Ok, so I have a bad habit of thinking about things
sometimes, and this morning is no different. I was thinking about my sweet
daughters and all they have to go through because of Celiac disease. Martha, Jenny, and Suzy all have it; my mom and I also have it. It isn't
just the lack of good food and such that they have to deal with. It's the
general lack of understanding by non-Celiacs.
If my daughters were to have a life-threatening peanut allergy, everyone around them would bend over backwards to make sure they never came in contact with peanuts. The school would demand that there be no peanuts in their classroom and probably designate a peanut-free lunch table. No projects would ever contain peanuts. Waiters would double-check that food has no peanuts. Friends and family would insure that their own kids don't eat peanut putter around them. Right?
So why is it so different with gluten? Is it because my kids won't go into anaphylactic shock and turn blue? Or is it simply because these people don't have to see the reactions my kids have?
I know most parents would avoid bringing their kids around another child who is sick. No parent wants their child to have a stomach virus for a couple of days. Well, neither do I. When my kids are exposed to gluten, they feel like they have a stomach virus for about a week, sometimes two. But they also have headaches, mood swings, and a lack of fever. The fact that they don't have fever means I still must send them to school. If I let them stay home from school, they would miss about a quarter of the year and wind up being held back. Kids with a stomach virus get to stay home from school and they usually get coddled. I have the approach that this is a disease they have to live with for the rest of their lives and they need to toughen up and deal. It may be harsh, I know, but it's the cold hard truth. I can't baby them everytime they get glutened because then they would never learn to move past the pain and live their lives.
So, back to my point. Parents still bring cupcakes and cookies into my kids' classrooms. Teachers still make crafts using noodles, play-do, and paper mache. My kids have to either leave the classroom or wear big bulky gloves that other kids tend to make fun of. When I mention to waiters that my child can't have wheat, there is this look on their face that plainly says "Oh, another loony mom forcing her child to eat a fad diet."
No one sees their reactions but me and Pete. In the months following Martha's diagnosis, it was the worst. She would (WARNING! GROSS!) get so sick that we would find her lying on the bathroom floor, vomit around her head and diarrhea around her bum. She was so weak that she couldn't make it to the toilet, get up out of her own mess, or call to us for help. We would have to hold her up and shower her off, dress her, and put her back in bed, and pray that the worst was over. Then her emotions would be so crazy that we had no idea how to handle her. She would be happy one minute and hysterically crying the next. Then she would be so sleepy that she would fall asleep at school or as soon as she got in the car after school. And she had headaches. All of this on top of the intense stomach pain and the constant urge to run to the bathroom.
So, if you have a celiac child, I totally get it. I know how you feel. If you don't have a celiac child, please understand that wheat is just as dangerous to our children as peanuts are to a child with a peanut allergy. It's that simply. Yeah, cealiacs don't get sick from smelling wheat, but kids are messy and leave crumbs lying around everywhere. My daughter has even had kids at school intentionally dumb bread crumbs into her lunch.
Please be considerate of people with Celiac! It's no fad diet and we do have reactions. We just know how to hide them.
Ranting is over!
If my daughters were to have a life-threatening peanut allergy, everyone around them would bend over backwards to make sure they never came in contact with peanuts. The school would demand that there be no peanuts in their classroom and probably designate a peanut-free lunch table. No projects would ever contain peanuts. Waiters would double-check that food has no peanuts. Friends and family would insure that their own kids don't eat peanut putter around them. Right?
So why is it so different with gluten? Is it because my kids won't go into anaphylactic shock and turn blue? Or is it simply because these people don't have to see the reactions my kids have?
I know most parents would avoid bringing their kids around another child who is sick. No parent wants their child to have a stomach virus for a couple of days. Well, neither do I. When my kids are exposed to gluten, they feel like they have a stomach virus for about a week, sometimes two. But they also have headaches, mood swings, and a lack of fever. The fact that they don't have fever means I still must send them to school. If I let them stay home from school, they would miss about a quarter of the year and wind up being held back. Kids with a stomach virus get to stay home from school and they usually get coddled. I have the approach that this is a disease they have to live with for the rest of their lives and they need to toughen up and deal. It may be harsh, I know, but it's the cold hard truth. I can't baby them everytime they get glutened because then they would never learn to move past the pain and live their lives.
So, back to my point. Parents still bring cupcakes and cookies into my kids' classrooms. Teachers still make crafts using noodles, play-do, and paper mache. My kids have to either leave the classroom or wear big bulky gloves that other kids tend to make fun of. When I mention to waiters that my child can't have wheat, there is this look on their face that plainly says "Oh, another loony mom forcing her child to eat a fad diet."
No one sees their reactions but me and Pete. In the months following Martha's diagnosis, it was the worst. She would (WARNING! GROSS!) get so sick that we would find her lying on the bathroom floor, vomit around her head and diarrhea around her bum. She was so weak that she couldn't make it to the toilet, get up out of her own mess, or call to us for help. We would have to hold her up and shower her off, dress her, and put her back in bed, and pray that the worst was over. Then her emotions would be so crazy that we had no idea how to handle her. She would be happy one minute and hysterically crying the next. Then she would be so sleepy that she would fall asleep at school or as soon as she got in the car after school. And she had headaches. All of this on top of the intense stomach pain and the constant urge to run to the bathroom.
So, if you have a celiac child, I totally get it. I know how you feel. If you don't have a celiac child, please understand that wheat is just as dangerous to our children as peanuts are to a child with a peanut allergy. It's that simply. Yeah, cealiacs don't get sick from smelling wheat, but kids are messy and leave crumbs lying around everywhere. My daughter has even had kids at school intentionally dumb bread crumbs into her lunch.
Please be considerate of people with Celiac! It's no fad diet and we do have reactions. We just know how to hide them.
Ranting is over!
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