The GLUTEN FREE dilemna

Going gluten free is not the easiest thing to do. It is just unimaginable where you will find wheat and gluten! We are also corn free here, so we have already been avoiding that (and that is also unreal!).

At first when you have to eliminate something from your diet, all you can think of is that which you can no longer have. With corn you think of all those "wonderful" processed foods like cookies, chips, frozen junk etc.. Well with gluten/wheat it's bread. Candy. Cookies. Gravy. Some sausages. Donuts. Muffins. Bread. Buns. Croissants. Spaghetti. Mac and cheese. Bread. Gravy. Pizza. Sauces. Bread. Vanilla extract. Gravy. Some alcohols like beer, some rum, some vodka, some whiskey (IF you drink or make your own tinctures, medicines, or Vanilla).

Do you see what I mean? Do you see what you are missing? I used to make bread almost everyday. But since our last blessing was born I have had to be very dutiful in being GF. Why? Because not only do I react to it, but so does the baby. What am I missing? Nausea, stomach cramps, debilitating migraines, vomiting, acid reflux, itchy skin, abdominal pain that made me double over. Am I really missing anything? I think not.

I am learning to make things GF. Muffins come out reasonably good. Cookies, no problem. pizza..um.. not quite yet. Which is a bummer because Christmas 2013 I perfected my pizza crust recipe and it was AMAZING! So now I am working on perfecting a GF pizza dough recipe.

As for pasta, well, I am not really missing it. I use rice pasta. We tried buckwheat pasta, but it has a very strong distinct flavor. Quinoa pasta is hard to find not mixed with corn or soy. But to replace pasta, I just use rice pasta. Peaches likes hers with quite a bit of chew to it, so we don't cook it as long as directed. But really, I only miss lasagna and spaghetti.. but not really because I can use rice pasta or spaghetti squash.

If you look for what you CAN eat when on a special diet, the whole food world opens up. Here in Washington, so many people are gluten free it is awesome! Restaurants are being more and more accommodating. One of our favorite places to go will wrap your burger in lettuce or use a GF bun. They also inform you that their fries are NOT GF, AND neither is their guacamole :(  Which means their guacamole comes premade (yuck), honestly it isn't that hard to make!

So what can a GF person eat? Well for starters pretty much all of the produce department is GF. Same with most of the meat department, minus some sausages and seasoned meats. Some of the dairy department is also GF.

A great way to have organic free produce is to grow it yourself. Lettuce grows easily, so do snap peas, zucchini, cucumber, strawberries, onions, garlic, tomatoes (if you have a very sunny warm place), pumpkins, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, beets, spinach, kale, chard, collards... really you pay a little for some seed or starts and you have a plethora of veg and fruit for summer.. and you can freeze the extras! Or can them. Or dehydrate them..

So going with out.. You aren't really going with out. Feeling better is so worth it!

March is Madness!

Oh my heck! It's March! Wait, it's almost over? Where have my days gone? I have absolutely no idea! I have been busy for the last 10 months dealing with our little mexican jumping bean. Things got off to rough rough start. My thyroid was too low so I wasn't making enough milk, on top of that even though he has a great suck, the roof of his mouth is severly arched and so stuff wasn't positioned correctly to get milk. I could put my finger in his mouth behind where his front teeth were, and go up and up and up!! All the way up to my middle knuckle!!! That is a high palate! Not a good thing.

Bugga has never ever stopped moving. Even while pregnant he was always moving. He would never relax while nursing. Something always moving, a foot kicking, and hand squeezing. He would scream unless he was on the breast. Pediatrician says reflux... meds.. the meds were terrible!!! I smelled them, and they gave me an asthma attack! Couldn't get them down the baby, so we saw a different ped and she ordered meds through a compounding pharmacy woo hoo grape flavor. OK, this took a week to start working... kind of.. not.. eventually he went off this medication because his reflux was gone.

He only slept through the night for a week!!  No naps, unless being held.. let me tell you.. I love the snuggles, but I do need to get stuff done ... still not napping in his bed.. YET..But he sleeps in his crib at night.. See, when we went on a trip, I started giving him formula. Ya know, trying to wean him a little. Plus he ate veggies, fruit, oatmeal, yogurt.. yup. and he loved it. BUT, something was not right. He was struggling to poo, he was up most of the night screaming, he was biting like crazy!!

I got online and did a search for "how to get my 10 month old to take naps"... an article came up about how dairy and gluten cause reflux and the symptoms are: irritability, asthma (yup he was a wheezing monster), constipation, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, arching and more.. he has all but one symptom !  AHH HAAA   I feel like an idiot. No one told me! My poor baby boy was in pain! We immediately took him off formula and gluten. No more dairy for him or I, as he is still nursing.

So yup, Bugga and I are gluten free (gf) and dairy free(df), our house is also sf and cf (corn and soy free). It took 5 days, but last night was the first time he slept almost the entire night! He woke for a dream feed at 11pm, but then slept until 6 am..amazing! BUT, still napped in arms. Hey, I am not complaining! He was so much happier and nicer today.. well until he got hungry and started biting my leg. No I am not exaggerating, he was biting me. So into the high chair he went to have some rice, peas, bananas and mango. yummy.. then some blueberry coconut milk yogurt. YUM!

Since being gf my migraines are gone. I had a headache yesterday, all day, but it is normal the first week or two to have headaches from withdrawal of gluten. Other symptoms of withdrawal include nausea (which I get when eating gluten!!), skin eruptions, stomach cramps... and more. 

I also found while researching  gluten.. People diagnosed with gluten allergy or celiacs usually are diagnosed with thyroid problems with in 5 years of diagnosis. AND people diagnosed with thyroid issues usually are diagnosed with celiacs within 5 years of diagnosis!  AND people with these conditions are also usually diagnosed as diabetic with in 10 years!!! HOLY CRAP!!! Most diabetics have thyroid issues.. Do you see the vicious circle here?

My symptoms for gluten allergy were: dizziness, nausea, stomach cramps, dry skin, exhaustion, irritability, joint pain, muscle pain, the bottoms of my feet felt like I was walking on needles!, diarrhea and constipation..  Guess what the most dangerous of those was???
The dizzy part. Why? Because it means my body was attacking my cerebellum. Yup, my brain was under attack, and if not caught soon enough, the damage is permanent! I started getting dizzy 13 years ago! Fortunately it would get bad then better. Why? Because when I was dizzy I was so nauseous that I was vomiting, and so I wouldn't eat anything except chicken broth (no gluten there!!).

So, my daughter was getting dizzy too. Glad I found out about the gluten thing. She has been sneaking gluten, and well.. paid for it.

Out of 10 people in our home, 6 of us are gluten free now. The rashes, cramps, dizzy, and more are disappearing!!  hurrah!!!