Our son, Sean, made his First Holy Communion this past weekend.  This is a day that I have anticipated and worried about since he was an infant.  It is not normal to worry about a first communion when your child is a baby, but my child had been diagnosed with a wheat allergy at 4 months old. 

 The Catholic Church has a strict rule that the host for communion be made from wheat; wheat free options are not even considered, so my distress over his First Holy communion and each communion thereafter officially began.

 

Fast forward to 7 years later, my son is now eight and he successfully made his First Holy Communion.  He spent the last two years preparing for the sacrament and I have spent the last 7 years trying to introduce wheat to his diet.  Of all of his food allergies (peanuts, nuts, milk, eggs, soy) wheat is the food that is the least reactive to his system.  With the guidance of our allergy doctor, he has been receiving small and gradually increasing amounts of wheat on a daily basis. He is tolerating the progression very well without adverse effects. 

I am far from an expert in Catholic doctrine, but it seems like some progress is being made for trying to provide options for those with celiac disease.  A group of nuns in Missouri make a reduced gluten wafer.  It still contains wheat in the form of wheat starch, but the amount of wheat in a single host is equal to less than 0.01%.  My son does not suffer from celiac disease, so studying the percentages of gluten in a single host is not in my realm of expertise.  At least there is an option.  Check with a church near you!