If your son eventually becomes very symptomatic, that in itself will help keep him on the diet.  I had a friend who was diagnosed roughly the same time as me and she used to tell me a lot that she could get away with eating certain gluten containing foods.  (Not a good thing to do, but she did all the same).  In time she was unable to tolerate them anymore,  and is now very strict with her diet.   The football situation with the candy:   here in the UK at least, a lot of mainstream chocolate bars and sweets don't actually contain gluten (Bounty Bar, Snickers, Cadbury's Whirl, Crunchie etc) and you may find that that is the case where you live.      

Her appointment ended up getting canceled for today. So now we have to wait until Dec 3.

Let us know how things go.

Soy has been on our safe list for nearly 30 years, it is gluten-free. Most soy sauces do include wheat, and should be avoided. The following two lists are very helpful for anyone who is gluten sensitive and needs to avoid gluten when shopping. It's very important to learn to read labels and understand sources of hidden gluten, and to know some general information about product labelling--for example in the USA if wheat is a possible allergen it must be declared on a product's ingredient label like this: Allergens: Wheat.       In general if you see "gluten-free" on a label in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc., it does mean that the food is safe for those with celiac disease, and it does NOT mean that there is 19ppm gluten in it, as some people might lead you to believe. Whenever a company detects gluten in the 5-19ppm (most tests can't accurately go below this level) in foods which they have labelled gluten-free, especially a USA-based company (lawsuits in the USA are far more common and easier to win in such cases), they will immediately seek to find and eliminate the source of the gluten contamination. There is a very common myth or misconception that companies don't care at all if their products test between 5-19ppm, but they definitely do because a product recall could be just around the corner should they hit the 20ppm or higher level. Many people, including myself, now have home test kits like Nima, and companies are definitely aware of this.  

Kathleen, I am not sure I agree with you that your son is asymptomatic with regard to his celiac disease. The horrible stomach pains you describe in your first post could be celiac symptoms as easily as they could be H. Pylori or viral infection symptoms. Yes, the social impact of having celiac disease is perhaps the most difficult dimension of the disorder to deal with. It requires thinking ahead and providing safe substitutes for snacks and party foods so that your son doesn't feel left out and singled out or different. Some of those feeling are unavoidable but they can be minimized. Dining at eateries is a huge challenge to celiacs as even when you order gluten free menu items they are often heavily cross contaminated back in the kitchen from being cooked together with wheat things or handled with the same utensils. You need to be bold in asking a lot of questions and requesting that your son's food be cooked in separate pots and pans. It's awkward at first but you get used to it. Speaking of CC (Cross Contamination), how careful you have to be with this will depend on the sensitivity level to gluten your son will demonstrate. This can be a challenge to get a handle on for those celiacs who are of the "silent" type. By "silent" is meant they are largely asymptomatic. It is common for sensitivity levels to increase over time when gluten is withdrawn from the diet as whatever tolerance we may have had to gluten when we were being exposed to it constantly may disappear. Whether or not that proves to be the case, it would be important for you to have his antibody levels checked at regular intervals (say every six months to a year) to check for compliance with the gluten free diet. And I would not worry about him touching wheat food products. It is highly unlikely that any significant exposure will occur transdermally. That would only be an issue for the most extremely sensitive subset of celiacs. Of course, you wouldn't want him getting wheat flour on his hands and then putting fingers in his mouth.  At school, you will need to pack his lunches and also have conversations with the school dietary staff to ensure his safety.  I know this all seems overwhelming right now but you are not the only parents who are having to go through this kind of thing. Celiac disease is not uncommon and thankfully there is much more public awareness about it than there was a generation ago. It can be done. It's the kind of thing that requires parents to be willing to find that extra gear of assertiveness in order to keep their child safe and to guard his/her psyche as much as possible. Count your blessings. It could be worse. He doesn't have cancer. This might be helpful in getting off to a good start with eating gluten free. Some of it may be overkill depending on how sensitive to minute levels of gluten your son is: