Almost two years ago (this April) after an exploratory journey through the medical system I decided it would be in the best interest for my health to become gluten free. I suffered for a long time with various symptoms and finally after finding a very wise nutritionist, having the will to give the whole lifestyle a chance, and becoming a googling-medical-junkie: I can truly say I found the thorn in my side. I am not allergic per say or a diagnosed Celiac (where your intestinal walls disintegrate when you eat it) you would call me gluten-intolerant. My body and immune system become severely inflammed when I ingest gluten which then creates a domino effect of uncomfortable symptoms and long-term internal damages. The short term effects pretty much go like this; enjoy the doughy goodness of something like fresh Italian bread, get a migraine that lasts 3-5 days, bloat about 3-5 pounds, have your sinus's swell and feel stuffy, hang out in the bathroom for awhile (and awhile more) and then feel so incredible sleepy you'd consider that you have a chronic fatigue syndrome for a week! It's just no way to live and quite frankly it's depressing. Needless to say it's still one of the hardest things that I do on a daily basis - my options are not "I'm hungry, I want to eat" it goes more along the lines of "I'm hungry, what CAN I eat." The amazing thing I've learned from all of this is that we take eating for granted. I'm sure that's why there's such a problem with health and obesity in this country, we don't have to think about it. It's the machine that we feed ourselves with: being the fastest, easiest and tastiest item that crosses our path. In fact, our food quite literally has become part of machine (see the movie Food, Inc. for further investigation). Anyways, I could go on forever about these things and it's my blog so I could...but I'll stop here.
So back to the title, gluten free baby?! I was recently asked (in a semi-judgmental tone) if I was planning on "making" Elias eat gluten free. I hadn't really thought about it, nor had I thought it was deserving of judgment! Don't all parents "make" their kids eat what they think is good for them anyways? What's wrong with raising a child with limited access to gluten? And I'm pretty sure he's been gluten free for 9 months so what's the problem? So anyways, the answer is yes! Saturday mornings we will be making gluten free pancakes, when I make a gravy I'll be using sweet rice flour and when Christmas comes and we will make cookies as a family, experimenting with all types of flours, making old recipes in a new way. The moral of the story being that in this house we cook gluten free and we're more interested in everybody being able to eat than keeping with the norm. And if by chance Elias asks for a good ol' fashion PB&J on regular bread with the crusts cut off - he can have that too! Because really I've never understood more than I do now that old cliche: there's no manual that comes with parenting! As a parent (still kinda weird to say) we make decisions based on what we think is right at the time and hope for the best. So here's to a kinda, mostly, gluten free baby!
And speaking of the kitchen, here's some pics from yesterday - funny faces in the kitchen!
just baby!
just baby!
happy faces
sad faces
very scary faces!
sweet faces..
NOTE: I must make a note about the dark circles under Mo's eyes! He was up for over a week until 5 am writing papers for an insane mid-semester course! The GOOD NEWS: he was offered an awesome internship this summer at a big accounting firm downtown!! We're very proud and excited for him to graduate this December!
2nd NOTE: I really like this blog about being, eating and going gluten free - it really helped me a lot! Check it out if you're interested. http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
2nd NOTE: I really like this blog about being, eating and going gluten free - it really helped me a lot! Check it out if you're interested. http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
When I forst saw photos of Elias I thought that he looked like Mo but now I think that he looks more like you Leslie. -And thank you so much for the postcard picture of him- so cute.
Congrats on the job Mo!
-Ben
Why would anyone ask such a weird question? Why would it hurt him to have less exposure to gluten? First of all, of course he will be exposed to it other places - when you go out to eat, when you are at parties, when you at the home of friends/family. Second of all, if you and Mo eat a good bit of gluten free food (which makes sense, obviously, for your sake), why wouldn't your child eat the same things? Does it make more sense to make two separate meals all the time? No, that would be the weird thing, in my opinion.
Once you have kids, you will hear all sorts of kooky comments from people - just par for the course, my friend. ;)
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