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Surviving Day One

2013-01-30T17:23:54Z

This morning was tough. No getting around it. After a week of intense prep, a weekend of complete focus on last minute details, and an early morning making sure everything was packed, food was prepared and passport was present, it was time to go the airport hotel and meet up with the group.

I thought I was fine with Ben going. In fact, I am the one who pushed for him to go on this trip. He reluctantly agreed to go on this trip, but only after coming to the realization that he WAS going, so he may as well enjoy it. He hates being the center of attention, so I have tried very hard not to make a big deal about CD in front of a lot of the staff. Ben fully understands the seriousness of his condition and he has no desire to cheat on his diet and get horribly sick. I tried to keep discussions with the head of the trip quiet.

He has a ton of food with him to get him through a 24 hour travel day. He had time with everyone at the Chicago airport, a flight to New York, layover time in New York and then the overseas flight. A very long day! I had been told that they would be getting all of the kids dinner, but I didn’t trust it. At almost 14, Ben has reached Always Hungry Teenage Boy stage. I needed to be sure he had enough food so he wouldn’t be hungry. Seriously. I NEEDED to be sure he wouldn’t be hungry. I have a pathological need to food people and my son is at the top of my “must feed” list. I sent his insulated lunch box with him. In it were 2 ice packs, cheese sticks, salami sticks, turkey, roast chicken, and 2 sandwiches made on Goodbye Gluten bread (which stays soft!). I also packed power bars, Chocolate Chex cereal in a bag and homemade chocolate chip cookies. I know it sounds like a lot. I hope it was enough.

Back to Blogging - Ben's Upcoming Trip

2013-01-29T15:53:28Z

I haven’t done any writing in a while. It’s been tough to come back to blogging. It took a while to remember that I should just be writing about what I know and experiences that my family and community are having. I actually sat down and wrote this last week. Sorry for the delay.

So my son Ben is going on a group trip out of the country next week. He will be gone for 8 days. There are a few other Celiac and GF kids going and this group has taken GF kids before. They keep reassuring me that everything will be fine. They say all of the meals and snacks will be provided and safe. I hope their idea of safe is the same as mine. It has always been so important to me for Ben to be eating the GF equivalent of what everyone else is eating. I have never liked the idea of him eating something that is obviously different. I guess it’s because both he and I are always so sensitive of him being looked at as different. That is a simple sentence, but a very big issue. I will come back to that at another time.

So I am worrying about 2 specific issues: the plane and what will happen if he doesn't trust a meal has been prepared safely. Part one is the plane. I have never trusted airline food. We are not frequent fliers so I fully admit that our experiences are limited. That being said, I remember one overseas flight in particular where we preordered a GF meal and were handed a meal on the plane that contained a sandwich on regular bread. You can’t send the meal back to the kitchen or demand to speak with the chef on an airplane. I have a number of tip and techniques for travel in general and flying in particular, but now I have to implement them and then hope that my son can handle things on his own. Scary. Truly. So I am sending him with a combination of nourishing, filling foods and snacks. I am thinking of salami sticks, cold roast chicken, 2 bread and butter sandwiches on Goodbye Gluten bread and a few cheese sticks as well as Pirate’s Booty, his favorite cereal in a bag and my homemade chocolate chip cookies. That doesn't sound like enough food for a whole travel day to me, but I know that the trip leaders are planning food as well.

Part two is more complicated. The trip is taking 170 eighth graders as well as 30 staff members. Creating meals for that many people on a regular basis is a huge undertaking and making sure that each of the children who have a food issue gets a safe meal is, well… a tough challenge. I know they have done this many times before, but I confess to being concerned. That being said, I am confident enough in these people to send him, so my worrying is more general than acute. Ben has been GF for over 10 years, but has always had me there making sure his food is safe, so this is a huge leap towards independence for him. He will have to trust his own opinion. He has relied on his own judgment before, but in the past it has been at a party that he attended without me. Ben has always been very suspicious of other people preparing his food, but refusing food at a party simply means waiting until he got home to eat. He will be gone for 8 days in another country. If he doesn't trust the food preparation and refuses to eat for 8 days…that would be bad. So, I am buying several loaves of Goodbye Gluten bread which does not need to be refrigerated. They can purchase turkey or cheese or hummus to make up sandwiches. I am sending Chex cereal in zip lock bags and lots of Pirate’s Booty. He will have Envirokids bars and the few protein bars we could find that are GF and that he likes. All involve peanut butter, which I mentioned to the trip leaders as there are several peanut allergic kids. Ultimately, I do trust that this group can secure safe food for Ben and the other celiac kids. I will just have to trust my preparations and trust that Ben will be fine.

The Gluten-Free Kitchen, Where To Start

2012-02-17T22:34:09Z

As many times as I have been asked this question, the answer is always the same. Cleaning. This may seem too obvious, but I will state it anyway. Every inch of the kitchen needs to be searched for crumbs and cleaned thoroughly. Do not neglect the countertops, floor and storage cabinets. And while we are talking about searching for gluten crumbs, remember any room in the house where snacks potentially have been eaten. Most of us snack in our family room, bedrooms and in the basement.

However, let’s go back to the kitchen.

Cabinets: These are the hiding place of every mystery condiment we planned to cook with but never got to, every junk food item we ever purchased and then hid so no one would know we’d bought it, and all the stuff your mother sent over for your kids that you couldn’t throw away, so you stuck it on a shelf (sorry, Mom). Time to clean out the pantry.

If you are making your whole kitchen gluten-free, then simply put a big garbage bag next to you and start tossing. But if the entire family doesn’t require the same diet, you may want to do things a little differently.

Divide your shelves into gluten and non-gluten areas. You may want to reserve one shelf that is strictly for your family member with Celiac Disease. I made all of the shelves that my son could reach the gluten-free shelves. When he looked into the pantry, everything at his eye level was safe for him. If you can’t do this, or don’t really need a full shelf, a big plastic container works great too.

Next time I will continue with the refrigerator.

Welcome

2012-02-16T19:15:19Z

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.