even Disney?

This.

(Read the story here)

This right here.

This is why Celiac Awareness Month is important!

A company as family friendly as Disney produced a kid's show that blatantly has children being bullied for not eating gluten.

Breakdown: Kids eating breakfast. One kid says he can't eat gluten because of an allergy. Other kids laugh at him and make fun of it. Later in the episode, kids throw the gluten-filled pancakes in allergy kid's face. Even if kid doesn't have the topical version of Celiac (DH), he is being picked on because of his auto-immune disorder.

How could Disney think this is okay?

As an adult, I have known what it's like to be shunned and ignored and even teased a bit about the fact that I have to eat gluten free. (Note the word have. It's not a choice I would have wanted to make.) It's frustrating, humiliating, and annoying to be left out and marginalized for something I have no control over. Can you imagine how a child might feel in these same circumstances?

Having to eat at a separate "allergy" table at school? Not being able to share in birthday celebrations? Not understanding why you are so different than everyone else?

Disney could have used this as a teaching tool, but instead turned it into a big joke. Shame on you, Disney. Shame on you.

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UPDATE! 

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The Celiac family (and all of their supportive loved ones) joined together in protesting the episode. They contacted Disney, wrote on facebook, blogged, and signed petitions.

Disney has now publicly apologized and has decided not to air the episode. They may go back and edit the scenes out and then re-air it. Here is their statement:

Victory for awareness! Now, to continue getting the information out there... I always tell myself not to read the comments on news articles and things such as this, but I couldn't stop myself and what I saw was disheartening. So many people angry over the "picky parents" and "glu-tards" (yeah, someone actually said that...) being easily offended. It just goes to show how much the media has stigmatized Celiac Disease. Had this incident been a child with a severe peanut allergy or lupus, the fuss over complaints would not have ensued.

Among the rants were some very well-worded comments about how Celiac Disease is actually linked to cancer, horrible GI symptoms, seizures, asthma, Crohn's Disease, etc (but you already know that so I won't go there.) The best we can do it use the truth and try and get the word out there...