Hi!

[penguinlobster]

Hi. My name is jennifer. I am a wife and a mother of 3. I joined this forum because my 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with FM last month. This is all new to me ( including forums). We are trying to figure out how to do the new diet and still have a balanced diet and help my other kids not to have to change too much. Any suggestions I can get from other parents would be very helpful.

[Charlie Arnold]

Hi Jennifer,

great to meet you and that you found this forum. Hopefully you will find it a great help as well as reassuring. When I joined one at first I was useless at it but they are very easy formats to use and hopefully as more join this one it will be more and more informative.

If you go back on your profile and scroll down to location and fill in which country and/or region you are from it will come up with each of your postings on your details. that way people will instantly know which country you are talking about when it comes to food products, hospitals etc.

As for balanced diet - throw away the rule books about 5 a-day fruit and veg etc. My daughter has no fruit or veg for the past 4 years and yes she gets lots of bugs but is one of the tallest in her class. A good vitamin source helps boost the vitamins. When we know where you are we can guide you in that direction.

As for other kids in the family, the biggest problem is wheat free foods to keep in line with other kids but you may find they like the pastas etc anyway. Then what I do is cook the main meat dish with whatever Megs can have in it, serve out her portion then add extras to the rest that others may want. I am lucky in a way as it is only Megs and me so don't have other kids to worry about. But you can keep the FM diet similar with a bit of practice.

Anyway, I'll leave you browsing, do feel free to add anything you like to the board and use the message service at the top if you want to ask any private questions. To do that click on members, then on the name you want to send message to and it should come up with their profile and send personal message, then it works just like an email and will show up on their page when they next log in.

[FMmom]

Welcome to a club you never expected to have to join... It does get easier over time (but it never gets easy).

Initially, I tried to make sure that no one else in the family had to go along with the level of deprivation my daughter experienced. After all, no one else has FM. But it resulted in lots of tears (both kids with accusations of "it's not fair!!!") and lots and lots and lots of cooking on my part. Not fun. One day last summer I said "that's it -- no more treats for anyone, I'm done." And even though my eldest has no signs of FM, even she has to admit her moods and ability to concentrate are worlds better since she was forced kicking and screaming willingly gave up sugar. I occasionally buy her a special treat on the condition that her sister never, ever knows about it.

I do make separate pasta when necessary, but generally I plan dinners that everyone can eat and then maybe serve an extra side dish that my FM daughter should not. She's old enough to decide that it just doesn't taste good enough to justify the stomach pains she knows she'll get. However, a big piece of chocolate cake is worthy of those pains...

The doctor also told me early on that "the diet is not medically necessary." Eating the wrong foods leads to pain, which I definitely want to avoid for her; it causes diarrhea, which must have some ramifications healthwise... So I do adhere to the diet as much as possible. But, especially when we eat out, it's not always possible. So it's nice to know that I'm not causing any damage to vital organs if we slip up on the diet. It made it so much easier just knowing that little factoid.