kbtoyssni

Welcome back!

Your stress level will probably be much lower if you have a completely gluten-free house. It's possible to still have gluten around, but it's much harder. Most things are no big deal - no one will care too much if you only buy gluten-free brands of condiments or buy corn tortillas instead of wheat. It gets a little tricker when you get to bread and crackers, but there are certainly ways to get around this.

My biggest question for you is: what if the scope comes back negative? This is a very real possibility because your daughter is still young and hasn't had much time to damage her intestines and she's been gluten-free for a week now. Will you keep her gluten-free? If so, there's probably no reason to have a scope. It seems like you've seen some positive dietary response which is a valid diagnosis.

So, pros and cons of "official" medical diagnosis.

Pros: Can make it easier once she gets to school to get 504 plans, etc, if a doctor's note is required. Doctors who are more knowledgeable on celiac may write you this note based on dietary response.

Some people need this type of proof to commit to a gluten-free diet. Some people have families who are very skeptical and need this type of proof.

It can check for other intestinal issues. You may want to ask your doc if he is looking for anything in addition to celiac.

Cons: It's invasive. Certainly not as invasive as many medical procedures, but it does carry some risk.

It's not necessary if you plan to keep her gluten-free based on dietary response.

It costs money.

False negatives are common, especially in children.

An official celiac diagnosis on a medical record can cause problems with health insurance (especially private insurance) years down the road.

Hi. I am 28 and just diagnosed with Celiacs. I've been reading up on the disease and have met with a nutritionist, so I'm getting over the shock. My concern is cross-contamination as I live with my gluten-eating girlfriend. The books I'm reading seem to think I shouldn't be anywhere near anything that once came in contact with gluten. I shouldn't even buy "gluten-free products" that "are made in a facility that processes wheat".

This has my brain spinning. How can I actually avoid contamination and is it actually that serious of a concern?

Yes, CC is serious, but if you give it a few months it won't be that hard to deal with. You'll learn quickly. As for food that are made in facilities with wheat - it depends on the brand. Some are ok, some are not. Try searching for the product you want on here. I'm sure there's a thread about it.

Your girlfriend can continue to eat gluten, but you'll have to be very careful. This means you need your own toaster, your own collendar, she cannot dip a knife that's touched gluten into the mayo, you shouldn't share dishclothes between gluten and gluten-free dishes, she cannot kiss you after eating gluten unless she's brushed and mouthwashed, her lotions and makeup should be gluten-free if you kiss her face. I would recommend you each have your own area of the kitchen and that you come up with some ground rules on cleaning. Try searching for something like "gluten free family" - I know there have been threads debating making the whole household gluten-free. The general consensus is that having an entirely gluten-free house is easiest, but having gluten around is do-able with complete cooperation from all family members.

Bob's has two facilities: a gluten-free one and a non-gluten-free one. If a package says gluten-free, it is made in their gluten-free facility. Their soy flour is not made in the gluten-free facility so it does not say gluten-free because there would be a possibility of CC.

I don't have this problem, but maybe you're using soap that contains gluten? It might be irritating your skin. Or maybe you're just using really hot water that's drying out your skin in the winter months.

I also just bought white rice flour from the ethnic section at my wegmans. The bags say produced in a facility that produces wheat products. I can eat the walmart seasoned fries that say this too, with no reaction. Anyone have issues with these flours?.

I think it really depends on the brand.

I don't think of this as a diet in the common usage of the term, either. I think if it as my life. If I want to live to my 30th birthday, I don't eat gluten.

On a weight-loss diet, the consequences of eating something you shouldn't aren't too severe - maybe you don't lose a pound that week, but no biggie. With celiac, you eat something you shouldn't and you get cancer. The strange thing to me is that now I don't see gluten food the same way as non-gluten food. I know it's technically edible and I'm fascinated by it, but it never, ever occurs to me that I should eat it.

My best advice is to plan ahead. Don't go to the party hungry and bring some food with you if you think you'll get hungry later. If you know there will be brownies and they're a temptation for you, make your own gluten-free ones. Don't feel badly asking the hostess in advance what she's making so you can plan ahead. A lot of times I'll be out and see something really yummy looking that has gluten so first thing I do when I get home is to make my own version. In my purse I have my essentials with me at all times: wallet, cell phone, lipstick, and a snack.

This does get easier. At first it's so hard to know what you can and cannot eat, but give it time and you'll get it down.

--- I'm on the fence about the pans and have recently begun wondering about them (nonstick, but they are hard-anodized so its rougher than traditional smooth teflon coated pans). It is hard to think of getting rid of a lot of my stuff since so much were gifts and have sentimental meaning I guess, and many of them are pretty new too. And the expense of replacing everything all at once. I thought I'd start with the 'must-do's' first.

Anyone else have opinions on the pans? Or Whisks?

You could try selling the newer pots if you decide to get rid of them. At least you'd get something for them that way.

I didn't bother getting a new whisk. I've got a metal one so it's easy to clean.

As long as you put your bread on a plate before putting it in the toaster oven, you'd probably be ok sharing. Just watch out for gluten crumbs that get on the top of the inside of the oven from gluten bread bumping it as it's taking out.

You could also try toaster bags: Open Original Shared Link

Then you could put your bread in a regular toaster.

Since you're living in a new home, I'd suspect something like chemicals - the chemicals in the carpet, paint, etc. A slight possibility of mold. Or maybe something weird with the electrical wiring. I've read some stuff about electrical emissions on the human body. Dimmer switches emit a lot, if you have electronics like you clock too close to your head when you're sleeping it might cause a problem.

I was reading some book that I can't remember the name of right now, but they showed statistics on the dental health of people living in remote areas of Alaska. As soon as soda and other vending machines were introduced, the rate of cavities skyrocketed. There aren't many dentists up there - they were hardly necessary pre-soda - but now dental problems are a major issue.

I know Red Robin margaritas are ok. In general, margaritas are fine, although I still ask on ingredients. I did find one place that added beer so now servers always look at me funny when I ask if there's beer in the margaritas!

I completely agree with Ursa. It's just not worth it to me to use personal care products with gluten, especially hand lotion. You put it on, touch everything in your house, now you've got gluten all over the place, you wash your hands, accidentally touch something you've touched pre-handwashing, eat your lunch and you get glutened. To me it's just too risky, and it's not something I want to be constantly thinking about.

In a study some scientists did they found that North America has the highest rate of osteoporosis in the world. We also have the highest dairy consumption in the world! Which shows that it is just a myth that we need dairy for calcium (and where do cows get their strong bones, or elephants?).

There's some great research about this in the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel". The book is super long, but the sections on agriculture are really interesting if you want to know about the origins of wheat production. There's some graphs showing the rate of osteoporosis versus the amount of cow's milk consumed for different countries. And guess what? As milk consumption increases, so does the rate of osteoporosis! Certainly surprised me.

So, I think I asked this before but what nutrional value does wheat have? Without wheat and grains what vitamins are you lacking? We are trying to figure out if this is causing his feet cramping.

Here's some info on the nutritional value of wheat flour: Open Original Shared Link

It's mostly carbs with a small amount of calcium and potassium. Note that the amount of potassium is 66mg for a half cup of flour (that's maybe 2 slices of bread?) versus 290mg in a banana so it's not like you're missing out on much in the vitamin department.

Welcome! There is a huge learning curve to this diet, and the list of foods you can't eat is extremely overwhelming at first. But keep reading this board and keep reading labels, and in a few months you'll be a pro.

Eating out can also be tricky until you get the hang of it. Try mexican (substituting corn tortillas) or thai (with rice noodles). American food can work pretty well - I usually order a salad or a grilled chicken breast with swiss cheese and pickle/lettuce/tomato and a baked potato or veggies. Grilled fish is good, too. Breakfast style food works well - try omelettes and hash browns (hash browns are ok about 50% of the time). Don't worry about digging through the menu - for american and breakfast food I usually know exactly what I want and ask for that rather than trying to pick something on the menu and have them do substitutions. When I order salads, I often say "salad with no cro

I'm having problems understanding this cross-contamination thing. At home I make sure that I have different pans, knives, my own gravy etc to the rest of the family but I haven't been bothering too much if I actually have to butter a slice of bread for the kids, or pass someone a biscuit.

Same with feeding the ducks. If I've handled bread, I just rub my hands together and brush off the crumbs.

I've kept off the gluten for a month and feel 100% better, but how careful do you need to be? Is it different from person to person?

You need to be more careful. Let's say you put some dirt crumbs on your hands and then just brushed them off. Would your hands be clean? No.

You're pretty new to gluten-free, so gluten-lite will make probably you feel great for a while. But eventually your body will start to get sick again. Or you may be one of those lucky people who doesn't have bad symptoms when ingesting gluten, but that doesn't mean you aren't doing damage. You'll be doing the kind of long-term damage that you can't fix and don't realize until it's too late. Things like osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.

Wanted to say congrats! That baby's a cute one. And he was born on my birthday, so that's got to be a good sign .

My GP is Ronda Stellar at the Shoreview Medical Clinic. I know she also goes to a clinic in Silver Lake. I moved here a little under two years ago, and I expected a big fight about celiac and the fact that I'm self-diagnosed. But it turned out she actually knew what celiac was and didn't bat an eye at the self-diagnosis. She's been to conferences about celiac and tests all women with fertility problems for celiac. I was floored! I didn't think doctors like this existed!

I think it's become a subconscious thing to always be on the lookout for gluten. I just do it naturally. I don't do it at home, though. I live alone and my house is 100% gluten-free so I don't need to think about it then.

I had this exact same thought the other day! I went to Taco Bell with a friend for lunch (I just got a soda) and all of a sudden realized that there's probably gluten all over the cash register. And the napkin dispenser. I took one napkin out, left it on the counter, and took the second, hopefully un-CCed one for myself.

I'm celiac and allergic to peanuts. I'm not anaphylactic so that makes things a bit easier, but I do somewhat understand the difficulty. I was at a party the other night and all the stuff that didn't have gluten had peanuts! Seriously, what are the odds? Usually my friends are really good at having something I can eat, but that night it was like everyone had gluten-induced brain fog and forgot what I couldn't eat Not that I minded, I always come prepared.

Mine didn't. I have HealthPartners (in Minnesota). I spent a good amount of time trying to explain why an allergist would not be able to help me to the lady on the phone (this is after calling several allergists in the area and having none of them have a clue what I was talking about when I said food intolerance) so I gave up. I was just getting casein testing, though, which isn't as expensive as gluten.

If you are concerned about having a gluten intolerance diagnosis on your medical records, though, I wouldn't try to get reimbursed. If I had tested positive for casein, I wouldn't have asked for reimbursement if I was eligible.

I'm sorry, but the salad dressing thing made me laugh Seriously, who thinks to do something like that???

Can the disabled lady call your local towing company and get the car parked in her spot towed? It's illegal to park in a handicap spot, although I'm not sure how the law is enforced.

Good luck, I hope they get evicted soon.