It was in October 2012 that our lives took a definite turn.  Our daughter Grace had eczema that was becoming out-of-control.  That past summer, I had carried her, cryng, off the beach, because her broken-out skin had become so painful.  She told us that she never wanted to visit the beach again.  Afterwards, she contracted a staph infection on her legs.  The doctor had prescribed ointments and creams, and we tried virtually everything over-the-counter for eczema relief.  However, Grace's skin seemed to be getting worse instead of better.

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Monroe began doing some research, and he came upon the book Wheat Belly.  After reading it, he thought that we should experiment to see if possibly Grace had an allergy to gluten.  I was hesitant at first, only because I had no idea what I would be able to serve my family to eat.

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I did not realize how serious Monroe was about going gluten-free for a trial period to see if it helped Grace.  He came home from work one Monday morning, and we literally emptied our pantry of everything that had gluten in it.  I had just bought groceries two days prior to this, so there was a lot of food that we gave to another family!  We made a trip to our local health food store and to the grocery store that afternoon so that we could re-stock and plan what meals to eat.

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We decided two things about our experiment.  For starters, we had no idea if this would work for Grace because no doctor had ever suggested that she might have a food allergy.  We resolved that we would try the gluten-free lifestyle for one month.  If there was no improvement, then we could go back to our normal diet.  We had also determined that if Grace had allergies that necessitated her being gluten-free, then our family would unite with her and also be gluten-free.  Poor Clark was the one most upset because he had always been such a picky eater, and now he would have to give up some of his favorite things just like Grace was doing.

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I kept a journal for those first two weeks that we were gluten-free.  We ate eggs and bacon, cheese, grilled chicken, walnuts, fruit, yogurt, potatoes, rice, salad, vegetables, cheeseburgers without the buns, French fries, steak, and peanut butter.  And lots of ketchup for Clark.  We found that there were more choices than we thought, but we were also a little cranky because it was hard to think of not eating some of our favorite foods.

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Amazingly, one of the things that we noticed was that Grace's skin started to look better by only the fourth day without gluten.  By the time two weeks had passed, Grace's skin was not only better but was nearly completely clear!  She also seemed to have more energy.  Monroe and I knew that it would be very hard, but we could not in good conscience let Grace go back to the way she used to eat. 

 

When we took Grace for her annual check-up with the pediatrician, we requested a blood test to see if she had other allergies.  Our pediatrician was curious about the changes we had made in our eating, but she was also pleased that Grace's skin looked so good.  The blood test revealed that Grace did in fact have allergies to wheat and also to corn, peanuts, fish, and soy.  We made some additional changes to our diet, such as substituting rice instead of corn when possible, and we decided that being gluten-free would become a permanent lifestyle change.

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It has been nearly four years since we made this decision, and we have learned to adapt and have welcomed the addition of products that are now available gluten-free.  Our gluten-free lifestyle has taught us many unexpected things, but the most important thing we have learned is about how we can better care for ourselves through our food choices.

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