How I Took My Newly Diagnosed 10-Year-Old to Maui — and Watched Her Find Her Voice
By Krystal, FNP-BC | Celiac Safe Travel
Six months ago, my daughter Riley was diagnosed with celiac disease.
We had already booked Hawaii.
I remember sitting with that diagnosis and thinking — do we postpone? Do we change our plans? Do I spend the next three months stressed about every meal on an island thousands of miles from home?
And then I thought: no. We go. Because I have celiac disease too, and I have spent over a decade figuring out how to live fully with this disease. I was not going to let Riley’s first lesson be that celiac means staying home.
The Trip We Almost Reimagined
Here’s the thing — I had already done a lot of the legwork for our Hawaii trip before Riley’s diagnosis. I knew where we were staying, which restaurants were safe, which spots I trusted. I had done that research for myself, the way I always do.
But a newly diagnosed 10-year-old is a different traveler than a 10-year celiac veteran.
Riley grew up in a gluten-free household. She already knew more than most kids her age — she understood cross-contamination, she recognized ingredients, she knew what questions mattered. In a lot of ways, she was ahead of the curve before she even had her own diagnosis.
But knowing something in your home kitchen is different from navigating it in a restaurant in Maui at age 10.
She still loves the kids menu. She loves chicken strips and mac and cheese and all the things that are now essentially off-limits unless you’re at a dedicated gluten-free kitchen. That was a grief we hadn’t fully processed yet when we boarded our flight.
What Was Hard
The hardest part of the trip for Riley wasn’t the food itself. It was learning to speak up.
She is 10. She is still figuring out who she is in the world. And now she has to walk into a restaurant, look a server in the eye, and explain a medical condition — politely, clearly, without embarrassment — every single time she sits down to eat.
That is a lot to ask of a kid.
We practiced. We talked about what to say, how to say it, what questions to ask. I modeled it for her at the first few restaurants. I let her watch how I did it — the calm, the directness, the follow-up questions — and then I stepped back and let her try.
She was nervous. Of course she was.
But she did it.
The Poke Moment
Riley loves sushi. She loves salmon. She is not a picky eater by any stretch — but she had never had ahi tuna or mahi mahi before this trip.
I had been talking up poke for weeks. She was skeptical in the way that only a 10-year-old can be skeptical — enthusiastic in theory, deeply uncertain in practice.
And then she tried it.
I will never forget her face.
It was the face of someone discovering something they didn’t know they had been missing. Pure, uncomplicated joy. She looked up at me and said “why haven’t we had this before?”
That moment is why I built this site. Not just for the celiacs who have been navigating this disease for years. But for the Riley-aged kids who just got diagnosed and whose parents are trying to figure out how to give them a full life — full of travel, full of food, full of first experiences — without fear.
Six Months Later
We went out to dinner last week.
Riley looked at the server, smiled, and said — completely on her own, completely unprompted — “I have celiac disease and I have a few questions about the menu.”
Politely. Confidently. Like she had been doing it for years.
Six months ago she was a newly diagnosed 10-year-old who had never had poke.
Now she advocates for herself at restaurants and knows exactly what ahi tuna tastes like.
That’s what safe travel does. It doesn’t just feed you — it teaches you who you are on the other side of a hard diagnosis.
If you’re planning a trip to Maui with a newly diagnosed celiac — or just want to travel without spending every meal in fear — the free Maui guide is a good place to start. And if you want every restaurant, every script, and every lesson from our actual family trip, the complete paid guide has it all.
Read the Free Maui Guide →
Get the Complete Guide — $27 →