Our Celiac Story So Far....

Happy New Year!
We brought in the New Year last night with some good friends, a smoked turkey, a hot tub and the Wii. Over all I was surprised that we stayed as long as we did since earlier I had said that I didn't want to stay past 8:30. We really had a great time and felt like we broke our yearly tradition of going to bed early.
I also had a great talk with my friend Kelli about Silas . I have long since thought that he had celiac's. I was diagnosed last year when I was a few months pregnant with Moses. The Symptoms came on sudden and where very sever. I don't think I really had ever been that sick my entire life. I remember having to run to the bathroom 20-30 minutes after eating, then went all day, then had cramping and sever fatigue for hours. After seeing a natural path and was told to stop eating gluten the next day all my symptoms had stopped. Not really convinced that it could be that easy I tested the theory with some soy sauce a few days later. Needless to say I was wrong. Since then I have only had 2 times where I poisoned myself, once with a small sample of Jeff's beer (I really did not think about there being gluten in the beer) and once with some BBQ sauce that Jeff bought that I didn't check cause I thought he had. Both times I was in sever pain and had to make lots of running trips to the bathroom. On average it's around 24 hours till it's all out. Think of it like ejecting your self from a F16.
So knowing that this is a genetic thing that I can pass on I have since kept an eye on the boys. Eli's been fine...so symptoms whatsoever. Silas though has slowly gotten more and more worse as time has gone on. To the point where in the last few months he has had diarrhea everyday 2-3 times a day. Whole undigested food. We went back an forth about what to do. He's still too young to be tested to be able to get an accurate answer. I really hit the wall this last week with every morning but one being diarrhea though the diaper down both legs when he woke up in the mornings. It was a horrid smell that literally stunk up the whole house. Jeff was using the spray all week just to counter the stench. A few days here and there he would not have gluten, not on purpose but just cause I don't eat it so some days the kids end up not eating it also. On those days these past few weeks I paid attention and he had one solid poopy in the morning, but then if I gave him a PB&J for lunch, diarrhea in the afternoon after nap. I also noticed lots of mucus mixed in...didn't really think much of it and kinda overlooked it. Then Kelli asked me if he had mucus type stuff in his poo. I said well yes he does...and thought, but so what...it's poo there's, lots of gross stuff in it. She said that it was actually undigested fat and that it's one of the symptoms. And then I realized that he most likely had it. She asked me also if he eats a lot, and yes he does...all day long. He'll eat his HUGE bowl of oatmeal then crawl up to the table after breakfast and eat Eli's. Yet doesn't gain any weight. His little tummy is very distended also...this has been getting more and more noticeable and feels/looks kinda painful cause it's so hard. Yesterday he had no Gluten. Today he had one solid poo in the morning and then nothing else all day. The poo also had no undigested food. With most of his poos I can tell you what he's eating all day. It's all right there in the same form that it came in as. I'm excited to give him rice this week. He's never been able to digest rice, or raisins for that matter. They come out in full form. Poor guy, makes me sad to think about it. But I feel like we've make the right choice to go GF with him. On the days when he's GF he's SO much happier and joyful. AND...those are the days when he's wanted to go poo on the potty. So that will be nice also. I'll be looking for help from family and friends with all of this. Keeping a 1 year old from eating Gluten is harder then I thought. It's in everything, even the playdoh (which he eats A LOT). I'll need everyones eyes to help. Especially at church on Sundays when he tries to eat the Jesus bread. And the few times I leave the house during the week I'll have to have my radar on SUPER HIGH! Currently we've still had lot's of Glutenous items in the house. But with 3 kids I will not have the super skills to catch every moment. So for now till he's older and we can have a conversation I'll just have to be sure it's not even in the house. Jeff will have one loaf of bread (kept in the fridge and only eaten in his shack) and that's IT! AHHHH but glad to know that this is going to make him feel so much better. And hopefully he will start gaining some weight. He's been the 10th percentile for a long time...