevated since her ALT was first tested 4 months ago. Suspecting they have probably always been elevated... All of her liver tests are normal and her ultrasound showed no elargement of her liver. Her clotting times are off. The last blood tests showed her liver enzymes came down, still not quite normal and clotting time is still off. She is on a vitamin k rx. Since starting her on an hfi diet a couple weeks ago -not completely comprehensive but were figuring it out with help (thank you again) she has been feeling great and eating better than ever! I have wondered if rice might be ok and really wanted it to be so introduced it after months of elimination. Oh what a mistake. She is so sick! Nothing else was different in diet. So as suspected all along rice is out. The dr has also said no wheat. She has had several problems with it and did much better once eliminated. We have everything very limited right now while her enzymes and clotting times are getting back to normal. Since she had been doing well and her enzymes were improving i think i will keep to what we
were doing with a few adjustments based on things i have learned on this site. She is eating chicken and various
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Post by shayne on Nov 15, 2012 12:37:50 GMT -5
Sorry glitch in my computer...
She is eating chicken and various meats, oatmeal which she has always been fine with, psata made with corn and quinoa flour. Pancakes, waffles, etc made from oat and quinoa flour and tapioca starch, safe pretzel sticks,water of course, and a little bit of tea to flavor her water that has her calcium powder in it. She doesn't mind the diet which is a huge blessing. Her food choices have always been very limited as everything always seemed to make her sick. Unfortunately she has a dairy allergy which we have challenged a number of times, always unsuccessfully! I would give just about anything to give her a slice of cheddar cheese. She LOVES it and it would add so many things to her diet in regards to food choices. She loves eggs but for now I thought it best to only use them in recipes. Sorry for the long post but any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
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Post by ukbill on Nov 16, 2012 7:46:26 GMT -5
You mention various meats but not fish?? Fish is GOOD particularly for a growing child.. sea fish also has iodine which is very good protector of the thyroid gland. I believe (been told) most rice in the USA is coated in a "treatment " which includes sugar.. So if you cannot find good clean Basmati rice for example (the tastiest rice out there) the wash your rice very thoroughly before cooking, and cook it in plenty of water Have you tried her on Goats milk and cheese? She might not react to that sometimes a "milk" allergy is more an allergy to cows / beef in general, this usually shows up as xama sorry its spelled wrong but spell checker is no help today.. skin rash. If you are going to give her potatoes use white floury type and peel them and cut them up small then soak them in salted water for some time (hours) before changing the water to cook. This way most of the fructose will leach out into the water and they will be far safer. Herbs and spices are used in such small amounts they can be used safely too. HFI safe onion flavour can me made by frying onion in lots of oil and then when cool put into a bottle and use the oil only the same with garlic, only no frying is needed just crush it up and put it into the oil, chili too. Many of us seem to have a problem with Soy products (flour, protein beans) except for soy sauce for some reason (you can find sugar free varieties) also Soy oil and for some reason Canola oil too, although the highly refined "oil seed rape" oil (as it is called in the UK) seems to be fine but Canola oil sold in the UK and Australia cause me problems.. not HFi but just really bad feeling and grotty guts!  . Hope this helps?  |
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