Ever since Willow was a baby, she’s had a lot of diarrhea. At the age of three, she started complaining about tummy aches, usually around dinner time. When I was young, I’d had heartburn quite frequently, so I tried asking her to describe the pain. Only once did she ever seem to be describing heartburn, and a Tums cleared it right up that time. But the nightly tummy aches persisted. We talked to the doctor about it and she had us test the diarrhea, but none of the tests found anything. The doctor suggested that sometimes children complain when they find it gets them attention, so we tried giving her a placebo (an orange tic-tac). Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Conversations with her doctor always suggested different things, and we tried everything she came up with.
When she was three and a half years old, we decided to take her off lactose. This was the first thing that seemed to make a truly positive difference. After a few months on soy milk, we started buying Lactaid and her diarrhea greatly improved…but the stomach aches kept on coming. We tried Tums and children’s Pepto Bismol tablets, but nothing seemed to help consistently. I had to face it. She was probably gluten-intolerant, like her father.
She's four and a half now. Last week we had her tested for Celiacs Disease. This is only one form of gluten-intolerance though, and it’s also the only one they can test for by drawing blood, so when the test came back negative I had only two choices left: put my daughter through an endoscopy or change her diet radically. It was a pretty simple choice.
So I dug into the internet, contacted my friends on Facebook, got in touch with my mother who had done a little experimenting with gluten-free recipes when I was married to Willow’s father. I started putting together a plan to switch Willow to a gluten-free diet and set the date for February 10th. I hit the local grocery store the night before to pick up items for her breakfasts and lunches. I could only hope that I would be able to get her to eat whatever I found.
Day 1
Willow woke up early this morning and went downstairs to watch Despicable Me while her sisters prepared for school. I’d had a rough night sleeping. Researching this new diet has caused me a bit of stress and I’d spent the whole night dreaming about it. I’d even realized, while dreaming, that I wasn’t sure that Willow’s Lactaid tablets were gluten free. So upon waking, I headed straight for the internet and my phone. While waiting on hold for the Lactaid Customer Service rep, I did a quick Google search. Both my search and the rep verified that the tablets are safe. Next step: Get Willow to try a new cereal.
Willow isn’t an overly picky eater, but it’s difficult to get her to try something for the first time, especially at 7:30 in the morning. I showed her the cereal box of Koala Crispies (cocoa flavor). She wasn’t interested. I opened it and pulled out a few grains and explained they taste like chocolate. She cried, “No! I don’t want it.” I put some in my mouth and told her how yummy they were. Still she shook her head as tears filled her eyes.
I sat her on my lap. “Remember how last night we talked about the new foods we’re making for you now? They’re going to make your tummy feel all better. Don’t you want your tummy to stop hurting?”
“No. I want my cereal and milk,” she cried.
“I know honey, but that cereal is making your tummy hurt. This kind is super yummy. Will you please try it? For mommy?”
“Noooooo.”
Not sure what to do next, I just held her in my arms as she cried for her Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Finally, inspiration hit. A while back, I had started a bed-time trend that I’d soon come to regret. To ward off bad dreams, Willow’s Barbie and an Elmo doll both talk to her every night and promise to help her have happy dreams. Of course, now Willow can’t sleep without them and the conversations have become a bit repetitive and annoying to me. But they work. Maybe Barbie and Elmo could convince her to try the new cereal. I asked, “Do you think you could try it if Barbie and Elmo like it?”
Her eyes lifted to mine and the slightest little nod of the head was my answer.
“Run upstairs and get them then and I’ll get your bowl ready.”
She returned with them a moment later and I held out a spoonful of the new cereal for Elmo. For some odd reason Elmo and Barbie always seem to side with Mommy, so naturally, Elmo loved the new cereal! He raved about how good it was and how Willow should try it. Next it was Barbie’s turn. Barbie has very good manners and stated that the cereal was “just lovely”. Willow was finally willing to give it a shot. I poured some milk in, gave her a Lactaid, and held up a spoonful for her.
The suspense was killing me as she chewed it slowly, but then her eyes lit up, she smiled up at me and said, “Mommy! I like it!” SUCCESS!
She ate the rest of the bowl rather greedily, and asked for a second helping. (I’d only given her a tiny amount for the first bowl.) After finishing the second bowl, it was time to explain lunch to her.
I pulled out the lunchbox that I’d packed for her the night before. Inside was a gluten-free hotdog, some Heinz Ketchup, an apple cut into small chunks, an EnviroKids Crispy Rice bar (peanut butter flavor), and some Almond Nut Thins (cheddar cheese flavor). I also grabbed a banana, just in case she didn’t like something in the lunch.
“This is your special lunch to eat at daycare today. None of the other kids get to eat this. It’s specially made just for you.” I pointed out the different items. “Tina will let you know when you can eat each one.” Willow took this news very well and wanted to carry the lunchbox (a Buffy the Vampire Slayer collectible that was an old Valentines Day gift to me from her father) out to the car.
Tina, her daycare provider, was outside when we got there. I explained the items to her and told her that I expected Willow would love the rice crispy bar, but worried she might not like the crackers much. Those were her snacks for morning and afternoon. The banana was there for backup if she didn’t like one of them. I wasn’t worried about the hotdog and apple. Willow loves those.
I went to work and spent some time talking to a coworker that has a daughter with Celiacs. She was extremely helpful and generously offered some recipes as well as her cell phone number in case I ever need some advice. In between work projects, I also Googled several food items I had around the household to see if they were safe, as well as checking on some of Willow’s favorite candies. After all, the Valentine’s Day party is coming up soon.
Part way through the day, I also received a call from the local grocery store, Harmons. Yesterday I had emailed them to ask if their bratwursts were gluten-free. Instead of emailing me back, they called me personally to let me know that yes, all of their brats and sausages are gluten-free. I was impressed with the customer service and thrilled with the news because Willow adores both brats and sausage.
When I went to pick up Willow, the day had gone very smoothly, though not as I’d anticipated. Turns out Willow loved the crackers and devoured them during morning snack time, but in the afternoon she only took three bites of the peanut butter rice crispy bar and didn’t want the rest. She always loved peanut butter granola bars, so I was rather surprised. Tina and I discussed future meal ideas. I’ll keep providing meals for a while as Tina and I both learn more about gluten intolerance, but we found that a lot of what Tina serves will be perfectly safe. She uses a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables for the kids.
Planning dinner was a bit more stressful. We hadn’t given quite as much thought to it the day before and were winging it. We decided to have Parson’s Ham, which is ham covered in rice and cheese, and garnished with peaches with brown sugar on them. A phone conversation with a good friend of mine helped me decide the rice should be fine, even though I couldn’t guarantee there wasn’t cross-contamination with other products in the packaging plant. However, after researching the ham, I found we couldn’t guarantee it was safe for Willow. I had purchased some gluten-free chicken nuggets last night and eventually decided to give her those with some rice and peaches on the side. It worked out splendidly. She ate every bit of it and was still hungry for more. She also got to have some Breyer’s Neopolitan ice cream. But the best part of all was that Willow never once complained of a tummy ache and even told me her tummy felt just fine.
My husband had done some shopping earlier in the evening and had come home with Redbridge beer, which is gluten-free. The same friend that helped me with the rice, suggested it to us. We plan to use it for cooking bratwurst and sauerkraut. He tried it and was impressed with the flavor. Brats and sauerkraut are on the menu for tomorrow night.
Finally it was time for bed and one last worry reared its head. What about the toothpaste? Thankfully, yet another Google search helped us determine that all Crest toothpastes are gluten-free. Day one was done…unless you count the hour long bedtime routine of reading, brushing hair and having the nightly Elmo/Barbie discussion. We’re currently reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. It’s a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.
There have been moments over the past couple of days when this has all felt extremely overwhelming. The trouble over the breakfast cereal this morning almost had me in tears. I keep wondering what types of things Willow will have to do without in life and how I can make that easier on her. I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the friends and family that have offered me their help in taking this on. My daughter’s health is worth everything to me.
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