I should stop calling my youngest a baby, as he's very much into toddler mode at 2 1/2, but when he's sick, I can't help but think of him as a baby.

I usually watch him like a hawk at social functions, but tonight we were all enjoying the company so much that I forgot to keep a close eye on food dangers. There were babysitting-age kids around keeping him physically safe, so I relaxed a bit too much for a little while. I noticed a baggie of goldfish crackers after he'd probably already gotten into them. Goldfish crackers should be outlawed; my older son got sick from them too many times when he was small, they're just so hard for a child to resist, and there is no packaged gluten free version.

He became very irritable soon before we left for home, and it went downhill from there. Stomach pain, gas, more irritability, vomiting, and diarrhea. Now it's almost 6 AM, and I've been up with him all night. (He's slept some, but I haven't). He's never had much more gluten than a trace amount, but has always proven to be the most sensitive of all of us. (He's got many Hunter traits.) I'm afraid this time he had much more than a trace amount.

Two days ago, I took him to Costco with me and we stopped for a hot dog with no bun (checking for crumbs, as always). A bigger little boy came up to him with a cookie in his hand and decided he had too many cookie crumbs on himself then started shaking them off of himself, right next to us. When I told him the crumbs would make us sick, he and his parents acted like I was crazy. Sigh. Fortunately I was able to protect the food. (I guess I'm just the crazy lady on crumb patrol!)

Some people think that crackers/bread/cookies can't possibly make anybody sick. It's annoying to me, but also sad for them if they happen to unknowingly be one of the people who are getting sick from gluten. If you're sick all the time, and eating poison all the time, it's hard to put the two together. I'm just glad we aren't in that boat anymore. I doubt I could have even had children if I hadn't given up wheat, then gluten. One person I spoke with about it questioned whether I should have had children, knowing I had a genetic condition I could pass on. Being that it is a treatable condition, and I'm also passing on the knowledge, I have no question in my mind that I did the right thing by having my two. Considering that 97% of full-fledged celiacs don't even know they have it, and countless clueless others with gluten sensitivity, I have no guilt or ambivilance about my decision whatsoever. Some people think the gluten free diet is a fate worse than death, but I completely disagree. Other than social inconveniences, and trying to help young children navigate the crunchy dangers, it's pretty trivial. My 5 year old is very expert at avoiding gluten, in any situation, so I must be doing something right... of course, he also had to learn the hard way a couple times.

I can't imagine waiting for positive test results to put this baby on a GF diet. The misery of one night of gluten is too much, the months it might take for the lab to show anything would be torture (for him primarily, but also the rest of the household). I've confirmed this morning that he probably did eat some goldfish crackers. I'm about to launch an anti-goldfish campaign, kind of funny really since they're so cute and likable, they just drive me nuts with their kid-appeal.