Getting Glutened

It's a cold and dreary outside. . .the first official day of fall. No sunshine. A cold rain fell earlier.

The mood inside our house pretty much matches. Someone--no one is confessing--put a box of regular cereal in the gf pantry. (NO gluten-containing items are EVER kept in the gluten-free pantry.) In a fit of hunger, Alec grabbed the box, poured, and began to eat. We buy cheap cereal. The labels on all the cereals look a little weird, so he didn't immediately see the difference, and he was shoveling so fast he didn't realize what he'd done until after three or four bites.

Three or four bites. That's like three or four bites of poison to a celiac. Three or four bites is the most gluten he's had since last November when he snuck a Ding-Dong after the first week of the gf diet. He's never purposely eaten another bite of gluten again. He was so sick that evening he couldn't sit up in a chair.

Like he is today. He spent the morning alternating between the bathroom floor and his bed, but now he's graduated to the couch. As soon as we realized what he'd done, we had him start drinking lots of water and gave him Maalox, hoping to get the gluten through asap.

There's not much info available on what to do for accidental gluten ingestion--doctors want celiacs to simply stick to their diets. But it happens, so I spent the morning searching the web for other ideas about what I might do next time. I found only a few suggestions, and since they don't seem likely to be harmful, I'll pass them on here. One mother said her son uses activated charcoal if he accidentally eats gluten--apparantly you can buy it in capsule form. Alec once had to take this in the er (another story for another time), and I can understand the theory. Another celiac suggested antihistamine for the stomach upset and to help with sleep disruption that sometimes comes with the gluten reaction. Other suggestions were just for treating symptoms: antacids for indigestion, immodium for diarrhea, meds for pain, etc.

The most difficult part of being a parent has to be seeing your child suffer for any reason. Before Alec was diagnosed, we had plently of days like this--days where he lay on the couch and didn't speak, didn't move, didn't eat. But it's been nearly a year of good health for him--I am oh so grateful, you cannot even imagine how glad I am to be able to type that!--but I hate seeing him this way today.

I'm calling my doctor about the activated charcoal--I'll post here about what he says. I'm not sure how much celiac experience he has, so I guess we'll start testing his knowledge now.

And I'll let you know how long this lasts. Tomorrow is a new day. Even as I was typing, the Oklahoma sun came out again, and the white moths started dancing round the zinnias outside my window. Hopefully Alec will soon be doing the same--well, not the dancing part, and not around the zinnias. Ugh! You know what I mean!