Celiac Disease

As you can see I'm making up for lost time with my blogging entries. I've been busy lately doing a lot of shopping and running around for my boy Rico. Through routine blood work we found out that Rico probably has Celiac Disease. Celiac is an autoimmune intestinal disorder. What it is is your digestive system stops working properly when you eat gluten. Gluten is a type of protein found in things such as wheat, rye, barley and sometimes oats. Gluten is also found in many other things which I'm finding all about. Rico had an endoscopy done this past Tuesday to determine for sure if he has Celiac the procedure went well and we will know a positive diagnosis in about 2 weeks. Meanwhile we are to change his diet from basically all gluten to NONE! God has been very gracious to us. Rico is taking very well to eating a new way. We have been able to find many substitutes for the things Rico would normally eat and he's eating the different textures and tastes of them. Amazing grace because Rico is a very picky eater. But God has made a way for Rico. We started Rico's new diet this past Wed. It has led me to run all over the area looking for good gluten free food. I met with an Celiac Dietitian and she was very helpful. Also a friend at church has Celiac too and has been very helpful with telling me what is good and where to get things. I would like to get Rico to eat meat which he has not done so far in his life. He needs to start eating it though it would help him so much because we also found out he is Anemic. I'm so glad we found all this out because it explains a lot of things about Rico. Symptoms Rico has that is directly related to Celiac is gas, gas and more gas, slow growth (only gained 3 lbs since last year), itchiness skin rash, anemia. So here's to a new Rico. We hope and pray that Rico's new diet will bring wonderful new graces to him and us as a family. God bless our Rico.