Beginning and Remembering
After, almost, 10 years of navigating a 100% Gluten Free lifestyle, after our daughter’s Celiac Disease diagnosis, I’ve decided to start a business. It’s a business, but it’s more of a support system that will help ease the transition to a Gluten Free life for others. I’m bringing together and sharing all that I have learned so that individuals and families don’t have to feel overwhelmed, as if they have to re-invent the wheel, just to eat a safe meal or grocery shop.
What I find interesting is that while I’m looking into the future thinking about ways that I can be of service to the Gluten Free community, I keep going back to that space, 10 years ago in late 2009 early 2010 when our daughter was about 17 months old. I was a new mother, trying to figure out what mothering was and our daughter was sick and getting sicker and we didn’t know why. I keep going back to the beginning, back to the version of me that would have loved to have the current version of me show up in her life.
Actually, I go back a bit farther, to when my daughter was born in late Spring 2008. I was a brand new mom and, for whatever reason, my husband and I decided that it was the perfect time to remodel our kitchen. We needed to move out as we didn’t think it was a good idea to have our brand new little girl exposed to who knows what when our old house, built in 1925, was opened up. We set ourselves up in a small-furnished apartment, for the summer, with just a few things from home. To this day I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I had the ability, with a newborn and house remodel, to read a book. By chance this book would foreshadow the rest of my life: “Gluten-Free Girl” by Shauna James Ahern. I love reading stories that involve someone’s experience with cooking, travel, discovery, and I was intrigued by her tagline: “How I Found The Food That Loves Me Back & How You Can Too.” I had no idea what gluten was before reading Shauna’s story, but her story made sense to me. It’s such a simple idea, that what we eat can have a huge positive or negative affect on our bodies, our health and life. It’s an idea that I hadn’t really thought about until I read Shauna’s story. The notion that the negative affects of a disease could be dealt with and treated, solely, with a diet adjustment seemed like a big deal.
As with many things when you have a newborn, I forgot about the book. We moved back home and kept going day by day figuring out being parents; watching our daughter grow and thrive. That is until she stopped thriving and was sick for months. Then it came, her official diagnosis of Celiac Disease. We had a tangible thing; an answer for what was causing her to be so sick. Better yet we had a fix, a fix that came out of our kitchen. That’s when I remembered Shauna’s book, and read it again.
Today, I find it ironic and funny that I was reading this book, while on the couch in our temporary housing feeding my newborn daughter who would go on to be diagnosed with the same disease just only over a year later. The snarky little voice in my head still jokes “be careful what you read!” Who would have thought, that, like Shauna’s story of sickness, disease discovery and healing though food, Gluten would have such a profound affect on our family’s trajectory, the life of my daughter and me as her mother.
It was a steep learning curve, a road filled with blind corners and unintentional mistakes, but we’ve learned and keep learning so much. I wouldn’t wish challenging situations on anybody, but they happen all the time, that’s how it goes and that’s how we can grow; everyone has something. I believe in looking at the upside of Celiac Disease versus the downside. I believe in showing my daughter that she can take this challenge and not let it hold her back. Yes, we can’t go out to pizza unless there is a dedicated kitchen, but we can figure out how to make homemade pizza for a pizza party with our friends. She can’t have the homemade treats that someone brings to class, but we’ve stored treats that she can have in a school freezer so that she won’t miss out. Even better, she can come to class with enough cookies from our kitchen to share. (These cookies are real and have become a big deal with her friends, they ask for them all the time, which she loves.) Her restrictions, while challenging, can also create an amazing opportunity for inclusion and celebration.
Similar to Shauna, in writing her book, I’m excited to share our story, to help bring more awareness about what it means to be Gluten Free to manage Celiac Disease (or for other medical and health reasons). To help other people to not get bogged down in what they can’t have and help them get excited about what they can have. Everyone has something and in the grand scheme of “somethings” this isn’t the worst. At the same time it can feel like it’s the worst, which is ok and I hope to create a space and be the support for someone when it feels like it’s too daunting and hard.
I look back at the 2009/10 version of me and us trying to figure out how to heal our 20-month old daughter with Gluten Free food. I can still see the blurriness and feel the weight of it all; not knowing which way was up. I feel so much for that mom and would love to be able to go back, reassure her and give her some tools and information to help her feel more at ease. While I can’t go back to myself 10 years ago and say, “hey, let’s grab some coffee and then we can hit the grocery store. I’ll show you the best pasta for mac-n-cheese, your daughter will love it!” I can absolutely do that now for someone who is just starting their own journey.
Disclaimer:
While we have ten years’ experience of navigating the world as the parents of a child with Celiacs, we are not physicians, nutritionists, or other licensed medical professionals. The material and content contained in the Services is for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for consultation, diagnosis or medical treatment by a licensed medical professional. Please consult your doctor for any medical or health-related questions. The information contained in the Services should NOT be used to disregard medical or health-related advice from a physician or licensed medical professional.