I am not an expert, and won't make any claim as such, just a mother to a young child with a severe gluten sensitivity. That said, it is my intention with this blog to create a platform with which to share our trials and errors, successes and failures, and to hear back from others who'd like to share their stories. Together, maybe we can help our children to live happier, healthier lives and to teach and guide them, as they become older, to manage their sensitivities on their own. So, I'll start by telling my story, as briefly as possible, from the beginning.
From the very beginning my daughter loved food. I mean, really beginning, like in utero beginning. Every night at dinnertime, she would get so excited and active just as I'd sit down for dinner, kicking and stretching, turning and pushing. It seemed a happy, excited feeling. I remember saying that this one would be our Iron Chef.
She came out saying "Nah", the second she was out, the universal cry for "food". I laughed saying that she had lived up to our expectations as a "foodie" already. Her joy around food was short lived. At about three weeks or so, she developed colic, which by definition is a baby that cries each day (or most days of the week) for hours , usually at the same time of day. For us, it was like clock work, starting each day at seven pm and lasting well until ten or eleven at night - every night. It literally lasted for months and was an unbelievable stress on the entire family. We bought books (all who stated "there is no cure for colic" - thanks! ) , all forms of natural remedies, walking, bouncing, driving, swaddling... on and on and on. I felt like a complete failure. What a helpless feeling to be unable to help your baby who is clearly in excruciating pain.
And then, one day, it stopped. Oh, the relief! It really was just the end of the nightly screaming and the beginning of something different. As iI look back on it now, I think that perhaps she was sensitive to my diet, though I am unaware of whether gluten can enter breast milk.
Our daughter was extremely interested in table food, as you might imagine. She watched her parents and big brother eat all these amazingly colorful, flavorful, aromatic foods, and she wanted in. We held her off until six months and started her on the bland diet most babies eat at that time of life, oatmeal being a central element of her diet.
What began was screaming, crying, painful poops. We held her, rocked her, gave her natural remedies, to no avail. It was when she started pooping mucousy blood that we took immediate action and brought her in to the family doctor. They diagnosed her as having a gluten sensitivity (not celiac disease) and had us take her off of gluten containing foods. The relief was immediate for her. I was under the misconception that gluten was only found in wheat containing products. I was amazed at the prevalence of gluten in our food supply.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful natural foods store in our area that not only carries an abundance of gluten free foods but also clearly marks its shelves with a red "gluten free" label, making it much easier and quicker to find the products that are right for us.
At this point, we have switched the entire family over to gluten free foods because its easier to make one meal for the whole family, and it's much more democratic than allowing my older child to eat foods in front of the baby that she can't have. We find that many of the gluten free are better than their gluten containing counterparts.
She is now a happy, healthy 18 month old toddler, when she stays off the gluten. We still slip here and there and the baby ends up getting a bite of something she shouldn't have, and boy do we (really she) pay for it - for days. All it takes is one bite and she is in for an agonizing three days. So we do our best to keep a constant watch on what she eats, especially at play groups and friends houses where the chance of slipping up is higher. I feel like putting a sign on her, "I can't have gluten". Perhaps I should.
So that's the short of it for now. We'll follow up with more stories, experiences, and recipes. Until then, we'd love to hear from you.
