Gluten intolerance

Rdautenhahn

I was just curious from some input from parents whose LOs are intolerant of gluten. I found out at 14 that I had celiac disease, and I found out about a week ago that my son does too. My hopes are that since he wont grow up eating it like I did, he won't have a hard time living without it.  To this day it still pains me to watch someone eating twizzlers or papa johns pizza. What I want to know is how you handle things like birthday parties and everything.  Is it hard to teach your LO how to eat and such.  I can't imagine having to explain to a child all of the things to watch for and avoid,  I've been doing it for 11 years and sometimes it's still hard.  I'm rambling, but pease any input would be nice.  I wish I could have passed on something better to my son than this.

gymkatinka

I don't have anyone with Celiac disease,(I'm sensitive to gluten) but I thought I'd try to make you feel better...

I know it's hard when you have to explain to a child that they can not eat something. But there are tons of gluten free sweets you can make for parties.If you need ideas,check out this blog: 

https://www.elanaspantry.com/

(Elana is the queen of gf cupcakes!) 

The good news is,these days there are a lot of gluten free products, even at regular grocery stores.Many food companies are coming out with gluten free products.Even Snyder's Pretzel has gluten free pretzel...Here in NYC more and more pizza places offer gluten free crust, restaurants offer gf options etc.,Soon it will be all over the country, by the time your son grows up he will not have to feel that he's missing out on yummy food. 

Shazzie116

You can hope that he won't miss what he never had. My husband was diagnosed at 23 and it sucks for him not being able to have "real" beer that he knows tastes better (even though he's fine with beer that's GF now).

When it comes to birthday parties, I think parents are just going to be more aware that there are allergies. I don't think any parent would dream of serving peanut butter pie, you know? 

We don't know if our LO will have Celiac, but if she does, I imagine we would send some GF treats to any party she goes to so the burden is off the parents that are hosting, and we know she'll have food to eat that is safe. That's pretty much what DH does now. 

DandelionMom

Kids are amazing and adaptable.  My DDs with celiac disease are way better about it than I am.  They're totally fine with eating the way they do.  When they're questioned about their food, they act like it is no big deal, "I can't have gluten, so I brought my own food."

I go out of my way (probably further than I need to) to make sure they have similar foods to what everyone else is eating at parties, events, and even for school lunches/snacks.  There are so many good replacement foods out there that even though it can be a little pricey it is still pretty easy. 

Until DDs were about 5 they didn't always understand what they could or couldn't eat.  So until then we followed a rule about only eating food from home.  Now they get it, and even though they still mostly eat food from home, they do understand what they need to avoid.