Thursday, April 20, 2006

Should've known...

Well, after a bout with some intestinal upset I hauled my middle child off to the doctor to be tested for Celiacs (gluten intolerance) with my DH objecting the whole way. DH's logic is that if you have an illness like this do you want to know? He thinks not. He doesn't want to know his son shouldn't be eating bread and baked goods... He would rather let him live his childhood without having to avoid certain foods.

So, of course DS #1 has Celiacs. Now we have to decide what that means for our family and our eating habits. I would like to eliminate gluten. DH says just let him eat what he wants and when he is old enough let him decide to eliminate it. I guess I will be cringing whenever we eat out hoping that he will choose the chicken breast over mac and cheese... But in the home I will be trying to cook gluten free and hopefully DH will see that DS can eat the things he likes without gluten if we make them at home.

So, on those lines... Any good recipes for gluten free food that a typical kid would like? DS's favs which have gluten normally are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and cinnamon rolls. Anyone?

5 comments:

Marian said...

You can find a lot of gluten-free products in health food stores and also online. I know that there is also special flour you can buy in the store for celiac disease. Hang in there and thanks for writing once again. I missed reading your blog. Ma'salaam, Marian

UmmZaynab said...

I think there are a lot of places online now for GF recipes. YahooGroups, or MDC boards for example. What I don't understand is, why doesn't your dh understand that eating gluten negatively affects his health and probably his behavior too? Isn't that important?

UmmZaynab said...

Oh and sorry I haven't been in touch for a while-- I'm now ALLE and I've been spending all of my free time trying to rebuild our 3-years-defunct ALL back from scratch with people most of whom don't even know what an ALL is because it's been so long! ;) I owe you a phone call though.

UmmLayla said...

Ugh, DH thinks that food allergies are in the mind you see... He has several and as long as he eats moderate amounts of a food he is allergic too he never has a problem, masha'Allah. But, I would say that his asthma flair ups have more to do with allergies than he would like to admit.

I guess the simple answer is he doesn't see health as a bigger picture... So he looks at the stomach trouble Celiacs causes and says, I can live with that. Well, the larger issue is that your intestine becomes so irritated over time that it builds up a mucus ling that keeps you from absorbing vital nutrients (which if you look at my DS you can see is happening). So, it takes time to heal the effects of Celiacs and the nutritional deficiencies that go with it. It's not really an allergy in the regular sense they say...

Anyway, I cleaned the cupboards yesterday and got rid of all the kids food that has gluten and tried to set up some snacking alternatives. I think DH will just have to read some of the literature himself (which I plan on having him do once I get a few books) before he really gets it. Also, he has to get past looking at my brother and saying well he has Celiacs and he never avoided Gluten as a kid.

I could write a book.

Anyway, maybe he needs some good old fashioned scaring about the effects of Celiacs. The good thing is I am the food gatekeeper 99.9% of the time. For now I just have to plead my case as best as I can.

Thanks Marian!

And I look forward to hearing from you UmmZ:)

Anonymous said...

My son is allergic to nuts, eggs, and legumes since he was 2 months old but he just gets an itchy rash if he eats more than a bite. It's been tricky to avoid those things, especially the eggs. I now make pancakes without eggs and they come out just as good if not better. But i noticed a lot of sites out there for recipes and even more products in the stores that say gluten-free. Trader Joe's has a penne pasta made from rice flour. There are flours that are gluten-free so you can make your own cookies, chicken nuggets, pizza, pasta, etc. There is toast made from rye flour instead of wheat. it's hard in the beginning to adjust but with time you will all adjust inshaAllah. Just the eating out part will remain difficult, but actually it's better that way because resteraunt food is usually crappy food anyways - low quality, non-organic, hydrogenated oils, MSG, etc. And making those foods at home instead of pre-made pre-packaged i think will help your whole family eat more healthy and avoid preservatives, additives, and artificial crap.