Proud Mama

I am so proud this week. When my son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, we were not surprised. It runs in the family and was familiar to me.

However, Daniel was the first of our family to be diagnosed as a child and I did not, at that time, understand some of the challenges we would face keeping a very ambitiously athletic child and then teenager healthy and fit enough to compete at the high levels he is capable of.

Some of these issues I talked about in earlier blogs, with the breakfast calzones and the smoothies and homemade energy bars. With every rise in activity level we had to adjust the foods, the vitamins etc. But these past two weekends, all our work came to fruition as Daniels swim relay team won two medals at the regional competition and one medal at State! Daniel swam his two fastest times and had the energy and strength be at his best!

Celiac Disease is not easy for children and teenagers to live with and I am proud that Daniel doesn't use it as an excuse not to do his very best at whatever he is doing. Next year he heads to college to study nutrition and dietetics and he hopes to specialize in Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance so he can share what he has learned with others.