Wednesday, June 13, 2012

No More Cupcakes Tummy Aches

From the best-selling author of The Gluten-Free Bible and Against the Grain, comes a sweet tale of a petite young girl who believes cupcakes will help her grow taller. No More Cupcakes Tummy Aches by Jax Peters Lowell, is a well written story, with appealing fancy font and fantastic illustrations.  
This story really touched me as my 2 youngest children were both diagnosed with failure to thrive as infants and with short stature when they were toddlers.  My daughter was born almost a month early and weighed a mere 4lbs 12 oz when we brought her home from the hospital.  She was followed closely for the first 3 years of her life and never broke the 3rd percentile for height/weight.  She also has an insatiable sweet tooth and eats as many cupcakes as she can.  She remains quite petite at 9 1/2 years old wearing a toddler sized 11 shoe and sized 6x clothing.  However, she is "brilliant", happy and loves to dance.  She continues to be followed by both a pediatric endocrinologist and gastro-enterologist.  So far, she has tested negative for CD.  My son was born a healthy 6lbs 15 oz and was in the 78th percentile for height.  However, at 5 weeks old he was diagnosed with iso-immune hemolytic anemia and was hospitalized with an enlarged liver and spleen and required immediate blood transfusions.  his height/weight percentile declined rapidly and by age 3 was down to the <3 percentile.  He also has a diagnosis of short stature.  No More Cupcakes Tummy Aches brought tears to my eyes thinking about my son and any other child living with the heartbreak of being "different".
  
We are avid readers in our house and I love to share lots of different types of stories with my children.  It's important for them to realize they are not alone in their feelings and for my son to understand that there are other kids just like him.  I highly recommend this book for children with Celiac between the ages of 5-10.  I read this book with both of my younger kids and asked for their review.  My son said it was "super, super, super good!"  Super seems to be his favorite word lately.  My daughter thought it was "great" and said it would be "good for all kids with Celiac to read."

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