Be a creative baker, have fun experimenting with new ingredients and be prepared to take your own food when you go out.
That’s the advice Brisbane mum Chloe Chan has for other coeliac disease sufferers managing the demands of an active young family.
“Just because something is gluten-free, doesn’t make it coeliac safe,” she warned.
“When you are coeliac, your food can’t have any traces of gluten, and you can’t even share dishes and pans.”
“It can definitely be challenging when you have young children, but kids are learning about food intolerances now even at kindy, so it is probably easier than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” Chloe said.
Chloe says she was diagnosed with coeliac disease five months after her second child was born in July 2020.
“I suddenly developed itchy and blistering knees. I thought it might be contagious, so I saw my GP and he said it was probably eczema. But the biopsy sample came up as inconclusive,” she said.
“It started to spread across my knees, elbows, ankles, and buttocks so I saw another GP. I was referred to a dermatologist and had more biopsies but tests were inconclusive again.”
“I saw a third GP and coincidentally his daughter is coeliac and he suspected that might be the case for me.”
“Finally, blood tests indicated it was coeliac disease – however I was told to continue the same diet until I could see a specialist and he sent me to Dr James Daveson because he knew he was a leader in this field.”
“It did feel weird continuing to eat the food that was harming me, but it was important for the long-term diagnosis and treatment.”
She said it was great to have a diagnosis and ‘something to work on’.
“Once I knew, I was able to restrict my diet the rashes and blisters went away,” Chloe said.
“I did have some bloating before I was diagnosed but I had just had a baby and I normalised this instead of recognising it as a sign things weren’t working as well as they used to.”
“Once the rashes got really bad it was an outward sign to get help that I couldn’t ignore.”
Chloe says making changes at home with a young family took a bit of organising.
“I prepare well ahead because the right food isn’t as quickly accessible, and I don’t want to get ‘hangry’ if I can’t just grab something.”
“Now we cook a lot at home, swapping out flours, getting the right sauces etc. and I tell the kids to be careful what they are touching if they have ‘gluten hands’.”
“Eating out is more challenging because you can’t guarantee there will be something that is coeliac-safe on the menu,” Chloe said.
“People may not be aware that you can’t just remove the gluten elements, and that it’s not just a lifestyle choice.”
“I usually plan ahead and order something separate.”
Chloe says baking has been the easiest to adapt in her coeliac-friendly kitchen as there are lots of options which are safely gluten-free.
“There are a lot of nice flours for baking, maybe a bit more expensive, but worth it to have family treats for everyone,” she said.
Find out more about coeliac disease and our work in their space below: