Cristian ~ results are in

Last week, we got the results back from Cristian's blood work. The good news is his allergy panel came back free and clear! So he has no food allergies, which is a huge blessing! His Celiac panel; however, did not come back normal. This did not come as a huge surprise... given his chronic stomach irritation and ear pain that was unrelated to an infection. There were 2 things that showed up in his blood work that led my doctor to say, "Cristian's results are suggestive of Celiac's disease." In order to get a negative Celiac panel, it was explained to me that Cristian's IGA # would have to be under 10 (0-9 range). In order to have a positive test for Celiac, his number would have to be above 16 (17+ range). Anything in between 10-16 they consider "equivocal," usually meaning that there's a strong possibility, but further testing would need to be done to get an official diagnosis. Cristian's IGA # was 14. (so, on the higher end of the "equivocal" range). The other thing his doctor mentioned was that his gliadin antibodies were elevated, and statistics show that 80% of patients who have an equivocal blood test AND this elevated gliadin antibody have Celiac's Disease. So, the doctor he was seeing (who happens to be a pediatric ear specialist at his pediatric clinic), thought it best to treat his symptoms instead of putting him through much more invasive testing. (80% chance of having Celiac's Disease was positive enough in his opinion). So, he said for now, Cristian is to be put on a gluten free diet, and we are supposed to follow up with him again in 2-3 months to see if his stomach has had any relief.
After getting this news, I spent the next 4 days doing a lot of research on Celiac's Disease, reading Gluten Free websites and blogs, and grocery shopping. I visited 6 different grocery stores in 4 days just trying to get an idea of who had what, and where the best prices/deals were. Here are some of the things I came home with...
It is amazing how many gluten free things are available!
I went to Marlene's, Trader Joe's, Winco, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and Costco! A big thank you to my mom and sister who also did a lot of research and went shopping with me!!
The bread is great for toasting, but not so much for sandwiches. It just crumbles too easily.

I had to completely reorganize my pantry and make each of my kiddos their own food shelves. This is Ava and Carter's side...
Cristian can still have popcorn, but no more of his favorite Annie's crackers, graham crackers, or soda crackers.
He will also have to give up his favorite cereals. (Ava and Carter's Soy Nut butter and honey)
There are very few soups/chilis that are gluten free. Fortunately, I make most of mine from scratch anyway so instead of noodles I can substitute those with quinoa or rice. I also found some gluten free cream of mushroom soup, gluten free cream of chicken soup, and gluten free creamy tomato soup... since a couple of our family favorite recipes call for those!
Here is Cristian's side of the pantry (minus the oatmeal)
and tucked way up on the "forbidden" top shelf is a jar of death, aka peanut butter. Two of the staples Cristian will be eating with gluten free crackers, vegetables, and rice cakes are peanut butter and tuna fish. It's the only way I can conveniently get him some protein in his school lunch. Of course this makes me panic with Ava and Carter's allergies (especially Ava since she is HIGHLY allergic to both Fin Fish and Nuts... to my knowledge, Carter's only allergy is Peanuts). But I have a good system in place to make sure that my house is not cross contaminated.
Cristian giving me the thumbs up, posing by his new food selections. He has been such a trooper, trying new foods, and eliminating all the others that he's used to. And I'm very happy to report that after being gluten free for just a week, his stomach is feeling MUCH MUCH BETTER!! I've only heard him mention his stomach being upset ONCE in the past several days, and before he was mentioning it several times a day. YAY!!
Some more gluten free purchases.
Sorry for all the pictures of my pantry, I'm just so happy with how organized and clean it looks :)
We also had to get him his very own toaster to avoid cross contamination.
That's a lot of GLUTEN FREE!!
I was also given a recipe to make my own gluten free all purpose flour mix using all of the above flours.
My recipe and gluten free flour mix.
I also made my very first gluten free zucchini bread which was a huge hit!
It tasted just like the non-gluten free version, just a tad bit more crumbly. Hopefully I'll be able to perfect it.

So, there you have it. So far it's been a smooth transition... it just takes a lot more planning ahead on my part, because there are no more quick/on the go meals that we can eat anymore. And a lot of recipes require an extra step or two, making meal prep time longer. But, we will definitely be a healthy household! I'll give you all another update in a couple months after he goes back to the doctor! But so far, so good!! One week down, and perhaps a lifetime to go?? Consider it All Joy!!