A Gluten Free Disney!

We just spent five fabulous (magical!) days at Disney. What a BLAST we had. We went on rides and met characters and sang and danced and ate real french fries from a gluten-free fryolater!  It truly was magical - Z-bug had conversations with real live princesses ("Oh Ariel, that's not a guppy, that's my sister - on land we call them babies!"), E-bee was absolutely enthralled with the characters and rides and pool ... I smiled for five days straight! 




Z dancing with Tigger!


I also spent the mornings much like I do at home - setting up two bowls of gluten-free cereal or plain greek yogurt, cutting up fruit, putting together an assembly line of pb&j sandwiches on gluten-free bread, bagging snacks ...

I had ordered stuff from Amazon to be delivered to the hotel - princess autograph books, a package of diapers so I didn't have to pack so many, little packets of almond butter, a Rapunzel dress for baby E to match her big sister's, those Happy Baby/happytot squeezy veggie-fruit things that are good to carry around... and pretzels.



Glutino pretzels (which rock even by gluten-filled standards) to be precise.  A whole case of them. I ordered the snack packs (8oz) which I thought excessive but manageable - but received a huge Glutino box with 12 family size bags (14oz) of pretzels - for four people for five days ... pretzels for breakfast, check! Pretzels for dinner (dipped in hummus or mustard - it's a fine meal!).  Pretzels for snack, as many as you want!  And we still had EIGHT bags to stuff into our suitcases and carry-ons at the end of the trip.  Ooops!

I also ordered groceries to the room from GardenGrocer.com (highly recommended, by the way - food was at the hotel when we got there and everything was fresh and as ordered) which saved us money, time, and the possibility of low blood sugar meltdowns while we hunted for g-free fare at the parks. Turns out, there are actually a lot of gluten free options at Disney but it was nice to not have to worry about it.  And in the three restaurants we did eat in, the chefs came over to talk about what on the menu/buffet was safe to eat.  They were really knowledgeable and nice, and pretty smart - all their meatballs and salmon cakes, etc are made with potato flour so they're safe for celiacs too!

My Disney-lovefest did suffer a blow this morning, though, when I read this:  http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/tv-radio/mom-disney-show-jessie-ridicules-kids-with-celiac-disease-688350/
Celiac aside, having a weaker kid get food thrown at him for laughs doesn't sound very funny or like good messaging for the kids watching it- but not having familiarity with the particular show involved, maybe there was a teaching moment involved that somehow redeems the comical bullying?  In any event, we get enough rolled eyes and confusion when we order food or ask what the ingredients are in meals prepared in people's homes to commiserate with those two sweet kids who felt ostracized by a show they enjoyed watching. 

This news, however, about an upcoming Phase IIb clinical trial for an enzyme combination that helps break down gluten, is fairly encouraging: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1446911-abbvie-s-latest-drug-deal-marks-a-shift-in-the-celiac-disease-therapeutics-field [In a six-week phase IIa study, the drug company reported that their enzyme/drug reduced giadin-related intestinal inflammation in celiac patients that consumed gluten during the trial!!]