Joanne: My son is eight and has a BIG BELLY! I have noticed this for a while, but now other people are starting to notice. He’s very skinny and ‘off the charts’ (far below) when it comes to height and weight, but I try not to compare when it comes to those things - who made them up anyway!? He weighs about 47 pounds. Honestly, he looks almost like one of those African children you see on the ‘save the children’ type commercials. (I’m not in any way trying to be rude by saying that - just trying to give you all a good visiual.)

He is strong - he works out at the gym (for gymanstics) at least 10 hours a week and does stretches and stuff at home on his own free will. His eyes look a little sunken sometimes though. And also sometimes his eyes are a little pink (the white part and around the outside).

We eat mostly raw (more than 90 percent), always vegan. Virtually no sweeteners of any kind. No processed or boxed stuff either. Any suggestions? It couldn’t be parasites or anything like that, could it?

Erin: You might want to run his diet past a vegan R.D. just to make sure it’s up to snuff.

Christa: One thing that I would certainly look into is Celiac disease, especially since you mention him having a sensitivity to wheat. Have you completely eliminated gluten from his diet?

Joanne: Hmm, thanks Christa. Both of my boys are allergic to wheat. I found that out a few months ago. We were on a ‘McDougall’ type diet previous to that for many years - lots of whole wheat and oats! After I found out about the wheat allergies, I stopped all wheat. Soon after that, I started researching diets for vegan athletes (my eight-year-old is a gymnast) and came across Doug Graham and his raw vegan diet. We’ve been trying to follow that, but still having a cooked veggie with dinner and a few other things here and there. Maybe I just need to give it more time to settle in and be very strict about no grains.

The site you linked to had a lot of possible symptoms for celiac, but the ones that Corban has are: big belly, gas (when he eats grains), irritability (which include restlessness and hyperactivity … and OH BOY is he ever restless!), delayed growth (which I don’t know if this applies to him as all the boys in both sides of his family were very small at his age … maybe they were all celiacs!), skin rash (he has very very bad eczema breakouts when he eats dairy and more mild ones when he eats grains).

My other son does not have those symptoms, but he does have mouth sores and loss of tooth enamel - come to think of it, my daughter has the tooth enamel thing too!

Vegma: Good luck with your sons - let us know what you find out!

Joanne: I took him to the doctor just in case today. The doctor did agree that he looks malnourished. I’m thankful he did not ask about our diet, though. He didn’t even seem to care. I am very confident that we are eating excellent, but still there was just this worry I had that he’d ‘judge’ us because of how we ate. Thankfully it was not a problem. Our nurse used to be vegetarian. She said ‘he has excellent looking urine’. She said he must be drinking lots of water - I said actually he hardly drinks any - a glass every few days at most. So, our trip to the doctor was not as bad as I had thought it would be. Now I will be praying everything turns out okay.

Vegma: Sending positive thoughts your way.

Joanne: As it is now, he lost 2 1/2 pounds during the last week. I’ve also noticed his thoughts are a little more scattered/unfocused and he is not doing *as good* at gym (but still is doing fine .. just little things). I really hope all of this turns out to be nothing .. or it just goes away with time. But then, if it is something, I pray we figure it out before he gets worse. His skin is REALLY flaring up again too. It’s partially his fault because he is not consistent with his olive oil ‘lotion’.

We found out it’s not the chalk at the gym [that he is reacting to] - thank goodness. It’s probably a combination of things - unknown allergies, dry air, and he has been coming into contact with a little of the soap at the gym when he rinses his hands off (the soap must be on the handles). I told him to stop washing his hands. They crack and bleed whenever he uses them; and he uses them a lot! I’m going to get him some cotton gloves to wear at night with the oil.

Ok - you all enjoy your day - thanks for ‘listening’!