Restaurants We Love

This is where we eat, and how.  This is by no means an all-inclusive list of the restaurants and food purveyors in West Palm Beach that cater to celiacs, but these are merely the places we have found that work for us.  So far.

* Paris Bakery and Cafe (Olive, between Evernia and Datura):  I always order the Notre Dame salad because it is both GF and CF (casein free secondary to milk allergy)  The tarragon dressing is made in house, GF and fantastic. NO BREAD - if you are dining in, the silverware will come inside the bread basket.  Ask for your silverware to be brought to you separately.  Avoid soups and wraps obviously, but the eggs (scrambled or omelets) are prepared in a skillet rather than a flat top grill, which should be avoided at all costs. The bacon is pretty sweet, as well.

* Nature's Way Cafe:  I only order the curry chicken salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, with no adverse effects.  I have yet to branch out.

* Joy Noodle:  There is a GF menu, and they seem to have a handle on things.  I think I had grilled chicken and a bean thread-type noodle.  It was good, not great.

* The Breakers Hotel - The Italian Restaurant, Ocean Grill, Seafood Bar, Flagler Steakhouse, Ecco - tell them you have a "gluten allergy," and they will take care of you.  That being said, pay attention to what comes out of the kitchen.  If you are suspicious about something (e.g., breadcrumb on your child's hot dog) bring it to their attention, and it will be remade.  If you order french fries or even corn chips (chips & guacamole), ask for FRESH OIL so they won't be cross contaminated from the fryer.

* Rocco's Tacos:  Well, here's the story with their corn chips.  They are prepared in the morning in a fryer that will later be used for a variety of items that will contain gluten.  The fryers are allegedly drained and cleaned each night.  I know that the chances that some cross contamination will occur, but it has not affected us.  We are both very sensitive to contamination, and I do believe that our lab results speak for themselves in this case.

* Chick Fil-A: grilled nuggets are okay, as are fries, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and sausage.  Ask the person taking your order to "RED FLAG" your food for "Wheat allergies."  As stated before, mistakes do happen, so be sure to inspect your food.  I have only had one transgression take place with them, but I don't think I ingested anything harmful.

*Duffy's Sports Grill (Clematis and Olive):  There is a GF menu, and it's not bad.  Most of the wait staff is pretty young, so if you don't feel that they grasp what you really require from them, don't be afraid to bring the manager into the fray.  In my experience, they have gone above and beyond what I expected of them to be sure that we could eat safely in their restaurant.

*Chipotle:  First of all, try to go during a non-peak time, if that actually exists.  Inform the first person on the line that you are CELIAC and GLUTEN FREE, and ask them to change their gloves.  This person should be the only person to touch your food, and they will walk you all the way down.  It makes no sense for the first person to change their gloves and put your salad in the bowl if they next person who has been touching tortillas all day puts their thumbs right into your bowl.  Avoid the green tomatillo salsa, as it has not been listed on their website as GF.  And while I'm on the subject, the Chipotle in Boynton Beach on Gateway & Congress is absolutely superb in their snappy and competent response to my request for the glove change.  They are impressive, to say the least.

* Joey's Gluten Free Bakery:  Found at the West Palm Beach Green Market and now in her very own store, Miss Joey has the most fantastic selection of cookies, breads, and muffins!  We have unfortunately been unable to patronize her new dedicated store (on Woolbright in Boynton Beach), but it is on our list.  She will even take special orders for cakes, pies, and other heavenly items!!  

I am sure there are more, but I just haven't found them yet.  Again, this is a very limited list of places where we have enjoyed safe dining experiences.

Cheers!

Farewell 2013

I talk about our journey with celiac disease to a lot of people.  I mean a whole lot of people.  I do this not to call attention to myself and my high maintenance diet, but to spark awareness.

There is a whole slew of people who "try" to eat GF,  (not an inappropriate use of quotation marks.)  These well meaning people are merely attempting to eliminate gluten from their diet (maybe that's the flag they should wave), but they actually make it much more unsafe for us to eat out.  They don't really care whether or not their scrambled eggs were prepared on a shared surface... they just order eggs, sans toast.  They are perfectly willing to let a dash of soy sauce slide in their vegan spring roll, or excuse a dash of malt in the CORN flakes. (Ahem, Rachel Ray... you are irresponsible and downright dangerous. Jimmy Kimmel, I hope that your children never have to avoid "imaginary" gluten that -- what was that?  Doesn't even exist?)

Me, however?  If I were to lax my standards for one second and allow one of the above-listed grievances to be ingested, the inside of my mouth would seem as though I ate large shards of glass for lunch whilst shedding HANDS FULL of hair.  But never mind me, who cares about me... my son would be violently ill, and who can tolerate even one moment of their child in pain?

For the past two years, we have navigated the murky waters of a gluten free lifestyle, as it is much more than just a diet.  This truly involves the support of family, friends and even a community in order to resemble the smashing success that we have experienced.

As of November, 2013, our bloodwork results are as follows:  Tissue Transglutaminase level 4.  At diagnosis we were 100+, and a normal, non-celiac individual would be anything under 4.  NCS and I are both exactly a 4.0.  I think that this means that our unrelenting GF standards work.

We only eat in a few restaurants, and we have educated the bejeezus out of many a restaurant manager/owner/waitstaff.  We have illuminated the dangers of cross contamination for countless friends, family, and unsuspecting acquaintances.  We have probably been subject to many an eye roll or criticism, but we are healthy.  If I can protect my child from the looming possibility of gastrointestinal lymphoma, intestinal cancer, peripheral neuropathy, and who knows what else, then I consider our journey thus far a success.

GF Cupcake Trick

My son is going into first grade, and he is still of the age when cupcakes are really the coolest thing ever.  Well, I guess half the world is still "of that age," when you get right down to it.  Cupcakes have gotten much more fancy and dare I say, even sexy, over the past few years.  Although we can't just pop into our local cupcake boutique, we can still make them at home.  I should be able to post for you my homemade fancy (even sexy) cupcake recipe, but I'm really not that brave as of yet.  Instead, I buy the box cake mix.  Betty Crocker, the angel that she is, now makes a GF cake mix, and I buy the yellow cake variety.

Anytime there is a bake sale, class party, or family dinner thing at my son's school, I make sure to send a big box of GF cupcakes, just so he won't feel left out.  I was actually complimented by a friend on my tasty cupcakes, when she accidentally ate a GF one, so I guess they're pretty good.  However, I thought that they were just okay.  I think that the cupcakes taste a little too strongly of vanilla, and I think the texture is a little dense.  So I started tweaking the box recipe a little, and this is what works for us.

The box recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  I only use one (1) teaspoon instead of two.  The box recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of water.  I use 1/3 cup water, and 1/3 cup orange juice.  I also add just shy of one tablespoon of baking POWDER.  Any more than that is too much.  The only other thing that I might do in the future is possibly add a little orange zest, if I happen to have an orange around that day.

Little kids seem to have cupcake parties every time you turn around.  I got caught unprepared once last year, when there was a surprise birthday party in my son's kindergarten class, and I vowed that it wouldn't happen again.  Now we have a freezer full of these little gems.  And as a bonus, I picked up a travel cupcake container (plastic) at BB&B, so I can put it in his lunchbox and not worry that it will get smashed.  Or thrown.  Or slung around.

Best Pancakes Ever

So my son loves pancakes.  He does.  I can count on one hand the number of times he has NOT eaten them for breakfast.  I spent hours and hours perfecting the batter in our pre-celiac days, and they were lovely, they really were.

The day we were forced to dive into the GF world, head first, I of course bought him every kind of GF pancakes and waffles that Whole Foods carried.  Well, he hated them.  Every last one of them.  Some tasted like sweetened sheet rock, others had no real taste, yet resembled some type of spongy plastic.  Breakfast became quite a challenge for us.

Thankfully, I had discovered a flour blend that is used cup-for-cup in recipes, just like regular flour.  It's a rice flour/tapioca flour/potato starch blend that I'm sure I could blend myself for a whole lot less money, but I'm really not in the mood.  I know that people buy prepackaged pancake mixes and such, but I prefer not to.

So for those of you who would like it, here is my kickass pancake recipe:

3 large eggs (I prefer farm-fresh.)
1 large spoonful (about 1/4 cup) of yogurt or sour cream (I use dairy-free sour cream.)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
3-4 generous shakes of cinnamon
1/2 c. oil (canola, coconut... your choice)
4 teaspoons of baking POWDER

Get all of that in a big bowl, and whisk it.  Whisk it up.

Now here comes the tricky part..
2 cups of flour (I use Tom Sawyer GF Flour blend.)
1 1/3 cup of milk (I use rice milk.)
4 or so tablespoons of ground flax seed
*optional:  1/4 cup of shredded coconut

Whisk again, and let it sit for a couple of minutes.

In the meantime, I have a ceramic skillet (nonstick-ish), sprayed with canola oil heating up on just-hotter-than-low (#3).  Pour or ladle out the pancakes (my son prefers minis), and flip when bubbles form.

The best thing about this batter is its longevity.  I make it on Sunday or Monday, pour it into a cupcake pen, (BB&B, you're welcome.) and it lasts in the fridge all week.

If you're really feeling frisky, you can add any fruit to this... mashed bananas, pumpkin, blueberries, go crazy!

Enjoy,
Whip

God Bless Chick-Fil-A

So, for one or two of you who may not be aware of its existence, Chick-Fil-A is a fast food chicken restaurant, and they serve damn good chicken -- fried especially, but also grilled. They have a few items that qualify as gluten free, but most importantly, they have a condiment known as Polynesian Sauce. In our house, it is referred to as Palls-en-esian Sauce, and if you drizzled it on an old shoe, I would go all-in that my son would eat at least half of it. Best of all, all of the sauces at Chick-Fil-A are gluten free, (per both their website and the ingredient labels).

Nutritionally speaking, I am not a fan of sweet (more like a sweet and sour) sauces, especially for kids, but this is almost the ONLY way I can get my son to eat meat. (What preceded my son's celiac diagnosis was a few years of what can only be described as feeding hell, due to some sensory issues. Several studies have alluded to the reduction of oral sensory dysfunctions in celiac children once on a GF diet, and I would definitely say that his aversions have gotten much better over the last five months.)

The aforementioned condiment elixir is provided whenever you purchase chicken items, but since most of their food is now off limits to us, we still acquire sauce packets. Here's how you do it, if you're lucky enough to live near (or even not so near) a CFA: Eight ounce containers of this sauce are sold via their catering menu, and you can buy them. The one ounce containers are not typically sold, but you can ask them to sell you eight of the one ounce packs for the same price as the 8 oz. bowl (something like $1.79). I used to swing by every couple of months and buy about 32 or so of the packs, and then I was stocked for dinners, lunches (lunchbox), one or two for the car, in case we decided to have dinner with friends, etc.

In addition, the grilled chicken breasts are GF, and they now have grilled chicken nuggets!! French fries, hashbrowns, and non-biscuit breakfast items are also listed as GF on their website, though they don't guarantee that all food prep areas are safe. But here's what you can do: ask the person taking your order to "RED FLAG" your food for wheat allergies (easier for most people to process if you tell them you have a serious allergy). Tell them to specifically red flag your food for wheat cross contamination, and ask them to have the person touching your food to change their gloves before handling it. Each and every time I have made this request, the person taking my order or the manager immediately walks back to the kitchen, personally ensures that the gloves are changed, and my food is placed immediately into a container that is then sealed. (Additional Mommy tip: if you order a kid's meal, you can surrender the "toy," which is usually now a book or a game, for ice cream. If you're eating GF, just make sure they put the ice cream (vanilla) in a cup, never a cone.)

To most people, this may not sound like much. But I can tell you that the care and attention that these wonderful people take when making sure that I or my son can eat some french fries has almost brought me to tears on several occasions. We have eaten in highly acclaimed restaurants where the chef meets with us before ordering for a culinary consultation and then personally goes back practically into a bubble to cook for us, only to have an "operations error" where the expediter accidentally brings us the wrong food. Um, this sucks, and it makes me much less trusting when it comes to "eating out," if that's even how you can refer to my transactions at Chick Fil A.

**Note: sometimes, if inside the restaurant, my son likes to play in the indoor playground, but he MUST ALWAYS wash his hands afterwards, before he eats. The kids that he's playing with have probably just handled chicken nuggets, and they are joyously applying a greasy film of gluten to the slide and gym. Just a heads up.

Best,

Whip

NCS, 5 Months Later

So here we are, in the spring. NCS was diagnosed as celiac in early October, and he went totally and completely GF ten minutes later. The following is just a basic rundown of how we've navigated these waters, in case it could possibly help anyone else.

Quick recap: Total cleansing and purging of almost all food and small kitchen appliances/tools. Check. Full brain immersion in all things GF/celiac, including a thorough education on cross contamination. Check. Crash course education of all friends and family members on cross contamination. Check. Boy healed and growing... Check.

We pretty much live our lives in our home as we did before. Our house is absolutely GF, no flour in the house, and nothing that ever touched flour in the house. I cook just as I did before, but now with a wonderful premixed flour blend that I can substitute for regular flour, cup for cup. Easy. The difficulty comes in when we venture out into the world. We still don't eat out very much (maybe three times in five months), and I'm not so sure that will really resume anytime soon. NCS' school has been nothing short of incredibly supportive throughout this journey, and I can't thank them enough for respecting NCS and protecting his health.

I just calculated NCS' growth in height with my ultra scientific measuring device: marks on the kitchen door frame. It seems that he's grown 1.5 inches since October, and I know that he's gone up two sizes in his clothes and probably three in shoes. This can only mean that he has healed, and his body is now celebrating everything he eats with a burst of growth.

Symptom-wise, he hasn't thrown up since he went GF, and he's only had one or two tummy aches, which could certainly be attributed to almost anything else typically ingested by a five year old. And the "celiac belly," think Save-the-Childrenesque bloated Ethiopian belly... gone.

He understands that he has celiac disease, and it means that he can't have anything with gluten in it. He is absolutely amazing in that he assumes that any new food is contaminated, and he asks me or another reliable source ("Mommy, look this up on your phone.") whether or not he can safely eat it. He has a few backup snacks at home and school that he can indulge in when his friends are toasting each other with cupcakes, and we have a freezer full of GF cupcakes, which I have learned are really just a safe, yet labor intensive delivery device for icing and sprinkles.

This is a short list of his approved snacks:

* Fruit (except unwashed strawberries and unpeeled non-organic apples)

* Lays (unflavored) chips: from Stax (like Pringles, but safe) to baked, which he loves

* Vanilla ice cream (we buy Blue Bell, vanilla only)

* Plain popcorn (we pop the kernels at home, don't trust microwave bags or ingredients)

* Xochil corn chips (he likes the blue ones), and I think Tostitos scoops are safe

* Ore Ida french fries and hash browns (haven't checked out the "extra crispy" varieties)

These are some things that we have learned are NOT SAFE:

* unpeeled conventional (non-organic) apples: wax on the skin may contain gluten

* Pringles

* Mission brand corn chips (processed in a facility that also processes wheat)

* Chocolate ice cream (depends on the brand, read labels carefully)

* Frozen yogurt with any "cookie/cake" flavors (cookies & cream, wedding cake, etc.)

* McDonald's fries: rumored to be safe, but THEY CONTAIN WHEAT (also hash browns)

These are the snacks that we usually have on hand, just in case. Lunchbox wise, he primarily eats cantaloupe, bananas, grapes, and Boar's Head turkey/cheese wraps (use the turkey slices as the outside wrapping), plain popcorn. Occasionally, I'll include GF chicken nuggets (either homemade or Ian's), with Chick Fil A Polynesian sauce.

More later,

Whip

Galaxy Glue

I've been singing that song to myself all week.

I am exhausted, and I feel like the Incredible Shrinking Woman. The end part, where they tell her what's making her smaller.

I have a lot to say, but unless I can type whilst sleeping, I'll have to say it this weekend.

No Good

My cornbread was awful.

If there is one thing in the world that I can make perfectly, without fail, it's cornbread. I made it tonight, and it just didn't turn out. Was it the GF flour that I added (1 Tbsp.), or the new cast iron skillet that replaced the old contaminated one? Either way, I'm frustrated and a little pissed off.

I'm a little resentful that my tastebuds seem to be a little lame. Things that seemed to taste awful just 10 days ago now seem delightful. What's that all about?

A very sweet lady gave me a huge bag of cookies tonight. There were flavors and combinations that no one should ever really have to dream up, but several potential culinary horrors were actually represented beautifully in the form of such creations as coconut quinoa and chocolate orange cookies. Three weeks ago, I don't know what I would have done with these cookies, but they are really good!

There is a lot of underlying frustration in these words, but I am in the midst of an abyss of exhaustion at the moment. Meal planning is a bit taxing, but most of all, I feel like I am at the produce market every single day. My son eats a bunch (5 or so) bananas a day, plus at least one canataloupe. I urge anyone who may be reading this -- BUY STOCK IN CHIQUITA!! And possibly even a cantaloupe farm!

More later, y'all.

Bad. Ass.

I have many things to say about celiac disease and our healthy new gluten free diet, but many of them are negative. Because I am just so tired of all things negative, I would like to reveal something else entirely.

Something serious is going on with me. I don't know if it's the new diet or maybe all the stress that I've been under, but I am a changed woman.

If any of you know me at all, you know how terrified I am of lizards. Small ones, large ones, green ones, brown ones, black ones, see-through ones, spotted ones, striped ones, neon ones, indiginous ones, imported ones, baby ones, aggressive ones, fast ones, dead ones... you get it. Those closest to me may recall that I almost didn't marry JS because of an incident that we now politely refer to as the Lizard In the Christmas Tree Incident, but this isn't the time to discuss it... still too painful.

Well, you see, my house has been invaded by lizards twice in the last week, and I took care of them. By "taking care of them," I am not referring to sucking them up with the vacuum cleaner (ahem.. JS!), and I did not squirt them with Windex until they drowned.* Instead, I identified the problem (offending lizard), formulated a plan (remove them, STAT), acquired the required equipment (plastic bowl and some sort of lid or paper... you get it), and went to work (without screams or requiring oxygen). I don't remember much about what happened, but somehow the trespassing reptiles found themselves propelled safely into the grass. All because of me.

I don't know what exactly has changed within me, but it simply MUST BE the new and improved Gluten Free Whipper that has emerged, sans lizard phobia. There is no other explanation. And I think that if I remain in SoFla, I might have to start wearing some sort of cape. I have truly turned a corner.

*I don't even own Windex, and I would never squirt anything larger than a housefly with a cleaning product. I mean, I would squirt a roach to death if I was forced to, but I have never had the opportunity.

Worst. Nightmare. Ever.

I couldn't sleep last night.

I tossed and turned and was borderline freaking out over all this celiac brouhaha. It hit me right in that quiet little moment right before I was able to fall asleep that I had not baked any GF cupcakes. Someone told me on facebook that their friend, the mother of a celiac child, baked a whole bunch of magical GF cupcakes and kept them in the freezer so that whenever there was a party or celebratory function at her child's school...viola! Perfect mom saves the day with a perfect cupcake, child isn't left out of sad, and the whole class has a rockin' cupcake party. Well, I have no such jewels in our freezer. I even snapped up a cute little $10 countertop cupcake maker with this exact purpose in mind.

I tried to calm myself down and just rationalize with myself. Really, out of the entire class of 18 kids in NCS' kindergarten class, what were the chances that I wouldn't have time to find out when the next party is scheduled and somehow find the perfect freezer-friendly, non-bricklike, GF cupcake? Like almost zero? I mean really, why was I getting all worked up for nothing?

Fast forward a few hours -- and I mean just a few, because I got like no sleep -- dropping the boy off at school. When is the next cupcake party? Oh, today. Seriously, today. I somehow saved the day with an emergency procurement of naturally GF vanilla ice cream, but I still felt unprepared.

I have so many factoids, claims, and even rumors swirling around in my head, I can barely think straight. And as the purpose of this blog is to get my thoughts filed away properly, here are the rumors on the street and on the internets, as well as a few thoughts and fears of my own:

• 100% pure Maple Syrup is GF
• Maltodextrin, though on the "Do Not Eat" list, is alleged to be GF in the US, but not GF in Europe. Whatever.
• Both coke and pepsi (just regular and diet are all I've looked up), although they contain "caramel color," are alleged to be GF by their respective makers. They are rumored to make these claims legally because the possible amounts of gluten present are trace-to-scant-to-maybe even zero. Seriously? Can't we just be honest about the source of our caramel color?
• Publix has clear and concise GF info on their website. http://www.publix.com/managed_pdfs/2011/Gluten_Free_2011.04.pdf
• You can google "Is (xxxxx) gluten free?" and receive excellent information on almost anything under the sun from the websites of celiac.org and celiac.com's forums.
• Purely distilled vinegars are allegedly GF, but then some sources say to stay away from all vinegars because they are started with a barley mash.
• Hormel canned chicken is GF. I can't think of a single reason why I would ever buy this, but it's in my head.
• The wax on fruit -- non-organic apples, specifically -- allegedly contains gluten. I plan to buy organic apples, and scrub them anyway.
• Pringles DO contain gluten; Lays Stax potato chips are GF.
• Most of Frito Lay's chips (corn and potato) are GF.
• Tostito's Scoops are GF, but some of their fancy "Artisan" chips are not.
• The glue in envelopes contains gluten. Don't lick it.
• Boar's Head meats and cheeses are GF.
• Publix mayonaisse is GF, as are Heinz Ketchup and French's mustard
• Hand sanitizer is no substitute for hand washing when it comes to reducing or preventing cross contamination.
• I bought a very expensive GF flour blend that can be substituted for regular flour (equal parts), and it's working out okay so far. I'm not ready to post any testimonials yet.
• I don't trust any restaurant to prepare GF food for us right now.. I haven't tested the waters yet. I'm too afraid.
• GF homemade bread is really, really good straight out of the oven, but begins to take on a plaster-like texture after 36 hours. Maybe I'll take up skeet shooting.

I'm sure I'll add to all of this later, and I will probably become more organized as time goes on. Well, hopefully.

And oh yeah, bonus: I have celiac disease, too. Today was my first full gluten-free day.

Contaminated? Me?

Okay, all of this is kind of hard.

It's one thing to have to buy or bake gluten free bread, which kind of sucks, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg.

Shopping (and the research that has to go into it) is more difficult than I imagined. So I did a little homework, and I printed a list of stuff that's not allowed. This list is not short. By any means. And I found out on Whole Foods' website that they have a handy dandy little book when you walk in, detailing all of the GF products on the shelves. I loaded NCS up in the car, and we set out in search of everything GF, and I really mean everything.

You see, NCS has a sensory processing disorder, which affects his feeding. Long story short, some textures just really freak him out. Not freak out as in "I really don't like this," but FREAK OUT as in "my brain does not know what to do with this stuff in my mouth, and not only can I not take it, but I am going to go all Exorcist on you!" I can't even begin to really explain it, but let's just say that carbs (breads, crackers, pizza crusts, etc.) are very, very important to him. The sensory stuff kind of makes the GF choices much more narrow.

Whole Foods was out of the handy dandy GF shopping guide, so the nice lady printed it out for me on computer paper. Although I really do appreciate the thought behind the guide, it's pretty difficult to use, especially when you have a boy in the large part of the grocery cart who really would like to be anywhere else. I think I'm a pretty tough person, and I can take many of the crazy curve balls that motherhood sends me, but this shopping list + the long list of stuff that he can't eat almost reduced me to tears. I mean really, is maltodextrin GF or not? The list says he can't have it, but the internet says he can.

Soap box alert: Would someone just stop putting this sort of crap in our food? Maltodextrin? Sodium diphosphate? Artificial flavorings? Caramel color? All of this, by the way, is exactly why I think people have this ridiculous disease. Wheat should be found IN BREAD, NOT SHREDDED CHEESE OR SHAMPOO!

Two such trips to Whole Foods and one such trip to Publix (whose website has a LOT of great GF information), and I think I kind of have an idea of what I'm doing. And then I find out about the whole concept of cross contamination, which was a bit mind-blowing. I just think of gluten like it's a virus or a terrible bacteria. I mean, it's just a microscopic little protein particle that can be passed from person to object/person/pet. If it's on your hands because maybe you ate a turkey wrap, and then you touch a GF cookie to give to your son, you've contaminated him. Perhaps you aren't even so stupid as to just go ahead and handle his cookie... maybe you just touch the handle of the refrigerator, and then your celiac child (yes, that's what they call them, celiacs..) opens the fridge and then eats the cookie on his own accord, BAM! Cross contamination. You've just infected your kid, or glutened him.

Now as you begin to embrace the concept of cross contamination, think about this... Say that you made some regular pasta in your kitchen back in those happy days when you didn't know the term "celiac disease." Perhaps you even stirred the boiling pasta with a $12 wooden spoon from Crate & Barrel... You guessed it, BAM! Cross contamination. Throw it out. Same with your toaster, waffle iron, cast iron skillet, kitchen sponges, plastic kitchenware, all cutting boards, etc. I'm sure there still more that I haven't even thought of yet.. I'm learning more every day. And I really, really miss my wooden spoons.

Scope Prep, and Scope

The boy had to stay gluten-full until the endoscopy to ensure that we (well, not really all of us, just the nice doctor) could visualize the full extent of the damage within.

You see, if you're not familiar with the mechanism of celiac disease, I'll break it down for you really quick, and I like bullet points:

• It's an autoimmune disease, not just an allergy.
• When the wheat (also rye, barley, spelt) protein gluten is introduced into the gut, the villi, which are tiny little the finger-like projections on the walls of the small intestine are damaged. These are the little guys that ACTUALLY ABSORB THE NUTRIENTS FROM OUR FOOD! Not good.
• I'm going to say this one again: When the villi come into ANY contact with ANY gluten, they get angry and pissed off, and they are damaged. They will now not absorb the good stuff from food.
• To further clarify, not only is there a lack of absorption of nutrients, but you can gather very quickly by looking at my son's distended belly, there is an accompanying inflammatory reaction, which can cause more damage than you can ever dream up. Maybe we'll touch on some of that later.
• So now, since there is compromised absorption, just like if he were malnourished by any other means, the kid can get sick. Like real sick. Like actually worse than not even eating, since now the small intestine is all damaged and irritated. Seriously, like cancer sick. Sick, sick sick.
• The important thing to take away from this bullet point festival is that this can be really, really dangerous.

I decided to go ahead and clean out the house, since the kid is going to have to have something to eat when he wakes up (post-endoscopy). I really had no idea how "contaminated" our kitchen was. I took a picture, but I'm not posting it at this time for two reasons: #1 - I am TOTALLY ashamed of the state of my cabinet (that's right, ONE cabinet.. hopefully upgrading soon) #2 - I don't know how to do it yet.

Do you have any idea how many of our foods have wheat proteins in them? It's quite astonishing.

I gave away food to friends, open boxes of pasta to my son's kindergarten class for art projects, other stuff to food banks, and I even returned a whole bunch of recently purchased dry goods to Publix (thank you!).

And since I mentioned Publix, I have to say that the people that work in our local grocery store are the sweetest, kindest, most helpful people! They all know NCS, and they have gone out of their way to answer my questions and help me out whenever I have questions or concerns. I want to give a special shout-out to Sandy, the deli lady who slices the cheese just right, and the nice curly headed guy who rules over the produce department!

So the morning of the procedure, with a sleepy and very hungry little guy, we set off in search of visual images of his innards. And we got them. Throughout the process, NCS was a sweet, polite, patient little patient. He was brave, and we were so very, very proud of him.

Well, the biopsies (eight) confirmed the diagnosis, celiac disease, once and for all. Here we go.

The Episode Where the Lady Gets the News That Her Son Has Celiac Disease...

So there we were, in the exam room of the pediatric gastroenterologist. I just knew that he was going to examine NCS (our five year old son), review his unremarkable labs, and tell us that he has a slight case of reflux -- or better yet, that maybe he just eats too much junk food -- and is just having the occasional tummy ache. In my fantasy, the doctor would then suggest probiotics, maybe refer us to a speech therapist for some feeding therapy at the most. He would spend about five minutes with us and send us on our merry way, and I would feel a bit ridiculous for even bringing my son to a specialist.

But that's not what happened. At. All. Instead, he says: "Your son has celiac disease."

Um, what??? There is no way he just said that to me. I've had the results of all of his lab tests for the last week, except one. The celiac panel. The results had been faxed to the doctor's office, get this -- WHILE WE WERE IN THE WAITING ROOM. Still, even though I knew it wasn't really that bad of a disease, the pronouncement still came as a bit of a shock.

Surprisingly, I remember everything we then talked about:

• Physical exam includes some classic signs, but he's really healthy. Check.
• Autoimmune disease. Check.
• Neuropathy. Check.
• Hereditary. Damn!
• Scheduling endoscopy to survey the damage. Check.
• Must live gluten-free life. Starting to check... (Where in the world do I start?)
• Have to meet with a nutritionist... Haven't checked yet.
• May possibly have to revisit speech therapy for feeding therapy. Ding ding ding!! I got this one right!

How did we end up here, you ask? My son isn't a sick child. Yes, he missed a few weeks of school last year with bronchitis, but mostly because he went to school in the basement of a building that was built in 1924... hello, mold! He does, however, have this huge belly. Like that cute, round toddler belly that you see on a two year old, except that he's in kindergarten. And every now and then, he vomits. Maybe just out the blue, but sometimes after a pretty painful tummy ache that also just kind of came out of nowhere.

He was never nauseated before or afterwards, and he actually seemed to feel great after he puked. But when he did have to throw up, it was pretty urgent. And the last time it happened, we were getting off a plane. Thank the heavenly gods that he made it into the bathroom, if not completely into the toilet -- Sorry to everyone that had to deplane after us!! But seriously, I didn't even have time to grab a barf bag, it happened that fast. All of this has been going on since the beginning of the summer... three or four months or so.

But let's get back to the belly. My husband thought that he just eats too much food, particularly food that expands (carbs, etc.), but I didn't share his opinion. I thought that it was one of the following: either an obstruction (unlikely), or an inflammatory reaction to something (winner!). Even though my son is not skinny, when he lies supine (on his back), his belly is large and distended, rotund even, but you can see his ribs. Not good. I just really felt that the abdominal distention was telling us something, and I would absolutely not be able to live with myself if we didn't check it out.

We walked out of that appointment with the endoscopy scheduled for the following Monday morning at 7 a.m., and the freedom to indulge in all things gluten until midnight on Sunday.

Live it up, NCS!! Eat those pancakes while you can! Mommy's got some googling to do...