Unofficially official

Dude has celiac disease. I do not know this for a fact, as evidenced by blood tests, biopsies, or genetic testing. But I do know that when he eats foods with gluten, he develops eczema, stops gaining weight, and becomes a clingy, cranky, borderline-desperate boy.

MIL thinks I should have him tested but all the evidence I can find says that kids are hard to pin down, and that positive results from an elimination diet are good enough. I suppose some day it'll be worth doing, but not until he can understand what's going on and why we're feeding him food that makes him feel like shit. Yeah, you have to load up on gluten before hand in order for your intestines to start reacting, otherwise the biopsy won't show definitive results. Fun!

I've been kind of tooling along with a gluten-free diet for him, basically not feeding him any but not being too careful about the kitchen environment. Turns out a lot of people with CD have terrible problems with cross contamination. Like, separate toasters, pans, knives, peanut butter problems. And since he's having yet another eczema flare despite my efforts to keep gluten out of his diet, I think we have a problem, Houston.

It *may* be that the Quaker rice cakes that Perp shares with him every night (oh so cute) are the culprits, so they're the first thing we're cutting out. But if a few days of that doesn't do it, then I think we may need to just be a gluten-free household. It's too much work to keep everything separate the way it needs to be. I'm starting to understand how kosher households operate.

So. If you have any advice, recipes, product recomendations, hugs... I'll take 'em!

I will tell you this: I've found a cookbook that has let me make stellar brownies. I mean, wheat, no wheat, whatever, these are as good as scratch in the old days. So there's that. And? Chocolate chip cookies. Assuming the chips are GF. Oy. Gluten-free Baking Classics by Annalise G Roberts. Go. Get it. And order some superfine brown rice flour while you're at it. You won't believe the difference that extra grind makes.