Progress

We are now two weeks in to the gluten free diet for Zoey. It's been an educational and emotional couple weeks but I think we are making progress. Slowly but surely.

Firstly, I want to say how abundantly we have felt the love and support of friends and family! Here are some amazing examples:

My mother, the librarian, showed up with about a dozen library books about celiac disease and gluten free recipe books etc, that she had pretty much already read, so she is now pretty knowledgeable on the subject. She also gave Zoey a couple boxes of gluten free crackers.

I managed to stress myself out into getting the flu and body aches for 3 days. Me dear friend, Kelli, came over each day to play with Zoey so I could rest and sleep. She also reminded me to eat which I had forgotten to do, with the exception of ice cream which she also provided lots of. :)

A friend of a friend, Sam, who I have only met a couple of times came over with a gift basket full of gluten free snacks and mixes. Her man is a celiac too. She had cute little tags with little helpful snippets of their favorite brands, stores etc etc. WOW!!! I am still blown away by that.


Went camping with my family last week and was again amazed at how wonderful my family was about it. One brother and sister in law went to the trouble of getting gluten free baking stuff and made an entire pan of gluten free breakfast quiche. Wow. There were lots of gluten free treats and snacks floating around too. There are a lot of little kids on my side and they were wonderful at not sharing their gluten snacks with Zoey. Very supportive.

Neil's family, as well, has been very supportive and is starting to pay attention to her new special diet.

The Nursery at church provided gluten free snacks. Not something we asked them to do. Again, wow!

I have had several phone calls and emails filled with concern and love and advice from celiac friends. Thank you! Truly, I feel loved.

Enough about me, HOW IS ZOEY???

Within 3 days after going gluten free we could tell a difference. She was happy and playing with toys. Her face is starting to get chubby again. You can tell that she feels better.

What a relief!

She's adjusting okay to her new diet. I'm very grateful for Honey Nut Chex, those are the new favorite. She doesn't really like the crackers yet, she only takes a bite or two. She loves the gluten free pasta and tolerates the corn tortillas and really enjoys the gluten free muffin mix. She eats a lot of yogurt and she's suddenly wanting milk all the time. She hasn't been a fan of fruits or vegetables for several months which is really unfortunate because that's the basis for a lot of celiacs.

I went to a health food store, mostly to just see what was there. That was a bit overwhelming and it didn't help that I was easily the chubbiest person there. Although, it is refreshing that there are so many options available. (So the lady that showed me around is also a recently diagnosed celiac. She is also allergic to corn. For those who don't know corn is what is substituted a lot for wheat. No wonder she was the size of a toothpick. Yeah, I was immediately grateful and humbled.)

Little by little we are moving forward. And trying to make lemonade as we go.