Gluten...What is it anyway?

For those of you who are wondering what this whole hoopla is about my family going gluten free,  Here is a post to explain it all. We have been doing tons of research and reading on celiac disease and the gluten free diet but to make it easier I will use wikipedia to explain.

The wikipedia definition is as follows for gluten...

Gluten (from Latin gluten, "glue") is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often gives the final product a chewy texture. Gluten may also be found in some cosmetics or dermatological preparations.


So what is Celiac Disease?  I'm glad you asked...According to wikipedia,  It is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy onward. The treatment is a gluten free diet. There is no cure. Because this is a genetically predisposed disorder, the rest of my family was tested for it as well.  The theory is, someone else in the family has it.  So we will get the results back sometime next week.  Please keep us in your prayers as we wait.  Regardless if another member of our family has it or not, we are all staying gluten free at this point.

In a nutshell, we can no longer eat wheat, rye, barely, and most oats. Anything that comes in contact with any said products are also a no go. And most processed foods have gluten added in some variation or form.  We are keeping our home gluten free for the safety of our son. My son has celiac and this is changing our world.  Never did I ever imagine a baby could so drastically change ones life.  Little Man has not been an easy baby to say the least.  I have lost many many hours of sleep because he cries inconsolably, he thrashes his body around the bed, has difficulty breathing, and occasionally has stopped breathing.  Thankfully his asthma medication helps with his breathing. My world is so different since Little Man has been born.  Not only was his pregnancy hard, his infancy has been as well.  I'm grieving for my little man, all the pain he has been in could have been different.  If we only knew so many months ago what was causing all his "colicky" behavior.  But in all of this, I trust the Lord.  We pray that this new finding of Celiac disease will help our little Man feel better and get the much needed sleep he needs as well as the rest of us.  

Please continue to pray for our Little Man.  

• Please pray that this new diet will help him feel better.    
• He is also allergic to wheat and egg.  (thus making the gluten free diet harder) please pray that we can diligently learn what all this means and keep him from eating egg as well.
• Please pray for his asthma. His new medication seems to be helping but last night he had a few more episodes and we had to give him his rescue inhaler.
• Please continue to pray for the risk of glacoma.  He still is clean and doesn't have it.  We still go to the eye clinic every 3 months.
• Please continue to pray for his laser treatments for his port wine stain.  His next scheduled treatment is October 5. He does need to be sedated and this is very hard on him.
• Please pray for wisdom and encouragement for me and my husband throughout this journey with our son.  
• Please continue to praise the Lord for our wonderful Little Man.  He is a joy and delight when he isn't in pain.  
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When he isn't in pain, he loves to laugh, crawl, eat, and have fun.  Superdaddy is one of his favorite people and he beams with excitement when Daddy walks in from work.  He loves his big sister (little peanut)  He still is a little small to wrestle, but they both can't wait for the day when they can!  I love my little man, he truly is a blessing from the Lord!!!

Pictures coming soon....