The Plan

Corban's situation with gluten can be compared to a person with a severe peanut allergy. I have heard of people who are so allergic to peanuts that simply being on an airplane where they are served as snacks can cause them to go into anaphylactic shock and die.  While exposure to gluten will not cause Corban's airways to swell and prevent him from breathing, it is just as dangerous and deadly to his system. Consuming gluten actually causes Corban's body to turn on itself, specifically, the villi in his small intestine. The job of villi is to help your body absorb nutrients from the food you eat.  So, when his body attacks its own villi, it prevents them from extracting nutrients from his food. This has been the cause of his vomiting after meals, severe pain, and lack of weight gain that has lead to his being diagnosed with failure to thrive. 

So, it is very important for Nathan and I to understand what we are looking for and looking out for when we are shopping for food.  Foods that don't contain gluten but are processed in factories which also process food containing gluten can devastate our sweet boy's body. This means that food has to be certified gluten free, if it's not certified, this mama isn't buying it.

In the future, I believe creating gf meals for Corban will be easier when I can use raw ingredients to make healthy, home-made meals (as I do for Nathan and I every day).  But right now, Corban's picky taste buds only accept overly-processed, sugary foods.  Until Feeding Therapy helps him expand his palate, he is still only eating yogurt, anything chocolate, and drinking his meal replacement shakes.  Thankfully, his shakes are gluten-free. I had a minor panic attack when I considered that his main source of nutrients may not be allowed with his new diet.  Thank goodness they are!

I have decided to go back to offering certain new foods every day for him to try.  I want to offer him buttered toast every morning at breakfast. I know he will flat out reject it at first, but I am hoping that as he sees it every morning, eventually he will try it out of curiosity. This worked with a few different types of cereals before we found out about his celiac disease.  We purchased 3 different types of gf breads at Costco and I plan to offer once slice every day. (In order to keep the gf toast safe for him, I need to purchase a second toaster just for Corban's bread. This will prevent cross-contamination from our evil bread riddled with gluten.)

Also, I want him to start eating vegetables again.  So, I will start with offering him green beans at every dinner.  Just a small dish on the side. I know he will scoot it away, and may even gag at the site of the beans at first. But again, I am hoping that eventually his curiosity will get the better of him.

Currently the only fruit Corban will eat are bananas. And he will only eat them about 50% of the time they are offered.  He is very curious about apples, but thus far his fear of new foods has kept him from actually biting into one. So, at lunch I will offer him apple slices.  I think he will take this bait before any of the others.

I hope these simple actions, as well as engaging Corban in Feeding therapy, will open up a new world of food for him.  I just want to get him to the point where he can eat what we are eating, like any normal 2 year old. 

For now, here are the foods Corban was eating that he no longer can because they contain gluten:

Pepperdige Farm Goldfish Crackers
Baby Oatmeal
Nestle Quick
Some flavors of Gogurt
Everything chocolate

I'd like to find a substitution for his goldfish crackers, but have so far been unsuccessful.  He asks for them several times a day and Nathan and I just say, They are all gone, buddy. Poor kiddo, he loved those things! There are plenty of chocolate substitutes on the market, not that he needs them; and there are quite a few gf hot cereals as well.  Gogurt offers gf flavors. As far as the Quick goes, I could just purchase Hershey's syrup, or I could use this as an excuse to...wait for it...just give him plain old milk.

As we work to convert our home into a gf zone I will post the products I purchase and give you my reviews. It will be a while before I give you Corban's reviews, I have to get the little guy to try the stuff first!

What is Celiac Disease?

Are you tempted to say that Celiac Disease, or Gluten-free diets, are nothing more than the "in" diet fad? You could not be more wrong. 
You think this is something that Corban will just "grow out of?" Nope. 
I am beginning to educate myself on the seriousness of his disease. I have a lot to learn, but I will share the basics of what I know so far:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food.

Celiac disease is triggered by consumption of the protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, barley and rye. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging the finger-like villi of the small intestine. When the villi become damaged, the body is unable to absorb nutrients into the bloodstream, which can lead to malnourishment. Left untreated, people with celiac disease can develop further complications such as other autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, thyroid disease, and cancer. - Did you see that? Because I sure did.  Untreated, celiac disease can cause cancer in my sweet, beautiful, little boy! Now do you see why this must be taken seriously.

Celiac disease can be difficult to diagnose because it can present in a variety of different ways. The disease can be diagnosed using a blood test and confirmation biopsy. The only treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet. - Corban's celiac was diagnosed following an endoscopy, where the tissue of his small intestine was biopsied. It was also confirmed through a blood test.

Symptoms of celiac disease can include abdominal bloating and pain, diarrhea, vomiting, poor weight gain or failure to thrive in young children, weight loss, fatigue, irritability, depression, mouth sores, late puberty, and skin rashes. Corban's symptoms were/are vomiting, pain, and poor weight gain/failure to thrive.

1. One in 133 Americans have celiac disease.
2. Three million Americans across all races, ages and genders suffer from celiac.
3. 95% of celiacs are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions.
4. 10 years is the average time a person waits to be correctly diagnosed. -I am learning Corban was lucky to be diagnosed so quickly.

And the 2 most important things I have learned about Celiac Disease are:

• There are NO pharmaceutical cures for celiac disease.
• A 100% gluten-free diet is the only existing treatment for celiac today.

And those two reasons are why I have started this blog. I need to do everything I can to educate myself in order to keep my son healthy and safe.  After all, I'm his mommy, it's in my job description!

Day 1

So yesterday was the day we learned from our son's GI doctor that he has celiac disease. Not the worst diagnosis in the world, but it definitely complicates meal time just a bit.  So, for a lazy cook like me, that means learning new gluten free recipes and converting my current wheat-lovin' recipes to GF (gluten free).

In the short-term, it meant getting my kiddo down for a nap and throwing away all his foods that he could no longer eat. (Bye-bye beloved gold.fish crackers and morning baby oatmeal!) I cruised a few GF blogs (which I will soon reference and link here), wrote down a few emergency recipes and started a GF grocery list.

As you can imagine, after 18 months of eating foods that are painful to his system and contribute to extremely bad acid reflux (he takes two kinds of medicine, four times a day), Little C is pretty wary of food.  Mealtime is usually a battle. The ONLY things he takes without a fight are gold.fish, yogurt, his meal replacement shakes, and most anything chocolate. So, most of the recipes I have written down won't be accepted and enjoyed by my kiddo right away. BUT I am hopeful that as we slowly introduce food that doesn't cause him pain, he will learn to trust new foods and become more adventurous. 

We have a looong road ahead of us. For me, I need to educate myself and stock up on basic GF essentials. For Corban, he has to discover that not all food causes pain, it's okay to try new things, and trust that his mama wants to make him food that tastes good and is good for his system. 

So, I am calling today day 1.  With baby oatmeal no longer an option, I bought some baby rice cereal (which I already know he won't like, why do I do that to myself?) and some chocolate flavored crispy rice children's cereal.  Not the most nutritious choice, but I need to be honest, these next few weeks are going to be all about bait-and-switch bribery. 

Little C is not a fan of cereal. He doesn't like when it gets soggy. He doesn't like having to chew, chew, chew.  There are a dozen reasons why he won't give this a try.  There is a very real likelihood that he will throw up at the sight of it. (Another fun little trick he keeps up his sleeve). But, mama is holding an ace of her own, this rice cereal is chocolate flavored.  I poured a small amount into a bowl of milk, grabbed a spoon, and casually sat it before my kiddo. "Look buddy, chocolate cereal! Yum!"

Wish us luck!

*~* UPDATE *~*

I have since learned that purchasing corn or rice breakfast cereal, if not certified gluten-free, is a big no-no.  This cereal was likely made on machines that also process cereals that are riddled with gluten.  Sigh. With a disease as serious as celiac, every gluten molecule counts. This is why educating myself is so important!