Sans Gluten

This is Clara somewhere around 6-8 months old. Notice the chubby face, her double chin, the roll on her neck, and her complete lack of wrist on her visible arm. Her first year she was a healthy baby. She LOVED to nurse, and now I thank heaven for that. She would have been a lot different if she didn't nurse for 12+ months.

I stopped nursing her completely around 15 months. And around that time we started noticing changes in her. She would be weirdly lethargic and her attitude got worse. For a while we just thought she was in some phase and that she'd grow out of it soon.

Aside from the lethargy and grumpiness, she also had some digestive issues. But everything we were noticing was pretty mild and seemed to have a logical reason behind it. Most people assured me she was normal and they'd give me suggestions on what to do. But deep down, I knew something was up, but I had no idea how to connect the dots. Plus, I didn't really want to be right. I wanted her to be fine.This picture was taken at about 17 months old. Even though she was small, she was still pretty healthy looking. Not long after, she started to get worse very quickly.

This picture was taken I think the end of May. I love this picture- I think she looks so cute. But it also alarmed me a little. Her skin looks so sickly to me, like there's not much color in her face. Her big beautiful eyes look tired and sad. This was taken around the time that she started to look really skinny to me, and her tummy was getting huge and hard. It had been that way for a while but never that bad. I would tell people about it and they'd say it's normal for kids to have a big belly, but then they'd see her naked with their own eyes and would sing a different tune. Have a look see for yourself:

(These pictures were taken just yesterday, but she's looked this for a while. Warning: these are quite sad. You might not want to look. I'm including them because I want documentation so that we can compare these pictures with the much healthier looking ones that I hope will be coming in the near future.)

I don't know if you can tell, but the skin on her upper arms just kind of hangs. There isn't any fat. It looks kinda like when a large person loses a lot of weight and their skin sort of hangs.

This one you can see her chicken legs and her big protruding belly. It actually makes me hurt to see it. I watched her try to bend over and pick something up and it looked painful. It almost looks like she's pregnant. Poor thing!

This one almost makes me cry!

As you can understand, by this point we went from concerned to worried. We knew something was up but had no idea what. I prayed to know what to do, and one night my prayer was answered. We were having a family get together at my parent's house. We were just hanging out when my brother came up to me and told me he's been thinking about Clara a lot and thinking that I should have her tested for Celiac Disease. He has it, so he understands the symptoms and knows what signs to look for. He said it makes sense that Clara would have it.

He started explaining the things about Clara that point toward Celiac: the big belly, how skinny she is, her irritability, her lack of energy, her digestive problems, and many more. Not knowing that Clara has had weird rashes, he mentioned that some people have skin irritations. He even mentioned that some people can show signs of being lactose intolerant. That's one thing I considered about her because her problems didn't come about until I stopped nursing.

For those of you who don't know what Celiac Disease is, I'll let WebMD explain.

As Patrick was explaining all the symptoms, it felt so right. I was even more sure about it when i got online that night and researched it even more. Everything about her pointed toward Celiac. I also researched what it could also be- things that share the same symptoms as Celiac and it was not pleasant. Celiac was definitely the best thing for it be. Naturally, we didn't want anything to be wrong, but Celiac was definitely our first choice.

I took her to the Doctor, and to try and shorten my already lengthy story, he agreed (thank heaven!) with my self-prognosis and was very concerned about her health. He ordered the test along with some others. We got a little bit of a scare when the Gastroentorologist (spelling?- even spell check doesn't have clue) wanted her tested for Cystic Fibrosis, but we were relieved when it came back negative. On receiving that news, we got the results of the Celiac test: positive. I had to call Patrick and tell him he had a Celiac buddy.

Since then, poor Clara had to endure two days at Primary Children's. The first day she was supposed to have an endoscopy. Five hours later we found out because of her lack of sufficient vitamins, her blood would not be able to clot sufficiently. So, we got to go back the next day and have it done. She was very tough, though. The reason for the endoscopy is so they can get a biopsy of the intestines. They gave me pictures of the procedure, and her intestines are completely smooth. The gluten has smoothed out the villi that are in charge of absorbing the nutrients. No wonder she's malnourished!

Immediately following the endoscopy, the doctor gave me the okay to put her on a gluten-free diet. I couldn't before because it could have skewed the results of the biopsy. I was so relieved to be able to finally feed her foods that wouldn't make her sick, and I was anxious to see how quickly we would see changes in her.

It's been 4 full days now, and I'm pretty sure she hasn't had any gluten. It hasn't been too bad. I think I can already see a difference in her. She's not as irritable, she has more energy and is willing to walk around and play, she's more friendly to other people (she gave Grandma Orton a hug yesterday, and I think it about made Grandma cry!), and she's more excited about food. There have been a few times when she's wanted something she can't have, and she gets pretty sad when we tell her no. But as she gets older she'll understand. Gluten is found in almost everything, but I'm already learning that I can make or buy (for muchos money) most things gluten-free. It's going to be a big learning experience. Another extra fun bonus about all this is that she is, for the time being, lactose intolerant as well. That should go away, but for now it's Lactate and Carnation Instant Breakfast.

Saturday I went gluten-free grocery shopping with my mom. I spent a lot of money and came home with a lot of special ingredients. Then I went through my cupboards and got rid of everything with gluten that we wouldn't be eating anymore. I took it all over to my neighbor and friend so her family could eat it instead.

So, today with my special flours in hand, I made my first loaf of gluten-free bread. Take a look at all the flours and starches that go into it:

There's sorghum flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, and white rice flour. Plus xanthan gum to help hold it together. There are even more different flours and other ingredients that go into gluten-free baking: millet flour, soy flour, brown rice flower, potato flour, sweet rice flour, corn flour, expandex modified tapioca starch, guar gum, egg replacers, and many more. These are the things that are now filling my already cramped pantry and refrigerator (many of them have to be stored in a cool place- very convenient).

Here's how my bread turned out:

This is the first time I've made bread, let alone gluten-free bread. Apparently Joel found it very attractive to see me baking bread because he gave me a big smooch when I pulled it out of the oven. I think I made some mistakes, but it turned out alright. It tasted good at least. Tomorrow I'll try another loaf to see if I get it any better. One thing's for certain, I'll be baking and cooking from scratch a heck of a lot more than I used to. That's a good thing, though. I've been wanting to be better about feeding my family. Maybe this is the kick in the pants I needed.

We are just so grateful to have the answer to our worries. Now we know how to get our baby girl healthy and happy again.