Science Projects for Celiac Awareness

Last week, my daughter and I had an interesting discussion. It was about the doctor who told her (at the beginning of our gluten free journey) that Celiac Disease was no big deal. He told her that the worst it would ever do is give her diarrhea. In spite of the fact that she has been educated otherwise since then, this doctor’s words stick with her. Her question to me was about why he was so mean, and why did he lie to her?

I mustered my compassion and explained that doctors are people too, and being such, prone to make mistakes. I explained that he probably had the best of intentions, and was relaying facts based on his own knowledge. I made the point that the doctor probably got his medical degree about fifteen years ago when there wasn’t much known about Celiac Disease. The conversation helped to ease her mind a bit, but brought an interesting point to my mind.

We live in a world where information is readily available at the touch of a button and everyone can be an expert on everything. So, why is it that the professionals we are supposed to be able to trust are so far behind the times that my daughter has had to deal with the emotions of her “imaginary symptoms”?

The only conclusion I can draw is that, when it comes down to it, the responsibility for Celiac Awareness rests on us, the gluten free elite. We are in the trenches everyday. We keep up on the latest research and findings because it is a way to improve our lives.

Moving from this point, I asked the question, “How to we protect our kids from the Dr. Know-it-alls of the world?” The answer for me is (as always) education. The phrase “Knowledge is Power” has been floating around as long as I can remember, and holds a lot of truth here.

Here’s the hitch- no child I’ve ever met wants to spend their evenings studying labels and going over charts to get to know their disease better. This requires a bit of parental sneakiness. Enter the science fair! We have the perfect opportunity to not only educate our own children, but many other people as well!

Science fairs are generally a Spring event, and required by some schools. Now is a good time to suggest a topic to your little (or big) scientist that will raise Celiac Awareness and help them to ace the project. I’ve come up with three ideas that might help get you started.

Explain Celiac Disease. Overly simple, right? It depends on how it’s done! Utilizing a multitude of crafting supplies, it is possible to build a model showing the effects of Celiac Disease on the body. If your child is young or architecturally challenged, a series of drawings would work well too.

Demonstrate the differences between Celiac Disease, gluten intolerance and gluten allergies. This takes the idea above a step further by introducing the extra elements that add confusion in the gluten filled world. Again, models, charts and pictures are great tools.

Demonstrate the difference between baking with gluten and baking without This project would be especially fun for any budding chefs out there. The awareness with this project comes from learning exactly what gluten is, and why it is used in so many foods. It is also a great way to raise compassion and awareness by giving people the chance to taste both the gluten filled and gluten free versions of food. Besides, everyone always loves the cooking projects because there’s eating involved.

These are the three projects that came to my mind, what ideas do you have? Please feel free to share any ideas you have for science projects, or raising awareness in general with your fellow Glingsters. We all benefit when even a few people are properly educated!