It's nearly May, Gluten Awareness Month, and I'm taking a trip down memory lane. Looking at my little boy as he eats a plate full of steamed broccoli, spaghetti and toasted bread, I breathe a sigh of relief nearly three years in the making.

In 2007, my son's blood work came back positive for celiac. A GI test confirmed it, my little picky eater would have to give up eating gluten to heal the damage done to his intestines and treat the digestive disease that interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. This was the beginning of a dietary journey for my whole family. But one we were willing to take.

In retrospect, we had known all along that there was something upsetting our picky eater's tummy. He was always bloated and even with his very thin frame, his belly would stick out. He would sweat and sweat at night and never seemed comfortable. His behavior was affected by this, and it was obvious. We often would see him become agitated and stressed after meals and he never seemed to gain weight no matter how much he ate. At 3 years old, this was bothersome. Already dealing with a recent autism diagnosis, we were doing our best to get a full medical picture so we could do all we could to help our son grow, learn and catch up developmentally.

Before long, we also had a celiac diagnosis, something I was unfamiliar with. Indeed, my family had become Suddenly Gluten Free.

I began scouring the stores for anything resembling what my son used to eat. He was very picky about the temperature, texture and flavor (or lack thereof) of his food. I was hitting lots of dead ends. I tried product after product, and watched as my son cried at his first bite of a "chicken nugget" I found at the grocery store. I won't mention the brand, but the shape, texture and taste of the thing was nothing resembling a chicken nugget. Our bank account had a HUGE dent in it, and it took months before we found products that our son would eat. As the economy got worse, so did our selections, it seemed. Little stores were going out of business and I was giving up on finding anything convenient at all.

Today, things are much better. I'm not sure if I'm more aware or if the world is more aware, but more seems to be out there. From restaurants and bakeries to pizza places and grocery chains, delicious gluten-free alternatives now seem to be all around us. I am proud of how my son slowly began to try new things and began adding many simple meat-and-veggie meals into his reportoire. I am also very pleased to see that many stores are jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon. More is offered to us than I could have imagined just a few short years ago.

I was blown away by the selection I found at Hiller's, for instance. The Commerce Township store carries more than 1,000 gluten-free products, each marked with an easy-to-spot gluten-free tag. A few areas in the store are exclusively gluten-free, such as cookies and bread/flour mixes, but items generally were sprinkled throughout.

The deli carried Boar's Head lunch meat, which is gluten-free. If you're worried about cross-contamination, as I am, Vice President Justin Hiller said a good idea is to stop at the deli at the beginning of your shopping trip. Someone behind the meat counter will be happy to disassemble the cutter and clean it before cutting your order and have it ready for you by the end of your trip.

He added that if the store doesn't have an item you are looking for, you can request it.
"The customers are the ones who really know the products," Hiller said.

Hiller's first started stocking its shelves with gluten-free products in 2000. With the help of the Tri-County Celiac Support Group, the Ann Arbor store began adding gluten-free items some 10 years ago. Today, Hiller's has the largest selection in the country, Hiller said. I believe it.

I saw things at that store that I haven't seen since the Good Food Co. went out of business. The freezer section was full of all the Bell and Evans and Dr. Praeger's varieties. I haven't seen the Praeger's Fishies in about a year. My son was so happy when I came home with those!

And here we are. In just a few years, I have a pile of go-to recipes, am confident to go to a handful of restaurants and am happy to report that my son is gaining weight, color in his cheeks and displays less of the irritable behavior we saw before taking gluten out of his diet. He is clearly feeling a million times better.

And so am I.

Coming up...
Look for new recipes and products as I begin my own gluten-free journey. Also look for coupons and check out Hiller's website for store locations and more information about my gluten-free challenge. Next week, the big beer taste test!