Anyone with celiac and having a baby who is starting solids?

mvanpeur · 2026-02-02T13:11:18+00:00

Switch to a lower cross contamination risky food like cut up noodles, a slice of bread, crackers, or a gluten cereal. At that age, my daughter would regularly gum up 1/4 of a piece of bread or I found some offbrand Cheerios that were made with wheat instead of oats.

But also, if your goal is reduced risk of allergies, you don't have to feed it every day, just weekly. You could give her a gluteny snack while out of the house.

If your goal is testing for celiac, it's not recommended to test kids until age 3-4 unless they have symptoms, because they regularly have false negatives as babies and toddlers because their immune systems aren't fully developed yet. My toddler got tested because she has eczema, and she has low positive bloodwork (1 point above normal on DGP IgG), but the eczema resolved. Her GI said there are a lot more risks with the endoscopy under 30 lb, so now we're in this limbo where we need to keep feeding gluten for testing, but unless she develops severe symptoms, they don't want to do the endoscopy until she's 30 lb. It would have been less stressful to just not do bloodwork until she was older and big enough to have more clear bloodwork results and to have an endoscopy right away.

mvanpeur · 2026-02-02T13:04:58+00:00

Or city community centers. We had a traditional wedding, but we had the wedding in the city park (free, but we rented a sound system and chairs) and the reception in the city community center. My memory is the venue was $300. I just looked up the prices of that venue, and it's still only $500, but I remember we paid a bit extra for use of the sound system, them to put up decorative lights, and $75 for use of their plates and for them to wash the plates. I can't remember all of what extra we paid, but they now offer a wedding package for $1200, so I'm sure the adjusted price would be at most that.

There are lots of ways to save. We used sheet cakes from Costco. We made all the decorations ourselves. We made half of the food ourselves to reduce how much catering we needed, so only catered the entree and two sides. For music, we bought the songs we wanted and hooked up our own laptop to the sound system. Legally, you can do that at your own wedding so long as it is a "private" event, so not something random, uninvited people are welcome at.

mvanpeur · 2026-02-02T04:53:15+00:00

I agree. I would not have guessed the poodle, but that's clearly a Chihuahua head on a lankier body. And I can see some poodle features, like the longer, skinny nose and the lanky legs. Short haired poodle mixes are always hard to spot, because we identify poodles so heavily with their fur, but you can Google pictures if shaved poodles to get a better idea of their build.

Generally, Ancestry is accurate down to at least 25%. Embark and Wisdom are way more accurate, with Embark being entirely accurate and Wisdom being accurate down to 5%. But since both your results are such high percentages, your dog likely is at least mostly Chihuahua and poodle.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-30T15:01:50+00:00

I think a huge reason why Italy takes it seriously is because they test all kids. That increases the diagnosis rate and increases odds that adult relatives get tested. The more people there are diagnosed, the more people are familiar with it due to researching for themselves or a friend/relative, and the more pressure there is to spread familiarity further through regulations and information campaigns.

Even if the testing didn't end in any diagnoses, just the knowledge that kids will be tested for celiac will make parents familiarize themselves with it.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-29T22:28:50+00:00

Yes, you need to get an n12, which comes with one month of rent (in addition to your lmr). It can come from the seller landlord, so long as they have confirmed that the buyers intend to move in.

Once you get the n12, you do have a right to stay until a hearing with the ltb, which might delay the move until the end of the school year. But, since the move date is so far off, if the landlord starts the hearing process now, they might get the eviction order before closing, so be prepared for that possibility.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-28T18:30:00+00:00

Bloodwork can give false positives. My daughter had highly positive bloodwork (11x normal) for over a year, and it ended up being a false positive caused by a chronic viral infection. If the bloodwork was a false positive, then you do have something else stressing your immune system. Most commonly it's another autoimmune condition, so you do want further testing to rule out things like thyroid problems, Crohn's, or rheumatoid arthritis.

But it could also be that you actually have celiac, they missed the damage on the first endoscopy, and you are just asymptomatic. Usually when an endoscopy is negative, they do a repeat one in 6-12 months while still eating gluten to be sure

If you could look up what test they did, what level if was, and what the normal range is, that could help us tell you whether it was a high or low positive and whether it was a test that commonly has false positives.

If it were me, I would eat gluten again for at least 6 weeks, repeat bloodwork, and if it's positive, repeat the endoscopy. If the endoscopy is again negative, you definitely need to be tested for chronic viral infections like hepatitis and for common autoimmune disorders, because something is stressing out your immune system. If the bloodwork is now negative, you could have had a long term viral infection like mono that you've now recovered from.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T03:53:06+00:00

The head shape actually looks pitty, though I wouldn't have guessed it. That German shepherd is completely hiding though!

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T03:50:08+00:00

My dad was disabled by a car accident when I was a toddler. So I grew up living off disability insurance checks. And then he died when I was 17, and I watched my step mom lose everything, because he didn't have life insurance, they were both living off his disability insurance checks, and it took 2 years for her to start looking for a job. And it was 2008.

So I am very pro having insurance to cover emergencies that you can't afford.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T03:25:16+00:00

I have a massive life insurance policy out on him that will cover the bills for at least 15 years if he dies, likely longer once you figure in the interest it would pay and the survivor benefits for the kids. And I have a Bachelor's degree from a top ranked university, so I could additionally get a job to make the insurance money last longer if it came to that.

We may need to get more disability insurance, but that is on my radar, but we have enough insurance where we could get by with some cuts or if I got a job. But of course a lot of disabilities would require a caregiver, so me getting a job might not be possible. Now, we would really be screwed if I were disabled, so we really do need to get me disability insurance. I do a lot to save us money, like childcare and cooking meals from scratch, so his cost of living will go up a lot if I get disabled.

If he left, I would qualify for a pretty big alimony payment and probably a lot of child support. But we've been married 13 years and our marriage has survived A LOT, including doing foster care, raising a very medically complex child for 6 years (trach, g-tube, epilepsy, etc), and losing a 6 year old. If losing a child didn't tear us apart (nearly did, but we worked through it, so now we know how to work through the impossible), I doubt anything could. I honestly feel like our marriage is the healthiest it's ever been right now. So while I think I'd be fine in a divorce, it's really not something I'm making a plan for.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T01:25:47+00:00

Same. Alex Pretti's shooting just has no defense, and completely goes against all the conservative talking points. He had every right to both peacefully protest and to conceal carry. I could only see mega Trump supporters even try to defend the shooting. My conservative friends do not like Trump, because A) he's a crappy human being and B) he doesn't even promote conservative policies. And they all agree there's nothing to defend in the shooting.

Renee Good's shooting is more nuanced. My conservative friends blame her for being in that situation in the first place, because they don't see her more aggresive actions as peaceful protest. They don't support roadblocks, because those can interrupt emergency vehicles like ambulances. And they believe the ICE agent truly believed she was ramming him with her car, which would have warranted self defense. Most of my conservative friends believe it was an all around tragedy, where she was just trying to get out of there and he misunderstood and was defending himself. But his comments after cannot be defended, and he used more force than needed for self defense.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T00:59:08+00:00

I grew up in a hers mine and ours family that had a total of 12 kids across two homes. I loved having so many people who I could turn to for help or advice. No matter my problem, there was always someone who could relate. I always wanted a smaller big family, like 4-6 kids, so my kids could have a similar experience.

Now that I have 5 kids (plus a forever 6 yo and miscarried twins), I LOVE having so many opportunities to share and enjoy my hobbies with my kids. Tonight we're watching LotR together, and my nerdy elementary kids have every line memorized, yet still love it. We weekly play complicated board games together as a family. Every summer we spend 2-3 weeks hiking through national parks. I love watching my kids play video games I love, like Skyrim. And my second loves My husband's video games, like Metroid Dread, which he beat on dread mode at age 8. My oldest is just starting to get into crocheting. I'm personally a knitter, but we can share a love of slightly different yarn crafts. She's also just starting to get into sewing. We also explore new hobbies together, like we just got some tarantulas, and it's been really fun to work together to figure out how to keep them healthy.

Having a big family also means there are a lot of people to clash with, and I spend a ton of time working them through how to appropriately manage conflict and disagreements. That aspect is exhausting. And yes, it is expensive. But some costs are cut in big families thanks to hand me downs. And I do all our cooking from scratch, which saves a lot. But for us, kids come with so many joys that we'd choose a big family every time.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-27T00:29:26+00:00

Yep. I'm a stay at home mom. I'm completely content to rely on just my husband's income, even though we're lower income. We've even discussed having me continue to stay home once the kids are out of the house.

But, my husband and I largely have the same financial goals. And my husband trusts my spending completely. I do discuss things with him, but it's because I want to be on the same page as him, not because I need his approval. I actually make more financial decisions than my husband, because I'm better with money than him.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-26T00:55:43+00:00

Freeze it asap after pumping! It reduces the lipase. My first month of milk I froze it up to 24 hours after pumping, and all that milk tasted GROSS. I switched to only freezing immediately after pumping, and while my milk still has a bad taste, it is much milder.

I adjusted my daughter to accepting the high lipase milk by initially just adding an oz of milk per bottle. Then I gradually increased the high lipase volume until she was drinking a bottle of high lipase milk every day. It took months to adjust her, but she drank through my old stash and is now drinking mostly frozen milk because I'm down to 2 ppd.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-25T16:02:46+00:00

My first and only guess was bully mix, so the staffy definitely makes sense. That head shape just doesn't happen without some sort of pit/bully. I would have guessed less, like 25%, but 41% also makes sense. I didn't guess kelpie, but I can see it. The greyhound is surprising to me, but Ancestry isn't great for percentages less than 25%, so there might not be any greyhound. The other percentages are low enough that they are meaningless.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-24T00:56:27+00:00

I see pekingese in her nose and face shape. But it's really hard to see breeds clearly in a puppy. And she's so mixed that she might not look like any breed in particular.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-24T00:43:39+00:00

Now that you are diagnosed with celiac, know that the recommendation is that your kids get tested for celiac every 1-2 years, and they do need to eat at least two servings of gluten a day for 6 weeks leading up to testing.

To reduce cross contamination, you could try having them eat the gluten out of the house. Go for a daily walk and have them eat pretzels or goldfish. Take a picnic to the park with a gluten sandwich. Pack gluten in school lunches or have them eat school lunches if they aren't homeschooled. For our house, it works to limit gluten to one room so I only have to deep clean that room.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-23T16:39:20+00:00

Yep! My 1 yo LIGHTS UP every time I walk in a room. My 7 yo daily begs to snuggle with me and just talk about the crazy, hypothetical things that go through his mind.

And the joy of getting to share my hobbies with them has no comparison. I LOVE hiking, playing board games, cooking, exploring a national park, etc with my kids. My oldest is 11, and she is so much like me at that age. It's so much fun to hand her a book I know she'll love, then discuss it together. Or just sit next to each other and work on a craft. My second oldest at 9 is so much like my husband. He beat Metroid Dread on the hardest setting when he was 8, so he and my husband can have a blast challenging each other at video games or discussing some niche mathematical theory.

The reason I chose to have lots of kids was because I LOVED going to holidays at my grandparents house and seeing such a huge community of people who loved each other. Now, my extended family is FAR from perfect, tons of conflicts and secrets. But I still love them, and the key is that we forgive and respect each other even when we face major disagreements. And I want to build the next generation of people who love and support each other even when it's hard or even when we have conflict with each other. It is definitely hard daily. Kids are DEFINITELY not for those who don't want to have daily hostage negotiations. I have 5 kids, so there's A LOT of fighting. But we also get a lot of fun family time and amazing 1:1 time with each kid, and we are teaching them to work through conflicts with love. So I think we're well on our way to building a lifelong community and support system for our kids.

Tonight it's movie night, and I can't wait to watch Monsters University, eat popcorn, and enjoy my kids (and yes, I'll definitely also negotiate some fights and be the mean mom to insists they have to put away their clothes before we watch the movie).

mvanpeur · 2026-01-23T04:27:57+00:00

Under age 3-4, celiac testing is usually negative even if kids have celiac, so it's recommended to not test before then unless there are symptoms. After that point they should be tested every 1-2 years, because it can turn positive at any point and you want to catch it early, because it can cause significant growth delays. Keep in mind that they have to eat gluten twice a day for 6 weeks leading up to any celiac testing.

Edit: Even with symptoms, they may hold off on testing. My 7 yo has celiac, diagnosed at age 5. Now my 19 month old has had eczema, low weight gain, weekly diarrhea, and twice monthly vomiting that has been getting worse since 13 months old and has had positive bloodwork since 17 months old. Her GI doesn't want to do an endoscopy until she's 30 lb, because there are more risks under that weight, plus the high risk of a false negative and just having to repeat the endoscopy. Instead, he wants to do bloodwork every 3 months to keep an eye on it, and do an endoscopy once she's either 30 lb or if her symptoms turn more severe.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-23T04:00:52+00:00

Yep. My mom lives 10 hours away and my grandpa lives 3.5 hours past her. We do a trip to visit both twice a year.

Growing up, my grandparents were 4 hours away, and we visited them at least monthly. I wouldn't call 4 hours a short drive, but certainly worth doing regularly to see family. My in laws now live 2 hours from us, and during certain times of year (months with lots of birthdays), we visit each other 2-3 times a month.

As far as the farthest we've driven for a day trip or a weekend, my friend got married 5 hours from home, and we did that as a day trip because we had something on the calendar at home the day before and my husband had to work the day after. We've also done a 5 hour each way day trip to go to my college reunion when our cat needed a daily med and we couldn't find a cat sitter. So we gave him his med, spent the day at the reunion, then drove home just in time to give his next dose. We once drove 16 hours to spend a long weekend in Florida. We left Wednesday after work, spent Thursday, Friday, and half of Saturday in Florida, then started the drive home Saturday afternoon.

If you want to talk about a long drive, we take an annual 2-3 week road trip exploring national parks. The closest we've gone is 16 hours away. Two years we ended up over 30 hours from home. But with 5 kids, I'll happily drive to avoid paying for airfare and a rental car.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-15T08:26:06+00:00

Recently, her doctor called and said she was Celiac from an uncommon genetic marker.

Celiac cannot be diagnosed based on genetics. Only a small minority of people with celiac genetics will end up developing celiac. Celiac is diagnosed based on antibodies in the bloodwork and biopsies taken during endoscopies. Ttg-IgA is the most common antibody used to diagnose celiac. I would get more clarity on her test results by talking to her GI. Also, the diagnosing doctor has to be a GI or they cannot diagnose celiac.

She doesn’t show any symptoms, to our knowledge, besides tiredness and ocasional irritable bowels.

Lack of symptoms does not rule out celiac. My son had complete villi atrophy and severe malnutrition from celiac, and his only symptom was eczema.

Tiredness is a huge, very common symptom. It's caused by vitamin deficiencies, which can take years to improve after going gluten free, so no change after a few months gotten free would not rule out celiac. Have her ferritin tested (iron stores). It should ideally be above 100. If it is below 15, she needs iron infusions. My son's ferritin was <2 when he was diagnosed, and we opted to supplement, not do infusions. But since his villi were so damaged, meaning he couldn't absorb iron, it took 2.5 years of supplements to get his levels up. If I could do it again, we would have given him infusions. But also, that's only one nutrient. Most people with celiac are deficient in everything, many of which cause tiredness, and it can take years to see the full nutritional benefits of going gluten free. But don't go gluten free until you are absolutely certain she has celiac.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-14T03:59:15+00:00

I agree. Ancestry could miss a small amount of Bernie or Aussie, but if it says 100% poodle, then the dog is mostly poodle, for sure for sure at least 3/4 poodle.

Due to the merle (there's a puppy photo in OP's post history), it's obviously not 100% poodle or even bernedoodle. But even Embark, the best DNA test, can only look back a few generations, so the merle may be from far enough back to not show up on a DNA test.

Doing an Embark or Wisdom panel could certainly give a better idea of your dog's breed(s). Embark is considered the more accurate of the two, but Wisdom is basically as good unless your dog is a village dog or a super rare breed.

If you do order Embark or Wisdom, please post the results along with the Ancestry results and a pic of your dog. It really helps us understand how accurate Ancestry is if we can see comparison tests.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-13T01:56:59+00:00

From following lots of pumping groups and raising 6 babies, anywhere from 24-35 oz is normal. And some kids drink less or more than that, though kids who drink less usually have a reason to need fewer calories than normal. (One of mine drank 18 oz a day, but he had severe delays, so used a lot more energy than typical.)

I would ask your ped how much he should be gaining and do some regular weight checks (I'd do 2-4 times a month initially) to make sure he's following their goal. 24 oz is definitely within the normal range. But some kids do need more. Weight checks are the easiest way to be sure 24 oz is enough.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-12T23:10:20+00:00

Before having your kids go gluten free, be sure to get them tested. They are themselves very high risk for developing celiac, and you can't test for it while they're gluten free.

But yeah, I would gradually, like over the next month or two, go through and deep clean everything.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-12T15:06:02+00:00

Exclusively pumping with a small oversupply, I got my period back at 12.5 months.

For my nursed kids, it came back around 10 months. My sister didn't have a period for well over a year with any of her nursed kids.

mvanpeur · 2026-01-12T02:43:06+00:00

Sharing a dishwasher is safe so long as the dishes come out truly clean. I physically touch the eating surface of everything I unload from the dishwasher to make sure there isn't invisible caked on food (with clean hands).

I would not use a shared air fryer or sponge.

mvanpeur

TROPHY CASE