Holidays Make It Hard To Not Cheat On Dietary Restrictions

The holidays can be a hard time of the year for many people if they are already emotional. But they are also a hard time of the year for those who are on a required dietary change. Imagine having delectable goodies shoved into your face to tempt you as you visit a relative. Only you aren't looking at just having to step up on the scale and curse your self afterward - you make yourself physically ill and end up in bed for two days or more.

This leads to the question of why anyone would ever cheat on a food they can not eat if they know it will make them sick? Well the answer is of course convoluted but the reality is that justification and rationalization can be everyone's worst enemies. And most likely, we are all guilty of it.

My celiac daughter recently said to me that she didn't see the issue if she ate a little gluten. I of course panicked and asked her why she thought this. She said, "Remember what the doctor said? My body will heal itself."
I retorted, "...IF you stay on a gluten free diet..."
Her little face crumpled.
"He said you could cheat and possibly have no symptoms for a time. But it would turn into other illnesses later on in life." I continued on with the truth.
She looked like the reality was devastating all over again. "So I can never eat gluten again?"
"Nope." I looked at her with my heart breaking for her disappointment and then rationalized the other direction. "But you will be healthier and who wants to eat junk like fast food anyways?!"
She remained in a funk but seemed to forget the urgency of fitting in.

I know she will want to test out the theory and can only hope she stops and gives a hard thought to cheating. The closer we get to teen years and the longer time has elapsed to erase the remembrance of nights vomiting and all the other unpleasantry, the harder it gets to not justify. Her physician told me she would likely try it during teen years. The only strong tool I have to combat this is educating her, exposing her to others like herself, and constantly reminding her of the past vicariously through meeting others who are newly diagnosed.

In this respect being a part of a support group is no different than any other. It never allows you to forget where you came from and allows those who are newly struggling to see there is a light at the end of a tunnel. And this is why support groups are helpful because sometimes everyone needs reminders of where they came from so they don't repeat the same mistakes again.

Hopefully you all make it through the Holidays gluten free and happily so.

~Nikki Everett~
Lead Coordinator of R.O.C.K. Charlotte

The Link Between Food Allergies & Bullying

Bullying is something parents and their children who may fall victim to it are fearful of now more than ever. And why shouldn't they be? The news is rife with tales of children being the victim of bullying which is so severe that someone can die. Especially when your child has a severe reaction to food allergens or has celiac disease you worry already about contaminations.

Those who bully can see a potential weakness to be used as prime target for their intimidation tactics. Because that's what bullies do. And statistics show that it only increases in teen years.

An article on the delightfully informative blog, The Allergic Kid, told the staggering statistics and fears of one mother and her allergic child here: Bullies, Food Allergies, & The Force.

My celiac child experienced teasing before we even knew of her issue. Her constantly distended belly caused one child to call her fat. She came home crying and I called the teacher to find out what we could do to resolve it. I wish I could say that did the trick. It didn't.

Sadly, your child may also experience a type of emotional trauma from the very adults that you have entrusted their care with. Because of our celiac child's constant absences and incessant complaining during the chronic months of her illness before diagnosis, her teacher was an issue as well. She ranged from disbelief at our daughter's symptoms to irritation about her inability to get caught up with work. So although the bullying stopped from the child who called our daughter fat, she then had to contend with a teacher who didn't believe her illness was real.

All of this led to my child not liking school and emotionally more torn up than ever. We eventually decided to home school her rather than deal with a system ill equipped to handle her physical or emotional well being. She is healthy, has caught up with her work and has been on honor roll for 2 years. All is well that ends well. But, it is my sincere hope that eventually we all can live in a society which handles differences with positive results, as idealistic as that is. Until then, my prayers are with all of our children and parents for a bully-free life.

And here are some tips on K104.7 website that are so valuable to a parent whose child is dealing with it.
"Stop Bullying Period"

~Nikki Everett~

Lead Coordinator of R.O.C.K.(Raising Our Celiac Kids) Charlotte, N.C.

R.O.C.K. Holiday Thank You to GF Vendors

Our R.O.C.K.in' Around The Holidays GF Cookie Exchange Party was a blast!

Not only do we thank our members for participating, but also many GF vendors who sent goodies

for our R.O.C.K. Stars to enjoy...

A R.O.C.K.in' Thank You to Katz Gluten Free for sending us samples of their Marble Cake, Chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles, & Challah Bread. All were delicious and there weren't ANY left!

A big R.O.C.K. Thank You to Cupcakistry for the most beautiful GF cupcakes!

And a big R.O.C.K. Thank You to Taste of Sunrise for giving us all samples of their yummy GF pancakes which are available for purchase at Healthy Home Market!

R.O.C.K. Charlotte wishes you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, & a Happy New Year!

Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

As Posted To Groups By Alek Komar
Yes, it is the holiday season, and back online for 2010 are the Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease:

http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas_webcam

Once again, three live webcams and X10 technology allows web surfers to not only view the action, but also *control* 20,000+ lights. New this year is the Santa Plane, Santa Helicopter, and even Santa Skiing down my roof ... which can all be inflated/deflated in addition to the giant 12' Santa, 15' Santa Balloon, Elmo, Frosty Family, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Homer Simpson - D'OH! ;-)

The website is totally free (and totally fun) and is one of my zany ways of raising awareness & soliciting donations for Celiac Disease - http://www.celiaccenter.org/news_xmas.asp - my two sons have this condition, so it's personal for me. If folks are so inclined, you can make an optional donation directly to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. Over $50,000 has been raised with ... holiday lights - pretty wild.

While people around the world (157 countries last year) enjoy seeing the lights ON, environmentalists will be happy to know that they can turn the lights OFF with a click of the mouse. Better yet, this is the 7th year I'm using Wind Power and even though that is "clean" energy, I even did a Carbon Offset contribution for the 0.6 Tons of CO2 for the ~MegaWatt-Hour of power consumed - that's about the same as *one* cross-country airline trip. Finally, by providing viewing via webcam, you don't need to burn fossil fuels by driving around to see Christmas lights.

But HEY, the couple of bucks a day in electrical costs are well worth the joy it brings to people (especially the kids) when they see the display in person and/or on the web. There's even a Hi-Def option, so gather your family around the large screen and open up some Eggnog as the chestnuts are roasting on an open fire.

Merry Christmas and HO-HO-HO! ;-)

alek