Boston Children’s Answers: Raising Celiac

Living with a chronic disease is extremely challenging, especially when every single bite of food every single day of your life requires thought and care. Hypervigilance in relation to celiac disease is when someone is severely afraid of gluten exposure and may go beyond the necessary measures to prevent contact with gluten. It can lead to extreme anxiety, depression, and social isolation. Sometimes the patient with celiac disease exhibits signs of hypervigilance, but for a child, their parent may act hyper vigilantly in how they manage their child’s celiac disease. It can be difficult to find the right balance of avoiding gluten while still living a full life. So, how does a child with celiac disease navigate the complexities of being a teenager, going to college, dating, and progressing through life in a way that feels normal? How should parents approach the gluten-free diet with their child in a way that doesn’t lead to hypervigilance? What do researchers know about the impact of chronic disease on quality of life and how can clinicians help their patients improve it? We’ll discuss this and more on today’s episode of Raising Celiac. The Raising Celiac Podcast is made possible by the generous support of the Global Autoimmune Institute.