My 12 yr old was diagnosed with T1 in July and now may have Celiac Disease. I can't even imagine how to handle this with a child. Help!
There are lots of people who deal with this. I know it seems like an impossible thing, dealing with counting carbs and diet limitations and then on top of this having to go gluten-free. But it can be done. Although I am T2, I follow a nearly gluten free diet anyway as part of my low carb regime. I have lots of cookbooks on the subject and have found numerous ways to substitute for gluten ingredients.
You can do this. Over time you can adapt and your whole family can adapt. You may even find that the rest of the family also is healthier on a gluten-free diet.
ps. We also have a group focused entirely on Celiac and Diabetes.
Breathe. This is a very common combination, because the two conditions share a number of associated genes. There are a number of diabetes-with-celiac parents and adults out here, ready to help you. For starters, I'll suggest looking at the blogroll from Wendy Rose's previous blog site (the current one seems to have been squatted on): http://candyheartsetc.blogspot.com/
Hi SusanT. I got both T1 and Celiac at the same time, 20 years ago. The biggest nuisance is reading labels--there are so many ways to hide wheat on labels. Actually I now eat very little in the way of processed foods. I keep Udi's bread in my freezer so I can have toast now and again.
There are a lot of alternative flours for baking available, one of the commonest being almond flour. Almond flour is fairly low in carbs, unlike many of the other alternative flours. One way to have reasonably healthy cookies is baking with oats, but be sure to buy gluten-free oats--McCanns are g-f, and Bob's Red Mill sells g-f oats (Quaker's Oats make me sick).
As Brian said, by avoiding gluten you will lower carb intake. My husband is our chef--he makes a lot of soups and stews in the winter, grills meat and veggies in good weather. Good luck; it really is doable.
I got a reply back from Wendy; her blog is now at www.CandyHeartsBlog.blogspot.com