Put your hands up in the air...and wave 'em from here to there...we're talking parties today. Woot! SCD celebrations. Yes, that's right....I just used "SCD" and "celebration" in the same sentence. It can happen. Just because you changed your diet doesn't mean you have to miss out on all the fun. I promise!
I'm going to share some truths today, but before I go any further, allow me to reveal a few things about myself. (This is where I qualify myself as an expert on this topic.) I was raised Jewish in a half Catholic, half Jewish family. We celebrated EVERYTHING. As a result, I've never been one to shy away from a chance to throw a party. I am now a Jewish mother married to a handsome, Gentile and raising a beautiful Jewish daughter. I'll give you three guesses what we celebrate...ok, EVERYTHING. LOL!
I still love to throw a good party and have been doing so successfully for many years while accomodating the dietary needs of friends and family whose allergies run the gamut from severe egg and nut allergies, to dairy and soy intolerances. I have a few friends who are vegetarian and once even planned a Hawaiian Luau themed bacherlorette party that was kosher and vegan! Let's just say I'm an old pro at working around food issues. SCD is no different once you get the hang of it, but as I realized last fall, there is a learning curve.
When we first started SCD last September, holidays and celebrations weren't even on our radar. We just wanted to get our little girl healthy. Heck, I was still just trying to figure out what to make for breakfast. My birthday snuck up on me in mid-September. I ignored it. Then came Rosh Hashana. Happy New Year! No noodle kugel for you! Halloween followed and was seriously the lowest point in our SCD journey.
My daughter's school had a pizza party the week before Halloween followed by a Halloween party the week of...she couldn't eat anything. There was a birthday party later that week...again, nothing she could eat. To cap it all off, we had our annual Halloween party at home followed by trick-or-treating. I made plenty of SCD-legal food for our party, but of course, she couldn't eat any of her candy...and truthfully, she wasn't too excited about my veggies and bean dip. I will never forget the ache in my heart as she pleaded with me on Halloween night to eat "just one tiny little bite of candy." Nothing prepares you for that kind of heartache. I wanted so badly to cave...to let her eat the stupid candy...to let her feel like a normal 7-year old again. I wanted to push the ache from my heart and see her happy. I wanted the stinging tears in my eyes to go away so she wouldn't see them. One tiny little bite could solve all that, right? How bad could one bite be?
Two things stopped me from caving. One, I knew that it could make her sick and I didn't dare risk a flare after being so strict with SCD for the previous two months. No way was all that sacrifice going to be in vain. Two, I didn't want to set a precedent and go against doctor's orders. The last thing I needed to do was teach my daughter that it was ok to bend the rules when it came to her health. So, I stuck to my guns and ate all her candy myself. JOKING! We had an awesome "candy-trade-in-toy" waiting for her and lots of snuggles and hugs. Unfortunately, all the toys, snuggles and hugs in the world couldn't have cheered our little girl up. She was so frustrated and nothing could change the fact that IBD had stolen her Halloween.
Why am I telling you all this? I started off this post by saying that SCD doesn't have to ruin all the fun and then spilled all the gory details about what a party pooper it is.
Honestly, I felt compelled to give you the bad news first. It's hard in the beginning. Really flippin' hard. It's hard to watch everyone else have what you can't. It's hard to be the one who is different. It's hard to feel left out. It's hard to be seven and not eat candy on Halloween. Shoot, it's hard to be 41 and not eat candy on Halloween. The key is to remember that it is a choice. You chose this diet for a reason, so draw strength from that. If you weren't sacrificing some favorite foods, you'd be suffering side effects of medicines or symptoms of your disease.
The good news is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Two things happen the longer you stay on this diet. First of all, your cooking will likely get better...LOL. You'll discover more recipes that you love and you'll learn how to adapt your old favorites. You'll get to the point where you do not feel that you are missing out anymore because what you are eating is so good. Second, you'll be surprised at how your tastes change when you you get some distance from your old diet. Your threshold for sweets goes way down...things that would hardly have registered as sweet before are now sweet enough to stasify even the strongest cravings. And things that tasted weird at the beginning start to taste normal...baked goods especially. I can't lie to you and tell you that you will stop missing your old favorites, because you probably won't. But you will feel healthier and happier about where you are which makes the diet much easier to deal with.
Does that mean that Halloween will come without it's share of tears this year? Doubtful. My daughter has already told me that she's lost her love for the holiday because "what's the point of trick-or-treating if you can't eat the candy?" I pointed out that dressing up in costumes was half the fun, to which she replied, "It may be fun for grown-ups who never get to dress up, but I play dress up all the time, so it's not really a big deal." Wisdom beyond her years, I tell ya.
Just know that it gets easier. And aside from Halloween, the rest of the holidays are much easier to contend with. Also, you are not alone. I've got your back. Going forward, I'll be sharing lots of SCD-friendly holiday tips and delicious recipes. You can find them all in the Happy Holidays section of my blog...look for the link in the navigation bar at the top of my home page or just search by holiday. I'll share what's worked for us and hopefully, it will help you too.
Stay tuned for the scoop on Rosh Hashana in my next post...Show Me The Honey!
Thanks for stopping by and wishing you a season full of Happy SCD Holidays and Celebrations! XOXO, Cindi
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Celebrate image via Brit + Co.
Thank you so much for sharing! My daughter was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, but what is probably Crohn's, when she was four. She is now six, and we have been eating SCD for about 10 months. It is so hard to try to explain why she can't eat what every other 6 year old is eating, even her cousins that have Celiac disease. It is just nice to hear that we are not the only ones! Just as a side note, has your daughter done ok with white rice? We have just started trying it, but it is hard to tell whether she is having any reaction. (And obviously, everyone is different, but I haven't been able to find any "research", anecdotal or otherwise, with people trying white rice again after SCD.)
Posted by: Kate | September 25, 2014 at 10:21 AM
Hi Kate! Thanks so much for your note. I'm always sad to hear about a little one with IBD, but I'm happy to hear that you've found SCD. And no, you are definitely not alone. :) How is the diet working for your daughter? We have had great success with white basmati rice...my daughter has been eating it without issue since last November. We recently tested rice noodles and it looks like those are fine too. (We had a calprotectin test done before the food trial and are waiting for the post-trial results. If her numbers look good, we are good to go.) Up until recently, I've only let her have about a half-cup once a week, but have started giving it to her more often and still no problems. It is different for everyone, but I've heard of quite a few people who have been able to bring rice back. Feel free to e-mail me at "FightingFlare@gmail.com" if you want more info about testing foods. I plan to do a post on the topic sometime soon, but not sure when.
Posted by: Cindi | September 25, 2014 at 03:13 PM