Adventures and Chaos

Everything I thought I knew was very very wrong! About 10 years ago my husband was diagnosed with celiac. I searched for recipes and bought cook books, searched for gluten free food just to be supportive. We were still only dating and not even living together. We tested various pastas, breads, and pizzas, I spent time baking different desserts, which all turned out to taste dry or just not good.

Years later we were married and expecting our first child, I had him go back in to be checked and found out I was giving him stuff that was not gluten free. OOPS. In my defense he wasn’t trying very hard to be gluten free. Fast forward again 5 years to present time, our daughter has now been diagnosed with celiac. It took months to get in to see the pediatric gastro and essentially her levels are so high and being my husband has celiac there is no further testing for her. I asked a handful of questions that lead to me learning about cross contamination being just as bad as giving her a piece of regular toast.

About a week after her appointment the nutritionist called me and I come to find out that everything in my house needs to be replaced if wheat has touched it- air fryer, toaster, pots and pans (that are not stainless steel), plates that have cuts in them, strainers, spatulas, cutting boards, etc. The list seems ever growing. Meanwhile my boys have not been diagnosed and I am being told to continue with a regular diet for them.

I need to cook gluten free meals and regular meals? Thankfully we cook mainly naturally gluten free, I only bake gluten free, but there have been products in my house that are not gluten free and I never even realized (check your bullion cubes)! I also learned about toothpastes, lotions, chapsticks, medications, Play-Doh, the list goes on!

Then when you sit down to think about it Diabetics get insulin, lactose intolerant have pills, many food allergies have Benadryl, an Epi pen (for more severe cases), or controlled exposure through an allergists office to hopefully decrease your sensitivity to your allergy… those with celiac don’t have any of those options. There is nothing to help a person with celiac other than diet.

_{(I am aware of severe food allergies that are severely life threatening, these instances are very serious and very scary and I am not disregarding or trying to decrease the seriousness of those suffering at all by this paragraph.)}

I feel like I have to re-educate myself on what I thought I knew about celiac and have since been taking it way more serious. We try new foods weekly and have found some AMAZING alternative options and then some horrible options. I will definitely be sharing some of our favorites in this post and moving forward I’ll figure out a location on my page dedicated to this.

The one place I have been struggling is school lunches. Her school is a strict nut free school and that topped with celiac I find high prices and so much repetition. I need lunch ideas for a somewhat picky little girl. I’ve tried sunflower butter, different breads, crackers, and still find myself sending her with different meats, beef sticks, cheese sticks, soup, and thats about where I run out of ideas. Snacks are pretty easy it’s the main lunch dish I struggle with.

Where are my other mamas with young kids and a celiac diagnosis?

Below is a small list of our favorites…

Share your favorite foods, snacks, meals, restaurants, or other products in the comments!