What I learned at a recent Celiac meeting

Sean was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in late January. Basically, that means his body does not process gluten (found in wheat, rye and barley). It is an autoimmune disease that does damage to the small intestines. This damage causes the body to not absorb minerals, vitamins and nutrients from food.

Ever since then, it has almost felt like we had been thrown into the deep end of the pool and never been taught how to swim or have a life jacket. Luckily, we have found some help with two different support groups. One is just for kids with Celiac and one is for anyone with Celiac. The one for the kids sponsored the camp Sean went to this summer.

This past weekend there was a meeting for anyone with Celiac. One of the people in this group owned the scuba shot where Sean learned how to scuba dive. It took us both a few minutes to realize where we knew each other from. Both groups have been the lifeline we have been looking for. Recently we got an email stating what new gluten free items a near by Wal-mart started to carry. Hopefully that means we will be able to pick up some items cheaper than we did before.

There was a meeting for Celiacs this past weekend. It was very interesting. The guest speaker is a gastroenterologist whotook questions from the crowd about Celiac disease. She said that 40% of the population have at least one of the two genes that cause Celiac. However, only 1% of the population ever develops the disease. As of right now they do not know what triggers the disease.

This got me thinking about Sean. Even when he was in daycare he did not like infant cereal. At that time many of them were made from barley and oatmeal. Oatmeal can often be contaminated with wheat. Maybe he didn't like the cereal because it hurt his stomach. There is no way that we will ever know.

Last school year he missed 5 days between the start of school and Christmas break. Not counting the days he missed for the surgery to determine if he had going to the doctor, he only missed 1 day. That is a huge difference. Even though he says he feels no different since he went gluten free, his absences in school show a different result.

We are also very grateful to our neighbor. She had just started her pediatric gastroenterology and she is the one to suggest having him tested Celiac. His only symptom was the back of his teeth were rotting away.