Our First Allergy

In November, during a well visit, the doctor took note of Masons growth. He has really only grown 2-3 inches total in the past 3 years, but at his age, he should be growing about 2 inches per year. His weight and BMI are very low, but that’s been consistent with his body so that wasn't a huge concern.  Long story short, after chatting with different scenarios, we decided to do some proactive blood work just to be sure we weren’t missing anything. About a week after we went in, I received a call from our ped that mason had tested positive for celiac disease. They wanted him seem by CHOP allergy asap.  My pediatrician gave me the number to call, but before I could even get home to get my thoughts in order, her nurse had already called CHOP and got us in for an expedited appt the following week.

My head was spinning. Of course we worry about allergies when they are babies and we introduce new foods, but I thought we were way past that point with an almost 11 year old.  I was so upset and nervous for what it meant.  I also felt so guilty.  Why didn't I test him for this sooner?  How come we didn't we pick up on this?  Tommy on the other hand felt as though it was a "fad" disease and that it wasn’t a real problem.  It was very frustrating and caused us a ton of fights between us.  Luckily we only had to wait a few days until we could go in to meet with the celiac division and learn more about Mason's new diagnosis.  

The three of us went in for his appointment and met with the doctor who would be working with mason. She was so calm and patient with us all.  She explained that it’s a very serious allergy and the long term consequences of untreated celiac disease are colon cancer and Crohn's disease.  The only cure for celiac disease is removal of gluten containing foods from the diet.  Since the signs of the allergy all happen within the stomach, they require an endoscopy to confirm the diagnosis.  Until the study is completed and read, you have to keep ingesting gluten containing foods so that the doctors can see the effects of the gluten on the inside.  We went home with a lot of new information and homework to do about Mason's new allergy.  It was the week before Thanksgiving so we also prepared ourselves to feast on gluten since we knew it was our last time to do so, haha.

I will say that it was kind of nerve racking to keep feeding him foods that we knew he was allergic to while we waited for the endoscopy.  Mason had fun with it though, claiming that he needed extra cookies, and pizza, and sandwiches because they were his "last gluten foods."  such a drama king..  There was a little bit of a delay because of the holiday and working around everyone’s schedule.  We finally got in and had the study done.  The endoscopy showed that he had ulcers on his bowels which was his body’s reaction to ingesting gluten and it  the ulcers were what stopped him from absorbing the nutrients from the foods he ate which was the result of the poor growth.  All of this confirmed that mason most definitely had celiac disease. 

The next steps were removing gluten from his diet.  We made the family decision to do as a whole to be supportive and to avoid cross contamination.  It took some time to prep, which included getting a new toaster, all new condiments (which could have had gluten in them from any food touching them), purchasing new baking dishes and baking sheets.  Tommy and I tend to cook cleaner meals as is and we tend to keep the processed items at a minimum.  Plus I have kind of been on the path towards it for awhile due to my Hashimoto's disease, as research has found that removal of gluten helps to regulate thyroid levels.   But it has been an adjustment and we have still learned so much about how many items contain gluten in them that we were never aware of.  And the cross contamination is such a big deal so it makes eating out very difficult.  But we are getting the hang of it and we are finding products that are really yummy!  We have come up with some good options, but we could always use more!  Is anyone else dealing with living a gluten free lifestyle?  Do you have your favorite places to order groceries from?  Please share with us!  Comment below or send me a message on IG. 

Thanks for following along!

Xo,
K