Celiac Disease Comparison to Diabetes

[jessiemariecar]

Hello everyone. 

My daughter was diagnosed with Celiac 4-months ago. Just out of curiosity, what would you say to a family member who compared Celiac to Diabetes? A family member told me, "there are hundreds of kids that live with diabetes and cannot have sugar. They go to birthday parties and cannot eat the cake, cupcakes or candy. Having Celiac requires the same discipline." 

I found this insensitive and maybe because I am still coping and adjusting to the new gluten free lifestyle. I don't think Celiac is the "same" as having diabetes (in terms of giving certain foods up). My mom's boyfriend has diabetes and he eats whatever he wants. Although he is not supposed to, he does. If my daughter gets even a minuscule of gluten, she'll be vomiting for days. Not the same!!!

What your thoughts?

[knitty kitty]

I agree with you. 

Diabetics can choose to eat sugar but the after effects of high blood glucose levels are quite different than the downstream consequences of a Celiac eating gluten.  I have both Type Two Diabetes and Celiac.  

If this person fell into a diabetic coma every time he over ate sugar, his opinion might be a bit different.  

[Rogol72]

Totally agree. A type 1 diabetic with good blood sugar control can generally eat whatever they want. We can't slip up or let our guards down ever.

[jessiemariecar]

Thank you both for your input. My sister-in-law is a psychologist and was trying to give me advice on how she helps other parent's cope with their children's diabetes. To be honest, I didn't want her advice. I know she was just trying to be helpful, but I just felt like she didn't have a clue on what she was talking about and to be quite honest, I didn't want her advice. I only want advice from people who either have Celiac or have children with Celiac. I will be seeing her soon and I want to be prepared and knowledgeable when she brings up (again) the fact that Celiac diet is the same as Diabetes diet. I did speak with a nutritionist and a school psychologist but the scary thing is that I knew more than them! There really needs to be more awareness regarding Celiac Disease. I feel like schools, school nurses and restaurants are not properly trained on this disease. It is really concerning.

[Rogol72]

There's a great podcast on Spotify that I've found helpful. It covers a range of topics regarding adjusting to life with Coeliac Disease for both adults and children, with various guests including psychologists. There's a 4 part series on children with Coeliac Disease.

Here's the first one ...

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4xEJlfhC2Y4CEpJ2XSmVmF?si=bj-BcJ6xR0OkfTRA4s08Ig

And here's the link to the podcast.

https://open.spotify.com/show/1r0imLhB47T78oh3CbERJA

Hope it helps.

 

[jessiemariecar]

@Rogol72Thank you so much!