For those who haven't heard

[indy_was_here]

Last week, the Son and Heir was diagnosed with Celiac Sydrome. The incredibly simple version is that the way his digestive system reacts to wheat (gluten) prevents him from properly digesting the rest of his food. The end result is that he's lost a couple of pounds over the last four months or so. We're still in the process of getting test

Comments

[darlox]

Eesh... that's rough, but fortunately gluten-free stuff is becoming increasingly common. Even read an article in the trade press about gluten-free being one of the next big growth markets now that low-carb has leveled off, and testing/diagnosis of protein-related disorders is on the increase.

There's also several enzyme-based products under development to make gluten intolerances controllable like lactose intolerance. Pop a pill, eat your bread, go home happy. But that's likely a few years off from market, or more given the approval processes for stuff like this.

Diagnosis is good! Even when it's bad... :(

(Hey, in unrelated news, we were thinking about you last night. Found pictures from WAY back in the day of archery events and parties. Mak looks like she's about 12, and you're not far off... ;) We're going to scan some of our printed pics in when we have time, and will send you a copy.)

[infowidget]

There's some really yummy gluten free brownie mixes on the market. Also, other flours work pretty well. We made rice flour cookies just to try it out and they weren't bad, just a little flat. As Jim said, there's a lot of new stuff out there so he won't be lacking for options.

I know that at a past event, people were discussing the seeming upswing in food allergies. It's just kinda weird that they seem to be increasingly more common.

[cynic51]

I suspect that a decent chunk, although not all, of the upswing is just better diagnosis

[darlox]

I'm going to concur with cynic51 on this one. Especially since actual diagnosis of the epidemiological disease requires advanced blood tests and/or HLA genetic typing. Prior to that, there were a whole bevy of diseases that presented with the same symptoms, and they could guess at (if they were familiar with enough other cases). Prior to that, nobody had a clue what was wrong with you, and you had to experiment until you figure out what wouldn't make you sick, and a lot of doctors would tell you you're crazy.

Better tests and diagnosis are a lot of what's behind the apparent upswing in allergies and some rare diseases. Many of them aren't any more prevalent, just that the tracked numbers are skyrocketing, because until recently you almost never had confirmed diagnoses. Undiagnosed patients never hit the statistics.

[gieves]

Oh, I'm really sorry to hear that! As darlox says, it's good to have a diagnosis, even though it's not a good one. The poor boy loves pretzels, doesn't he? Well, I'm sure there must be gluten-free pretzels in this world...

[indy_was_here]

Actually, pretzels are the one thing I haven't found yet. Luckily his beloved Macaroni and Cheese are available with rice noodles.

I've been paying more attention to how much this kid eats. If he starts digesting everything he puts in his stomach, he'll put on 15 pounds in the next month or so.