Going Gluten-Free

   For past few years Zan has had lots of unexplained belly aches and "related issues." For a long time we shrugged it off, thinking that he simply caught every stomach bug that came along, but  recently it got increasingly worse.  After talking to his pediatrician and following her suggestion of keeping a food diary, I decided to eliminate gluten from his diet.  Wow! We noticed an immediate improvement (within twenty-four hours.  After about two and a half weeks  the evidence seems clear.  He hasn't had a stomach ache except for the few times he ate gluten unknowingly or mistakenly. 

The reality of having a child on a gluten-free diet is tricky.  Fortunately he has never been a big fan of bread (hmmm....a sign?), but he LOVES pancakes, pasta, cereal, pizza, granola bars, cookies etc.  We have found substitutes for some things, like gluten-free cereal and granola bars.  At least one independent pizza place in town offers a gluten-free crust, which we all like.   I don't buy many processed items and have been pleasantly surprised at the numbers of products I already buy that are gluten-free.  I bought a box of gluten-free pasta, which we haven't tried yet. The biggest challenge so far is baking.  I bought a  24 ounce box of King Arthur Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour for $7.00 and used most of it to make chocolate chip cookies that fell apart and didn't taste that great.  Since then I have found suggestions on celiac.com on how to modify regular flour recipes.  Most people I've talked to recommend finding gluten-free recipes instead of modifying others.  It is hard to give up our favorite and tried and true recipes!  My friend Erin has recommending baking with almond flour and another gluten-free friend shared her recipe for making your own all purpose gluten-free flour blend with a variety of ingredients. 

Zan has been incredibly mature about the whole process.  On day one of his diet we went to a birthday party.  I had warned him ahead of time that he wouldn't be able to eat the cake....just ice cream.  He was a trooper!    Figuring out which products contain gluten is tricky for me - I'm constantly reading labels and looking at gluten-free product lists online, so I'm impressed with how well he has done when offered snacks at friends' houses.  He has a pretty good idea of what is almost always gluten-free:  fruits, vegetables, cheese and yogurt.