One morning my son Connor came to me and said he’d been sickly for about two months.  I was shocked.  He said he had been hiding it so I wouldn’t freak out.  Understood.  He said he was telling me now because he just couldn’t figure out how it was happening.  He was so careful at school and washed his hands before lunch.  I told him I’d pray about it and we would talk that night.  

I went to the bakery and was telling one of the staffers about it and she suggested that if he had a girlfriend and was kissing her… maybe that was making him sick.  She has a severe pecan allergy and that would definitely make her have a reaction.  I thought about it and figured if he was hiding being sick for two months there was a good chance that he was hiding a girlfriend.  Being in seventh grade we don’t allow him to actually date, but he does text girls.  

When I got home I asked if he had a girlfriend.  He said “No”!  I told him the theory and he shrugged.  The next morning he came down for breakfast before school and told me hadn’t told the truth.  He has a girlfriend and had been kissing her when he walked her to the bus after school.  He said he kept thinking about it and that was the exact timeline.  He said he would begin to feel better on Sunday only to get sick right after school on Monday.  He was so excited to know what was making him sick that he went straight to school to tell her. 

Now imagine you are a thirteen year old girl and your boyfriend excitedly tells you that you are making him sick when he kisses you.  You got it she totally broke up.  I’m sure he wasn’t exactly eloquent with the approach either.  As for this mom I couldn’t be happier.  Connor immediately quit getting sick.  He was just fine with the break up, he had been miserable.  He also isn’t in any kind of hurry for another romance.  

I explained that with Celiac Disease or Food Allergies that he needed to wait until he and the girl were mature enough to handle the responsibility.  The young lady in question had been eating a sandwich on whole grain wheat bread.  Poor Connor didn’t have a chance.  

So, yes kissing really can make you sick. Well, unless it’s a frog.  

I’ve had a lot of feedback since my earlier blog post about this last year.  Many couples were able to isolate what was making the one with Celiac/food allergies sick.  With due diligence the person without the allergy needs to immediately wash out their mouth and if possible brush their teeth.  This will help, but not absolutely positively prevent an attack.