Health Promotion and Maintenance Q 51
The nurse is providing dietary instructions to the mother of an 8-year-old child diagnosed with celiac disease. Which of the following foods, if selected by the mother, would indicate her understanding of the dietary instructions?
A. Ham sandwich on whole-wheat toast
B. Spaghetti and meatballs
C. Hamburger with ketchup
D. Cheese omelet
Correct Answer: D. Cheese omelet
The child with celiac disease should be on a gluten-free diet. When a child has celiac disease, gluten causes the immune system to damage or destroy villi. Villi are the tiny, fingerlike tubules that line the small intestine. The villi’s job is to get food nutrients to the blood through the walls of the small intestine. If villi are destroyed, the child may become malnourished, no matter how much he eats. This is because they aren’t able to absorb nutrients. Complications of the disorder include anemia, seizures, joint pain, thinning bones, and cancer.
Option A: Be careful of corn and rice products. These don’t contain gluten, but they can sometimes be contaminated with wheat gluten if they’re produced in factories that also manufacture wheat products. Look for such a warning on the package label.
Option B: Avoid all products with barley, rye, triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), farina, graham flour, semolina, and any other kind of flour, including self-rising and durum, not labeled gluten-free.
Option C: Substitute potato, rice, soy, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, or bean flour for wheat flour. You can also use sorghum, chickpea or Bengal gram, arrowroot, and corn flour, as well as tapioca starch extract. These act as thickeners and leavening agents.