How Your Life Has Changed with Celiac Disease

Tell us, what was your life before you were diagnosed with celiac disease? What symptoms did you experience before your diagnosis?

I’m writing on behalf of my daughter. She was nearly two when diagnosed. I’d spent a year badgering medics and health visitors and said that there was something wrong, I was told many times she just had ‘a virus’. By the time she got sent for a biopsy she was painfully thin, had mottled skin and a distended stomach. She slept loads, was miserable, upset a lot, always had diarrhoea and didn’t seem to grow. I honestly believe she would’ve suffered catastrophic complications had she not been diagnosed when she was.... it should’ve happened way before it did really. 

After your diagnosis, how did you begin to adjust to a gluten-free diet?

My daughter was so young. She didn’t know any different but the improvement was immediate and the positive effect was so great that anyone suffering in that way and then being transformed into a ‘normal’, energetic, thriving toddler could not fail to feel happier, even if they weren’t old enough to know why. 

Did you adjust fully to the diet? What were the challenges you experienced? The triumphs?

My daughter is now 19 and has stuck to her diet all her life. Any relapses have been accidental or from contamination. The results are so horrific (vomiting, pain, brain fog, nausea, lethargic) that it’s never worth ‘cheating‘! Challenges are other people’s attitudes, that it’s ‘not that serious’, and trying to find food to go! The triumphs are when you find a restaurant where the staff has been fully trained and where there’s a wide variety of dishes to choose from.