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Cheating: You Can Cheat, but Your Gut Can't Hide
Children with celiac disease have been known to suffer from a variant of "selective hearing". "Oh mom I thought it was safe& you told me it was gluten-free last week& but I thought I ate this at grandma's house." Usually it involves a candy or snack item that they may want.
When children are younger, ask for some of the brand names they like and call the manufacturer to ask whether or not the product is gluten-free. As children get older, try and talk them through the steps so that they can begin to find out if foods they want to eat are gluten-free.
Of course, the down side is you are never quite sure they are actually making these calls without your input or just saying they did. If your child suffers from severe symptomatic reactions you are in luck because they have a painful (and perhaps embarrassing) consequence to their cheating. If, however, your child has few or no symptoms, it is a dangerous situation that may get worse as they enter adolescence and teenage years. Children that are primarily asymptomatic need to be told the hard truth about increasing the onset of other diseases if they cheat. If height is important to them, remind them that one of the first areas of their body to be affected by not eating gluten may be their growth.
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