First appointment with the dietitian

Today I met with Eden's new dietitian and thankfully Eden wasn't there so I actually could listen, learn and take all the information that I could. We've been trying to make the house gluten free(gf) due to Eden's recent Celiacs diagnosis and you can read all about it here. Our first step was to see the dietitian but it's been over a month and the office had been really busy with lots of new referrals. I received a call on Monday that they had a cancellation and could get us in on Wednesday. We had been trying to follow a gf diet but not sure where to start besides going to the store an buying the gluten free things but after my appointment today we have more work to do.

I'm going to try and share all of our adventures as we go through this because it's going to be just as much of an adventure as everything else has been in this family. We've pretty much managed to label read and cut the gluten out of everything Eden eats since we got the call about her test results. We've really made good progress but I was still trying my hardest to keep some of my favorites in the house "just in case" I wanted it. After talking to the dietitian about what Celiacs is and what it does to the body, I was convinced to purge my house of almost everything containing gluten.

It was explained to me that gluten enzymes in the body of someone who has Celiacs disease act like shards of glass in their intestines. It's obviously painful. I explained to her that only some of Eden's biopsies came back positive and she explained that we were probably lucky and the disease was just starting (you carry the disease in your genetics if you have it but it can remain dormant) and catching it early can really help from a long time of being uncomfortable. When her body was trying to process gluten, absorbing other nutrients is really hard so gaining weight is difficult.

So, now that we know and we've been buying gf food we are all set now right? Not really, because of one thing cross-contamination(I'm going to say "cc" because it's shorter and I'm lazy). CC happens all the time and why is this important? Because it only takes the smallest amount of a gluten contaminate to react to the intestines of a person with Celiacs Disease. The example that the dietitian gave me to show how small the amount can be is, if you take your pinky finger and the amount of wheat, barley, rye, or oats(WBRO'S) that can fit under your finger nail can cause an immune response (think glass shards again) to a person's intestines.

Did you know, if you use a flour product with WBRO'S in your kitchen those particles can stay in the air for up to 24 hours when it settles it can contaminate other foods and dishes? The enzymes can also stay on your cookware, kitchen utensils, food containers, cutting boards, toasters, and sponges without decontaminating them these things will still hold enzymes that could make her stomach hurt and she'll still have symptoms. This reason is why we are going to do a gluten free household. The dietitian did say it would be fine to have some prepackaged snacks and such on hand for the other kids but to make sure they are stored separately and cooked in different cookware or decontaminate cookware before using for gf food again.

I'm sharing this information because I think most people were as ignorant as I was. I want my family to know the easy things they can do if they have Eden over without having to go through their houses all the time and make sure it's alright for her to eat there, I want family to be comfortable cooking food for her and also comfortable telling me if they don't want to cook for her and I'll help by providing safe and uncontaminated food for her to eat without a question because I know it's different and more work then they are used to.

Some things you can do if you want to cook for someone who has Celiacs to best avoid cc are to make sure your kitchen is clean and all other foods like flour, bread and oatmeal are put away in cupboards. Don't prepare food near your toaster, toaster oven or microwave even if you think they are clean they probably haven't been properly decontaminated. Use foil pans from the dollar store for baking so you are not cc. Mix ingredients in gallon size plastic bags, even if the food is gf your bowls would need to be decontaminated and this saves you some mess (you can use this for gf cake mixes and such as well!). Ask me what the brands/foods Eden prefers to eat just because it's gf doesn't always mean it's good, we'll let you know what we use and she still is a pretty picky eater at that. And make sure you buy gf foods sometimes labels can be misleading and I'll get to that in my next post.

Right now, I'm going to clean and decontaminate my kitchen, cookware, and stove. I have to go through my cupboards and fridge. And eventually buy a new toaster...