“I want him to still be able to enjoy food and not just settle for something,” she says. “There’s a lot of recipes that just don’t have gluten.”https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrdZIJNgAg5/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fviewfindernews.com&rp=%2Fbtvmailinh%2Fim-afraid-i-cant-handle-it-famous-tv-host-dylan-dreyer-sadly-revealed-an-unexpected-concern-about-the-health-of-her-6-year-old-son-calvin-according-to-dylan-cal%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwY2xjawOA_OxleHRuA#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A3461.099999964237%2C%22ls%22%3A3113.199999988079%2C%22le%22%3A3150.199999988079%7D
For about a year, TODAY co-host Dylan Dreyer’s son Calvin, affectionately known as Cal, experienced frequent stomach pain.
“There was one time the pain was so bad that we thought maybe he had something like his appendix burst,” Dreyer tells TODAY.com. “He was hunched over in pain.”
The family rushed Calvin, 6, to the emergency room where an ultrasound revealed his appendix was “fine,” she recalls. That started their search to understand why Cal’s belly hurt. After various doctors’ appointments and tests, they learned what was wrong this past March.
“The bloodwork came back with the results of him having celiac disease,” she says. “I knew nothing about celiac disease. I knew a friend of a friend had it, and she couldn’t eat bread. That’s basically the knowledge I had.”
Stomach troubles, earache, rash
Calvin’s stomach pain wasn’t the only new symptom Dreyer and husband Brian Fichera noticed their son developing.
“He had an earache for a year. We took him to an ENT,” she says. “Everything was fine with his ears. But he complained of an earache all the time.”https://www.instagram.com/p/CodAZywvR0c/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fviewfindernews.com&rp=%2Fbtvmailinh%2Fim-afraid-i-cant-handle-it-famous-tv-host-dylan-dreyer-sadly-revealed-an-unexpected-concern-about-the-health-of-her-6-year-old-son-calvin-according-to-dylan-cal%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwY2xjawOA_OxleHRuA#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A3462.399999976158%2C%22ls%22%3A3113.199999988079%2C%22le%22%3A3150.199999988079%7D
Cal also developed a rash on his scalp, and his hair began falling out. Often, he dropped things.
“He’d be eating, and he’d just drop his fork,” Dreyer says. “We used to joke with him and call him banana hands.”
After the emergency room visit, the couple visited doctors, and they eventually visited a gastroenterologist who ran a blood test that revealed Cal had celiac disease.
“He had to go and get an endoscopy,” Dreyer says. “They needed to send the camera down into his intestines to make sure there was damage caused by celiac disease.”
The endoscopy confirmed Cal’s condition. The family switched to a gluten-free diet and even purchased some new kitchen equipment.
“Not only is it not feeding him any wheat products but it’s also the cross-contamination risk,” Dreyer explains. “All of my stuff in the kitchen had to be thrown out, all of our wooden spoons, wooden cutting boards, anything that had a scratch in it … any rivets on the inside of the pot where the handle is. All of that had to be thrown out because gluten can hide everywhere.”
The family has made a lot of big changes, which has made a positive impact on how Cal feels.
“He was just in constant pain,” she says. “He finally feels good … (for) the first time in a year. He’s happy we discovered this because it’s like, ‘OK, good. I can finally feel like myself.’”
His rash and ear pain also disappeared.
“It turns out that’s a side effect of celiac disease,” she says. “It turns out that weakness in your hands is also a side effect. … We took him to the doctor for the stomach pain, and it turns out that it was all caused by the same pain.”
Celiac disease
It can be difficult for people to understand what celiac disease is and how it differs from a wheat allergy or gluten intolerance.
Unlike wheat allergy or gluten intolerance, “celiac disease is an autoimmune condition,” Dr. Lisa Fahey, co-director of the celiac Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who is not involved in Cal’s treatment, tells TODAY.com. “In this condition, eating gluten triggers an immune response, and that can create a variety of symptoms for patients.”
Even in patients without outward symptoms, the gluten still wrecks their intestines.
“Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where the body’s fighting against itself,” Fahey adds.
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