a parent’s perspective on gluten

Today’s guest post comes from Ryan at No More Bacon. Ryan is awesome - and is helping me out at this very moment with some ::ahem:: changes going on at CEC. Ryan’s son has a gluten sensitivity, and wanted to share the parent’s perspective! Enjoy!

So Your Kid Has A Gluten Sensitivity, Now What?

There are only so many funky diapers a parent can change before they say, “something is definitely not right here!” I know, TMI, but it’s the reality.

I remember the day we finally broke down with my son Collin and decided we needed to ask some serious questions about his digestion to his pediatrician. We didn’t even know where to start.

Should we be looking for a specialist?

Did we do something wrong? (sidenote: if you’re a parent, this can be a common question. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt; you’re doing the best you can!)

How do you ask about weird poop and not sound completely ridiculous?

These were some of the questions that were racing through our heads, among others. That’s why I decided to put together a few quick tips you can use to help your gluten-sensitive child feel their best. Because let’s face it, the happier your kids stay, the happier you’ll be. Not to mention the lack of diaper funk.

I even created a fun acronym to help you remember the tips: G.F.K.I.D.S.

Even though these tips are geared towards the parents of gluten-sensitive children, they should work for anyone battling the gluten goblin.

1. Get Tested — When we suspected Collin had some type of digestion issue, we asked his pediatrician what he thought the possibilities might be. We described symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, distended abdomen, and the doctor’s first assumption was Celiac’s disease. They did a quick blood test and found that Collin actually didn’t have Celiac even though he had many of the same symptoms.
2. Find a Specialist — When the blood test for Celiac came back negative, his pediatrician referred us to a gastrointestinal specialist. The specialist recommended removing gluten from his diet on a trial basis, just to see if that made any positive changes. Without a diagnosis, trial and error was the next step. Oh, and don’t feel weird about asking poop questions. These Doctors have all heard MUCH worse!
3. Keep Testing — The initial changes to the diet were really rough on Collin. He’s a particularly picky eater so removing a staple from his diet like chicken nuggets (yes, really) was a battle royale at meal times. Having the persistence to stick with it was a nightmare, but became totally worth it when we started seeing great results.
4. Investigate Alternatives — I mentioned getting rid of chicken nuggets being a big test, but that was before we explored the world of gluten free blogs, websites, specialty stores, and cookbooks. All of these amazing sources of information (*cough* this very blog *cough*) have been an amazing help to finding ways for Collin to eat the foods he enjoys. The biggest surprise for me has been how easy some of these amazing bloggers make eating gluten-free. Being  parents trying to manage finances, work, family time, school, and occasionally a few minutes to workout, it’s ridiculously important that we have meals that we can all eat together and that don’t take forever to prepare. Hello Gluten Free Peanut Butter Pancakes that can be put together in 5 minutes!
5. Detect Imposters — One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is finding products labeled “Gluten-Free” and then reading the ingredients and finding wheat to be one of the main components. That’s sketchy at best. Shopping trips take longer and sometimes we’ll get a funny look because we spend as much time reading as we do shopping, but for the health of our kids we can handle a few uneducated stares, can’t we?
6. Stick To It — Initially we made the mistake of letting Collin “cheat” in special situations like birthday parties or family barbecues. We thought we were doing him a favor until the blowouts came. Again, TMI. Sorry. At that point he wasn’t happy and neither were we. It was easy to just let it slide every once in a while because he didn’t actually have Celiac, but we’ve found that it’s totally worth it to follow through with the Gluten Free diet 100% of the time. It just makes too much sense not to.

After doing a quick review it looks like I avoided my biggest fear; spelling the acronym wrong. G.F.K.I.D.S.

Whew!

These are a lot of the things I wish I would have known when I started this gluten free lifestyle with my son, so hopefully they’ll help some of you out. Even if you don’t have kids now, maybe your future kids can use this or a friend or neighbor. The possibilities are endless!

And let’s not forget why we’re learning all of this in the first place; to avoid severe cases of diaper funk.