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Food boundaries change everything.
Community shifts. Traditions centered on food either disappear entirely or become unrecognizable once we figure out how to recreate them within our limits. Sharing meals becomes complicated, or impossible. Social gatherings require planning, forethought, and the ability to say “no” without guilt.
For my children, even standing inside a bakery or restaurant where flour has been used is no longer safe — because if it can get into your nose or mouth, it will reach your intestines.
This is the unseen toll of food boundaries.
And for families like ours, they are NOT optional.
Why We’re Gluten-Free (And Why It Isn’t a Choice)
Our #1 reason for being gluten-free is Celiac Disease.
Not a fad. Not a fear of GMOs, or preference for ancient ingredients. Not a fear of carbs.
Today, more than half of our family has now been tested and carries at least one of the two known genes for Celiac Disease. Which you can order through most labs and is a blood draw processed through Mayo Clinic. Two of us are fully diagnosed with Celiac Disease, or carry both genes and need to live like they have it to keep it from activating in their lifetime.
Celiac Disease causes the body to attack the intestinal lining when gluten is ingested. The damage happens faster than the body can repair it, resulting in inflammation, pain, malnutrition, and long-term or irreversible harm. Once the intestinal damage begins, it becomes the first domino in a systemic collapse — affecting mood, behavior, immune function, skin, sleep, and growth.
The only treatment is total, lifelong abstinence from gluten and gluten cross-contamination. No “cheats,” ever, because gluten exposure is measured in parts-per-million.
This isn’t preference. It isn’t a trend. It’s autoimmune; not an allergy.
One gluten exposure of 20 parts-per-million will make someone with Celiac Disease sick for months, both inside and out—that’s microscopic; less than one crumb of a muffin.
“Gluten is NOT a pathogen. It’s a protein.
There is NO medication. NO cure except abstaining from the protein for the rest of your life.”
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The Medical Gaslighting That Nearly Broke Me
Before diagnosis, we radically changed our children’s food world. only after a last-ditch effort to change providers.
I had been told — repeatedly — that it was normal for my children to have poop that didn’t look typical to me. I had been taking care of babies since I was 10; I knew what average looked like. To vomit regularly. To live with skin conditions that never healed on their arms and trunk, or on their bottoms from the irritating components of their bowel movements. That I was overreacting, or searching for a reason for them to be unwell — I wasn’t.
It was time to move to a different provider, and I was DONE asking for help and being ignored by the only people who could help me.
I leveraged the financial benefit of enrolling a family with five young children into a new pediatric practice and made my boundary clear: “Do ONE blood test on my children who have been sick for years, or I will take my children and our insurance elsewhere to find someone else who will.“
That decision marked the beginning of the saddest and most vindicating season of my parenting life, to date. One that would change our entire life, forever.
A simple blood test — followed by extensive testing with a Pediactric Gastroenterologist, to see how their bodies were reacting to gluten at a cellular level — confirmed what my mother’s intuition already knew. I wasn’t crazy. I was attentive. I was observant. I was right. Something was wrong. Something that wasn’t “curable.”
I had used my power to change the trajectory of my childrens’ health, for the better. We would have to learn how to keep them away from something that you find almost everywhere, on our own.
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Loving People Means Changing Everything
I promised my husband I would make our food world as “normal” as possible. Since December 2014, I’ve kept that promise.
We had to remove dairy for first four years because an inflamed body often reacts to dairy proteins similarly to gluten. This was the recommendation from the Pediatric Gastroenterologist when one of our children began losing weight when we re-introduced dairy after their diagnosis.
I learned to bake without gluten-containing grains — using beans, nuts, and seeds. I failed forward for years. I recreated favorites; sometimes a decade later and after many attempts that didn’t remind us of the former foods. I kept going when things didn’t taste right or look familiar because skills and tastes change over time and with experience.
I nourished my family with persistence, grief, and devotion.
This isn’t about food.
It’s about love.
And when you love people, you change your entire life to keep them safe — even if you never would have chosen this path yourself.
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Nicole Burch is a CertifiedTrim Healthy Lifestyle Coach, author, and holistic family life mentor who helps women and families rebuild from the inside out. Through her work, she guides others toward resilience, restoration, and peace—teaching that true healing begins at home. As the owner of Life in the Treehouse, Nicole helps women and families overcome burnout, find food freedom, and create sustainable wellness that lasts. Her work weaves together the practical and the profound—showing that peace is possible even in the busiest, most complicated seasons of life.
Whether she’s helping clients balance blood sugar, restore energy, or reconnect with joy, Nicole’s mission remains the same:
to help women and families live Rooted in Rhythm—anchored in peace, balanced in body, and guided by grace.
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If you’re seeking nourishment for body and soul—gluten-free living, Trim Healthy knowledge and support, or peace amid the chaos—welcome home.
This is where resilience takes root.
Disclosure, Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, Content Notice & Trauma Informed Reading Guide, and my Affiliate Disclosures Below
I am celebrating five years of being a Certified Trim Healthy Lifestyle Coach. I have lived an abundance of seasons within just these five years. I was a nursing mom, pregnant multiple times, survived a traumatic pregnancy loss in 2022, lived in survival mode from 2022-2025 while being an ambassador for survivors of sexual assault and facilitating the legal aspects of a criminal trail against the perpetrator for those assaults, almost died due to pulmonary embolism after my eighth child was born in 2023, and somewhere in there lost and gained 80 pounds after identifying binge-eating disorder as a new challenge. I KNOW too well that life slows down for nobody and no situation, and every meal is a new opportunity to be a begin-againer!
Join my FREE Trim Healthy Facebook group: Trim in the Treehouse for mentorship, and support.
Nicole Burch is a Certified Trim Healthy Mama Lifestyle Coach, independently offering services based on the THM plan. This coach is not an employee or agent of Trim Healthy Mama, LLC. Coaching services are independently managed, and THM is not responsible for results, business practices, or claims made by this coach.
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Affiliate Disclosures
As an Amazon Associate, I may link to specific products that I believe in and trust. This is an affiliate link, and I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
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Designed with love to support families in building lives that are anchored in peace, balanced in body, and guided by grace. by: Nicole Burch
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