Celiac Awareness Month: What's for dinner?

Eating gluten-free isn’t easy. It forces you to do research on what is safe to eat and isn't. It forces you to research menus online before hitting a restaurant. It forces you to cook. It forces you to be healthier and get creative.

Since my son’s Celiac diagnosis two weeks ago, we have been out to a restaurant as a family only once. This is a big change for us. While I love to cook, I work full-time and therefore have limited time to cook on weeknights.  A couple of nights a week, we'd opt for pizza or go out to eat on a whim. 

Overly indulgent, I typically make two meals a night –  sometimes three meals – because the kids don’t fancy quinoa; and my husband and I don’t like eating hot dogs and Mac N Cheese. When I have had a particularly stressful day at work, going to a restaurant and being served is an enormous treat. Impulsively deciding to go out to dinner on a random weeknight is something that we have had to curb as we discover which restaurants (that we actually like) have options that The Boy can eat.

The website and accompanying app Find Me Gluten Free has been helpful when trying to identify restaurants that offers gluten free options although it is not ideal. Often chain restaurants are listed or placed listed as offering gluten free however as a pick kid who likes pancakes, pizza, and cheese burgers, the menu items at this restaurants are not the right first. If he were a 30 year old yuppy, they would be perfect.

Instead of going out to eat as much as we have, I have opted to make some of the foods that they would typically order at a restaurant, like chicken fingers and french fries, at home using gluten-free ingredients. I've also tried baking using GF ingredients, which wasn't too difficult. Thankfully there are lots of GF options and I have been able to buy a lot of transitional food items that the boys like to eat, things like donuts and waffles. So far, no one has noticed anything.

This is often not gluten free or Celiac friendly

One major issue is that GF foods are expensive, although I have read that you can save by buying things online and making things from scratch is even cheaper. Realistically thought this is not going to happen. I am going to get my food items where I typically get them and I frequent stores like Whole Foods Market more frequently. It is all a journey and it is all a part of the process.

Gluten-free day two for me? So far. So good.

To Potty or Not To Potty

My eldest son is battling and battling hard. His opponent? The Potty. After months of encouraging the boy to pee in the potty with no luck, he finally got there. He was a peeing champ, getting up and going to the bathroom all on his own, like a big boy. Mom and Dad were so proud. We thought that the day would never come. However,the toilet training process was not over.

While the boy mastered peeing in the potty, moving onto the next stage: going No. 2 in the potty was a whole different story. He would not go there. Period. We tried it all - we sat with him, rubbed his back, read to him, bought Gummy Bears as a reward, offered to buy him any toy or game he wanted; nothing worked.
After consultation with the Pediatrician, we provided him the "OK" to continue to go No. 2 in his Pull Ups, but there were restrictions. We were not going to let him rule the roost ... completely.

His part of the deal dictated the he go upstairs to the bathroom, put his Pull Up on, turn the fan on, and come get us when he was finished. The Doctor said that he would find these steps to be too laborious a process and decide to do it our way - the easy way. He liked the set-up and would not budge.

My husband and I decided this was the end of the game, something needed to happen. He would soon be four, starting preschool, and we needed to help him get over the hump. We stopped buying Pull Ups. He stopped going No. 2. He is a Leo. It was three days and nights of him jumping around like a chimpanzee, trying to repress his bodily functions. We consulted our Doctor again and she said that we can't go back; we must follow through. No more Pull Ups. Finally, he went. We were all so proud. We bought him presents and treats and were thrilled. He did it! We all did it! Sigh.

The joy did not last for long when he resorted his old tricks of holding *it* in. Then, it happened: the stomach bug. Three days and nights, 3-5 pairs of underwear a day. In his pants. Still, he would not go near The Potty. Five days later, the stomach bug has seemed to its course and we are grateful. However, he still going in his pants. This is not to say that there has been no successes.

He has gone in the potty 3 -4 times in the last two weeks. The rest of the time, we have not been so fortunate. He will get there. I know it. I am patient. I try to be patient. My husband is not patient. I don't know how the boy feels. He says he is scared. He does not tell me exactly what about going No. 2 in the potty scares him, but, clearly something does. I know that he will move forward and get to where needs to be. He is still three years old and has a lifetime of pooping in the potty (or so we hope).