How Do You Deal?

[rat toe]

Hi, my name is Becca I'm 17, and I've had celiac for about a year now. I didn't have any symptoms, but I'm type 1 diabetic so they screened me and caught my antibodies for celiac. The problem I'm having is that even though I have celiac, my parents refuse to test my teenage brothers for it. My parents still think that it would be too much for my brothers to "handle" if they had to go on a gluten free diet as teenagers. I was hoping that any teens (especially any guys) could tell me how you handle the gluten free diet. like do you ever rebel? And if so do you still try to stick to it? Has your relationship with your parents been affected by them making you go gluten free?? Any stories/advice would be great!

[RiceGuy]

Well, in the case of a teen with no symptoms, I'd imagine they'd really not cooperate too easily. For me I would have been FAR better off had I been diagnosed as a child rather than all the suffering. Not to mention the damage that has obviously been done as a result of not knowing the cause of all the health problems. I would have been grateful to know, and though it wouldn't have been easy I'd have gone gluten-free to get well just as I did when I finally got the answer.

So I think it depends on their current state of health, and upbringing of course. The parents don't sound like they understand however, that not even finding out is a huge gamble, and they are risking the lives and wellbeing of their own children. That should be unacceptable, as opposed to just switching to gluten-free breads and cereals, etc. The diet isn't very difficult to follow once you put aside the American point of view that the world revolves around wheat.

Tell your parents that not only is rice the most prevalent staple grain on the planet, but both the U.S. and Canada grow and export rices of many varieties. We import tons of it too of course.

In short it seems your parents are the ones rebelling here.

[Saz]

Hi, my name is Becca I'm 17, and I've had celiac for about a year now. I didn't have any symptoms, but I'm type 1 diabetic so they screened me and caught my antibodies for celiac. The problem I'm having is that even though I have celiac, my parents refuse to test my teenage brothers for it. My parents still think that it would be too much for my brothers to "handle" if they had to go on a gluten free diet as teenagers. I was hoping that any teens (especially any guys) could tell me how you handle the gluten free diet. like do you ever rebel? And if so do you still try to stick to it? Has your relationship with your parents been affected by them making you go gluten free?? Any stories/advice would be great!

I was diagnosed when I was 6. For the last 4 years I have been cheating very badly. In the last few months I have been trying very hard try and stick to it. I know I am going to sound like a major major hypocrite but I reccomend not cheating. I started by just occasionaly having a normal sandwich and from there I just kept eating more and more. On the 23rd of this month I will have gone an entire month without majorly cheating ( by this I mean no bread, cakes, or crumbed stuff, I am getting there with sauces and stuff) Like I said I know this makes me sound like a major hypocrtye.

If your brothers were tested and your parents didn't think they could handle it all at once maybe they could just try slowly cutting it back. So for example to begin with maybe they could just have fruit instead of toast for breakfast and you can go from there. This is how I have got back to gluten-free again. I know that it is not perfect but if it means that in the long run they are going to handle it better, then surely that is better than putting it off for a few more years. ( I know that many of you here will prolly not agree with me on this, but this is just my opion, I am not saying it is right, just whats worked for me)