Avery's Day of GF
Breakfast: 1 Fried Egg at home and then Milk and a sausage patty at school. Kids bugged her about not having the biscuit, so I'm not sure breakfast will happen often...
Lunch: Baked Potato with Butter, Cheese, and Bacon Bits brought from home. Milk from school.
Dinner: Ann's Organic G-Free Chili over Tater Tots sprinkled with Cheese.
Tummy started at a 5 and now down to about a 2...
My Day of Learning all about GF....mind melting to say the least...
Soooo many of the symptoms that I have read about are things that Avery has had. But I never tied them all together. I would ask doctors and they all treated me like I was a crazy mom and give me silly lotions and creams to rub all over her rashes and hives. Every time she complained of her stomach hurting I thought it was because she wanted to get out of school or whatever chore I wanted done at the time. I seriously feel like mother of the year here...
Tuesday morning Avery was complaining yet again about her stomach hurting. I said in my most threatening mother voice " Fine you can stay home, but I'm taking you to my doctor today." Thinking surely this would change her tune and cause her to jump up and get ready for school. It didn't. So, there she was following me into her first grown up doctor's appointment. As the doctor pressed on her bloated belly and tears came to Avery's eyes, I knew then that 1) I was officially the worst Mom on the planet. 2) I was going to do everything in my power to FIX this and 3) I would never doubt her again.
Back tracking just a bit...last Easter a relative was singing the praises of being on a gluten free diet. I read a few articles, thought..."hmmm, wonder if that would help Avery and her tummy, I'll give it a try this summer." I bought a bunch of Uncle Ben's Rice Mixes, got rid of all of our noodles, didn't cook anything with obvious gluten for several weeks and yet Avery still complained often of her stomach hurting, so I scraped the gluten free diet...it was a pain in the ass anyway.
Okay back to yesterday at the doctor...After a very tense round of poking and prodding and embarrassing questions about poop (Avery is a modest girl) the doctor started asking me a bunch of questions about her. Yes she had reflux as an infant. Yes she often has rashes. Yes I cant seem to tie this to any one food. No none of the over the counter meds have ever worked to ease the discomfort. Yes she has complained of headaches. The doctor was quite for a few minutes looking over all the notes and then she said, "Well, I'm not going to say Celiac Disease just yet, but definitely Gluten Intolerant and you must avoid 100% of wheat gluten."
"Go Gluten Free" I ask. "Yes" she say, "completely gluten free. There are great resources on the internet about what she will be able to eat from this point on. When in doubt just stick to the most natural state of the food...i.e grilled rather than breaded and fried." "Ohhhhh.... Okay.... we can do this." I say, thinking back to such a failure I was at it this summer. Then the doctor says in a very stren voice..." This is forever. She MUST do this 100% forever."
"Oooooohhh forever" I say.
Forever. Forever is a really long time. A reallllly reaaaalllllyyyyy really llllllooooonnnnngggggg time. So I pack my sweet daughter in the car and take her for her last meal. She feasted on chicken tenders and white country gravy like it was prepared by Paula Deen herself.
Once home, I dove right into every gluten free blog I could find and brought myself to tears numerous times. All the signs were there, I just never knew what I was looking at...included Avery in a game plan on what she wanted to do about lunches and eating at school. Really thought she was handling things like a champ and accepting the changes in stride.
Boy, was I wrong....
Today, I made lists of fun lunch ideas and easy dinner dishes that I already cook. Made a grocery list and took Avery with me to HEB. She did great in the produce section. Pointed out all the gluten free peanut butter at the end of the bread isle. She was disappointed that there weren't any gluten free Little Debbie Snack Cakes. Didn't understand the point of buying lunch meat if she can't eat it in a sandwich. And completely broke down in tears in front of the mac-n-cheese. We stood in that isle for a good 20 minutes. I let her cry. I didn't shush her or make apologies to people passing by. After about 15 minutes of solid tears, I started talking to her about how things were different now, but not terrible. The foods that she can eat are special because they are better for her and they will keep her healthy and strong. She kept crying and wasn't going for any of that. Then I said, "the only thing that going gluten free really means is that now I have to learn to cook!" She started laughing. She liked that. So everything that she saw that she wanted but couldn't have we would say "ohhh, gonna have to learn to cook that"...RITZ Crackers is one of her first requests!
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Alisha,
ReplyDeletePhoebe cried and cried over goldfish. Little Annie's I think has some yummy GF mac and cheese. I add a spoon of sour cream to it and it takes like Kraft. I have found that Pamela's baking mixes the bread and pancake are a lifesaver. The website has tons of free recipes and I don't stress over pizza, Thanksgiving dinners, or desserts. We auto ship from Amazon and have found that to be cheaper in the long run. HEB is good though, so you do the math and see. Watch the rice mixes though. A lot of that stuff has wheat in it. Soy sauce does, onion soup mix, taco seasoning doesn't thank God!!! I wish you the best. I was also told to feed my Connor donuts, butter and fry everything to solve his non-growth issues in Texas. Took a Boston doctor to bring Gluten intolerance into our life. The school even lets me makes cupcakes and the nurse keeps them in the freezer and when it is a birthday at school, my kids go to the nurse for their treat. I also sent a tupperware container with m & m's, snickers, airheads, gum, and other treats to the classroom, so they can have a safe treat during surprise birthdays, or I haven't had a chance to cook anything and send to the nurse.
Good Luck.
www.livingwithout is a good website and the glutenfreemall also have deals once in awhile.
Eating out is a BIG challenge, but we buy 3 adults meals like a steak and potato and the kids share the meal but can get a fun kiddy drink.
I was just gonna send you an email!! it was the strangest thing yesterday. Avery doesn't even like boxed mac-n-cheese...It all just hit her of what she couldn't have (practically the entire center of the store) She kept crying why could you have done this when I was a baby then I'd never know how good ritz and peanut butter are. I was so eaten up with guilt that I just about broke down at the store too.
ReplyDeleteNow I am having a very hard time not going and screaming at her doctor.
I learned the all important lesson of "be prepared" tonight. I like your idea of a box of candies...her Girl Scout troop was sampling cookies....she felt so left out.
Thanks for reading and giving me tips....they are ALWAYS welcomed!!!!