Yes, you can find gluten-free chocolate

If I had my way, I’d eat three square meals of chocolate a day with snacks of something salty and then more chocolate. Or maybe mix in a bowl of cereal to round everything out. Then kids came into our lives and well, they need vegetables and don’t function well on just chocolate. Our oldest son has had a decorated medical history and what put us into action were the 13 containers of medications lined up each morning. I was missing something. Something huge that was causing his body to go berserk and I had to figure it out.

Knowing our son has an ultra-sensitive system, I knew we were looking at a long road ahead. The gluten-free (GF) diet seemed like a good place to start. I saw no reason not to try it – so many parents were celebrating the benefits, it couldn’t hurt him to try it, and with all our son’s health issues surrounding food, maybe it could help. I also decided to try it with him (after first researching GF chocolate and if wine was safe) so he wasn’t eating alone and to see if it could help me, too.

We figured out after only a few weeks that all the medication our son was taking was masking other issues – that his body was not able to accept wheat and gluten. The medications weren’t treating the main cause of his discomfort, just easing the symptoms. By eliminating gluten and wheat from his diet we saw an improvement in his energy, no more dark circles under his eyes, no more random eczema flare-ups, and most importantly, we were able to eliminate over half the medications he was taking each day. For me, it meant no more stomach aches after I ate, being able to claim a “regular” routine if you catch my drift, and not feeling as bloated.
Unfortunately fast food joints are extremely limited for GF kid-friendly food. Companies claiming to have a GF menu don’t take into account most kids don’t eat lettuce and that the general worker mixes batter-caked onion rings with the supposedly-GF fries. But the great thing is more and more education is happening surrounding the GF diet and it’s becoming easier to spot gluten and there are many more name brands (what I call mainstream foods) that are labeled GF.

FDA law requires food labels to list wheat as one of the top eight food allergens so it’s easier and easier to spot safe food. The internet is a wealth of resources for finding mainstream foods as well as specific GF brands. Our pediatrician recommended a pocket guide for taking with to the grocery store. I swap tips and ideas with other GF families.

Grocery shopping has become a game for me. Where can I find the best deal on the right products? Can I get free shipping? Can I find a mainstream brand instead that might be cheaper? It took a lot of research and a bit of patience to figure out what foods were GF. Now that we’re 9 months into the diet I know which brands are good and that makes shopping much easier.

New Mom asked if I had any final recommendations for food choices. I guess it’s pretty simple and you’ve heard it before: you are what you eat.

Just know you can be GF and also be an M&M…

Questioning Authority: What Higher Power?

In my youth, I was quite healthy. I had more than my fair share of the common cold but nothing a small investment in Kleenex couldn’t contain. Never broke a bone, never needed stitches. I was so lucky. Must be good genes.

The dream was to have my good genes and my husbands healthy genes pass down to our children. I figured our kids would take an occasional trip to urgent care for an ear infection, a need for stitches on an elbow, and maybe strep a few times. That’s normal for kids, right?

How about 2 rounds of stitches in 3 weeks? How about a major non-life-threatening chronic disease diagnosed every 6 months for 6 years? How about one of those being moderate asthma? How about another being a severe allergy to fish? How about autism, reflux, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, language processing disorder, alarming weight loss, strabismus surgery, more medications than any one form has space for, and a broken foot from the pool (who breaks a foot in a pool?)? Are those all normal?

Lemme tell you something. Lemme tell you a few somethings, actually. I am not an expert by any means on these ailments but I come damn close. Just one of my beautiful children has had to deal with the entire list above.

Why.


Why?

Each time my child was diagnosed with something else I grew more and more angry at God for inflicting this much on one small child. Yes, I’ll admit I have had my fair share of “Why me?” moments and frankly I’m a mother, I’m allowed a few of those. But I’m beyond that.

How did God allow my body to create such havoc in my child’s? Why does God think this little being, this blue-eyed, compassionate, forgiving, teaching child should have to put up with all this garbage? It’s all garbage. None of it has defined him as a person. None of it created his compassion or his big blue eyes or his love for family.

Or was God or any god involved at all?

If God was watching over my child, wouldn’t things have been different? Didn’t he hear all my prayers? My cries to him? My silent chats with him? I had long, constant conversations with him for years and today as I write this…well. I don’t sense that he is with my child or has heard my cries. I don’t feel his presence anymore.

Does this make me a critic? A hypocrite? If he is here with me, where is a sign? I’ve asked for a sign and my child keeps getting more health issues.

So tell me. What am I missing? Am I missing anything? Was I speaking to him wrong? Not enough? Too much?

And does publicly blogging on this topic make others feel differently about me?

Eight Years Later

On the infamous morning eight years ago today, I was slowly waking up looking forward to another beautiful fall day with my newborn son. He was 3 weeks old, already had big, beautiful, strikingly blue eyes ready to melt me upon entering his room. The house was quiet although I could hear birds outside and life was content.

Life in Suburb, Midwest, was carrying on. Then my husband called and said to turn on the tv. Didn’t matter what channel, just turn it on. It took me several minutes to register what I was actually watching.

Among thoughts of rage and not understanding who could possibly be angry enough to kill so many so violently, my early thoughts went immediately to children and babies who had moms and dads in those planes and buildings. There I sat with my newborn tightly in my arms, tears streaming down my face wishing time could go in reverse.

My bundle of innocence and beauty wasn’t old enough to remember what happened that day. He wasn’t old enough to understand what life was like before the threat of terrorism was everywhere, what it meant by having our country under orange alert and not knowing if we should fear it, and not having Bin Laden become the ultimate game of hide and seek.

On this day eight years after the devastating change our country experienced, I remember those who gave their lives to helping save victims. I remember those who tried to escape and couldn’t. I remember those who did escape and now have nightmares. I remember children who lost a parent. I reflect on what it means to be proud of my country.