Kelcie's Blog

All of your family is gluten intolerant? It should be much easier for you if all of your family is already eating gluten-free. There should be no gluten-containing food whatsoever in your home. Why have it there if nobody can eat it? I keep a completely gluten-free kitchen and anyone who comes to my house eats my gluten-free meals. Sometimes a guest will bring a gluten food, but I make sure that when they leave, they take the leftovers with them.

My son, who is almost 19 now, was diagnosed with celiac disease while he was in jr. high. He had the same issues while going to school. He had to take his lunch. I'm certain that he cheated on the diet sometimes while he was at friend's houses, but over all, he tries to stay on it. I know it's was hard when he's at a friend's house and everyone else is eating pizza. They usually didn't give a thought to what he might eat.

I'm lucky that most of my friends and relatives try to make sure that there is something gluten-free at any meal that I will be attending. But then, I'm 48 yrs. old and my friends are grown up. All I can say is that you just have to get used to taking responsibility for your own self. You'll have to take food with you to parties or eat before you go. There is almost always something for me to eat at any party I go to, but if it's a situation in which I can bring food, I take a gluten-free dish (or two) to share with everyone.

There is a discussion forum on this site for kids with celiac disease. I'm sure they would have lots of good ideas for you. Check it out if you haven't already:

https://www.celiac.com/ 

Oh, and it really does get better with time. It just becomes a part of your life.

There is also a list of "safe" and "unsafe" ingredients. I suggest you print them out and keep them with you so you can check ingredients. It will be come second nature before long and you'll automatically know what you can and can't have with few exceptions. Here's the link for those lists:

Safe ingredients:
 

 

Unsafe ingredients:

 

I am a teacher and I work at a Jr. High. I also have Celiac's Disease. I was very convinced that I wouldn't be able to eat at my school either, but I talked to administration and I would really URGE your parents to do the same. Have your parents call the principal or even better, the food nutritionist for your district ( I promise you there is one, you may have to check with the superintendant to find out who the nutritionist is for your school), let them know that you were recently diagnosed and that you cannot have gluten. They should be able to give you a list of foods at your school and may even be able to prepare foods for you that are gluten free. I know it seems awful that you can no longer have gluten, but in truth, your timing of the disease is perfect because schools CANNOT ignore the dietary needs of students. With the huge amount of students with food allergies to peanuts, eggs, strawberries, etc., you may notice that many of the schools have REMOVED these items from the menus. Schools are dealing with many issues of students with allergies to food, and technically, you are in the same boat. I would encourage your parents to call the school and find out what the school can do to help you and keep you away from gluten during school hours.
As far as your friends' houses, you should talk to all of your friends and explain to them what Celiac's disease is and what it does to you when you eat it. It sounds odd, but you may try to make this fun. Get your friends involved and have them help you taste test gluten-free foods to help you decide what you like. I am not sure how old you are, but you and your friends could also experiment with some gluten-free cooking and see what you come up with!!! Once your friends understand what the disease is and how important it is for you to stick to the diet, they can and probably will be more helpful. One thing I had to do (which sounded mean at first) was to ask my friends not to eat gluten food in front of me; it was really hard for me to resist when my friends would be munching on a sub-way sandwich-I always caved in, ate some and then got violently sick. I started asking them not to eat it in front of me because it was too tempting. I was surprised when they said, "sure thing, no problem!" One of my friends even scolded her mother for offering me Doritos. After a while, it wasn't a problem to have gluten food around me, but in the beginning, I needed their help.
I am sure your friends love and care for you and would do the same thing for you, but you have to explain the disease to them first. This website is a great tool that your friends and yourself could check out.
Good-luck and hang in there. Use your friends as a support tool; afterall, that's what your friends are for!!!