Slow and Steady: Growing up on a gluten-free diet.

Nate's growing!

It's incredible and very powerful for the shortest in his grade.  This past year, all of his former CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) basketball teammates shot up and now tower over my five and a half foot frame, several are within an inch of hitting the six foot mark.  Nate, crept through half an inch in a year.  Very frustrating, especially when he attributes growing to eating correctly on his gluten-free diet.

Years ago, one of his indicators of Celiac Disease, was the sudden halt in growth.  Nate had had a steady growth cycle at the 50th percentile, and then within six weeks of weaning, Nate became very sick; loose bowels, grey-green skin color, and his little bloated tummy ballooned.  Over the next six months his growth started to slide from the 50th percentile to the fifth.  Not something a pediatrician wants to observe.  

At first, the comments from our pediatrician indicated that we were probably between growth cycles, just hitting a valley and would catch up.  Next visit we talked about how toddlers will become more active and run off all of their calorie intake.  The following visit our pediatrician questioned whether Nate might just be going through a fussy eating stage.  Pulling it altogether, Nate was remaining the same height and weight, just not changing with time; Nate will still eating great, lots of healthy dairy and grains (wheat), meat, veggies and fruit; none of it made sense.

After the diagnosis, Nate still did not grow; it took us about eighteen months to detox his system before any growth occurred.  I remember that while my friend's kids were outgrowing their clothes, handing them down to us, we were wearing-out Nate's clothes.  Shoe shopping was relatively easy; I could find a brand of shoes and buy two of the identical size, easily knowing we were not outgrowing them any time soon.  Flipping through pictures becomes difficult, as he wore the same clothes for almost two years, the only marker is the change of interest and the height in which he could climb.

Slowly the growth happened.  We have avoided painting a door frame that has been marked with the growth of both children.  Nate's, shows a steady inch a year, sometimes multiple markings in one year, to show that he had grown half an inch by mid year.  Come seven, a huge growth occurred, three inches in one year, maybe finally Nate was going to catch up!

Now at thirteen, Nate is at the 40th percentile marking, measuring just under five feet at 4' 11".  Coming from my family of six footers, I keep trying to tell him that most of them grew six inches in half a year; it comes all of a sudden and can be quite painful.  Impossible in Nate's mind.  He's never going to grow.  He is the shortest from the CYO team (basketball is not his sport any longer as it is not much fun chasing the towering teammates up and down the court.)  Nate wears the next-to-smallest robes when altar serving, which seem to always be available. Add insult to injury, Nate was charged a child's rate (ten and under) at our favorite Sunday morning buffet, even though he ate like a teenager, filling five plates of salads, potatoes, and bacon.  

This past week, having spent the week with Dad in California for the annual liturgy conference, Nate came back excited, he just knew that he had grown!  He, Nate, was able to ride the BIGGEST ride at Disneyland!  You have to be five foot to go on that ride, and surely I remember that their measuring sticks were longer than ours.  

Sure enough, standing Nate against the door frame, in the past six weeks, Nate had grown half an inch and now topped a hair over five feet.  Impossible.  A miracle.  This had never happened before, or so Nate was convinced.  Nate had grown in a month and a half, more than he had in the entire previous year.  One of the first things Nate blurted out to Sebastian the following Friday night, "I've grown half an inch."  Even Sebastian, who almost tops out at six foot, was shocked.  Friends since four year old Vacation Bible School, Nate and Sebastian use to stand within a couple inches of each other, now they look years apart in age.

Come Sunday, Nate serves again, I am sure that we need to arrive early, as we will need to try out the next size larger vestments, just with the hopes that Nate can move up.  

Feast Day of St. Charles Borromeo, November 4th (reprint)

"Hey Mom!  We're suppose to choose a saint for confirmation.  Sebastian's saint is known for being the saint of athletes."

Sebastian is the natural athlete every child wishes to become.  A triple threat, football-basketball-baseball; the perfect all-around athlete that every athletic director waits for.

"Wouldn't it be my luck if St. Charles Borromeo was the saint of stomach ailments?"

Nate's and his saint must have chosen each other.  Rick and I, the parents of Nate, chose Charles as his middle name in honor of Rick's father.  Our Catholic friend in Germany congratulated us upon Nate's birth and asked if we had chosen the middle name, Charles, to honor the patron saint of Nate's birth date.   We had no idea of the connection, to us, it was a family name.  Nate Charles was born on his feast day, so through the years we honored the three Charles on November 4th; grandfather, grandson, and patron Saint Charles Borromeo.

At the beginning of confirmation, Nate was undecided as to whether to formally take Charles as his patron saint, or to choose another saint.  His confirmation friends were all researching their saints, coming to class with patron saints of music, athletics, or specific virtues.  Nate's confirmation instructor believed the coincidence was divinely ordained and encouraged Nate to do a little research.  Little did any of us really know.

Who is Saint Charles Borromeo?  

Saint Charles Borromeo was a confessor, someone who died a natural death.  Born October 2nd, 1538, Charles was a lawyer and then appointed a cardinal of Milan.  He is well known for having spent his family's wealth building colleges, universities, and seminaries.  St. Charles was a key supporter of reconvening the council of Trent in 1562.  He was also a radical reformer of the clergy, and created the Confraternity of Christian doctrine for religious instruction of children.  During his life, St. Charles worked to alleviate the suffering of the poor and sick, even walking barefoot three times around the city in his cardinal's robes with a halter as a sacrifice while he offered the Sacraments to the dying.  St. Charles Borromeo died November 3-4th, 1584.  

 http://www.catholic-saints.info/patron-saints/saint-charles-borromeo.htm and http://www.scborromeo.org/scb.htm

When we came across the list of patron saints, Nate knew St. Charles was meant for him as

Saint Charles Borromeo is the patron saint of clergy, intellectuals, colic, stomach trouble and ulcers.  Maybe not listed specifically as the Saint of Celiac's, but Nate's earlier wonderings of patrons of stomach ailments was clearly more than intuition.

So, all these years, we have had the perfect patron saint watching over Nate.

Prayer of St. Charles Borromeo

Almighty God, you have generously made known to human beings
the mysteries of your life through Jesus Christ your Son in the Holy Spirit.
Enlighten my mind to know these mysteries which your Church treasures and teaches.
Move my heart to love them and my will to live in accord with them.
Give me the ability to teach this Faith to others without pride, without ostentation, and without personal gain.
Let me realize that I am simply your instrument for bringing others
to the knowledge of the wonderful things you have done for all your creatures.
Help me to be faithful to this task that you have entrusted to me.
Amen.

For Daily-Gluten Free Bread, We Give Thee Thanks, O Lord

Gathered around the table, I was teaching our three year old a round that had been sung at the table in my family, both in my childhood home and at larger family gatherings. With enough family members we could actually keep the round going for several cycles, but with Nate and myself, the goal was to learn the words and the melody for the first attempt.

For health and strength and daily bread, we give thee thanks O Lord.

Before the last note could end, Nate's response was immediately, "But I don't like to eat bread, mom!"

Umm. I had not thought of it. Here we were asking for blessing on a food that Nate found disgusting. Every attempt, at this point, to make homemade gluten-free bread had turned up moldy in a day due to our humid climate. The bread from the shelves at the store were vacuum packed and the consistency of sawdust. The one convenience bread that was edible was a gluten-free toaster waffle. We started using it for everything. Hotdogs rolled up in a waffle. Waffle peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Pizza sauce and almond cheese, on toasted waffle. Waffle bun hamburgers. Tuna fish on waffle.

At the age of three, right after Nate's diagnosis, nothing was meeting his expectations of bread. Twice a week, Nate was use to standing next to me at the counter and making home-made whole wheat bread. As the new gluten-free baker, I would sneak into the kitchen to attempt loaves of bread made from bean flour, tapioca flour, two types of rice flour, and xanthum gum. When the loaves repeatedly failed, I began to find it hard to plunk out a gluten free brick before one hopeful and disappointed little boy.

Singing this grace, my image of bread had continued to be the crusty, warm loaf of rich wheat bread that had come from my mother and grandmother's ovens. Nate's image of bread, was crumbly sand-textured, vacuum-packed slices of rice flour bread or a hard bean-flavored rice brick. I imagined farms of waving wheat and healthy children running through the fields. Nate was just trying to become healthy and avoid any contact with the golden-grain poison.

Quickly, I thought about the lyrics, For health and strength and daily ____ we give thee thanks, O Lord.

What were we thankful for?

For health, yes.

For family, yes.

For our jobs, chores, school, friends. Yes. Yes. Yes.

For bread. Bread is a staple of our life, a symbol for all that we eat. Bread is just one of the foods we eat to live. Food.

As simple as that. What if I substituted food for bread?

Humming through the lyrics, while we munched through our gluten-free meal, I checked the rhythm. For health and strength, and daily food we give thee thanks, O Lord.

It worked! Following the meal we tried the song again. Again, no attempts to even replicate a round, but this time to make it through the grace with thanksgiving for all that God gifts us each day.

Thank you Lord for the food you provide for us.

(Years later, I learned that my "original" idea had long been a common version of the same song. My childhood family had used "bread" while other families had used "food.")