kbtoyssni

Thanks for posting. I never knew that people could have a problem with too much protein. Glad I'm aware of it now.

I never fridge my flours, and they seem to taste ok. I also keep mine in airtight containers.

I think it's a 1970s building. I'll ask about mold, doubt the front office has any clue, though. Is there any way I can tell if there's mold on my own?

The public areas are smoke free, but tenants are free to smoke in their own apartments. I wouldn't care if they didn't have this stupid ventilation system in which the air from all apartments mix. I never had this problem in my last apartment because the ventilation system was more of an individual apartment one. I honestly don't think people should be able to smoke in their apartments with this type of ventilation, but I'm not sure legally there's anything to back that up.

I *think* it's electric heat. I hardly use my heater, though. Apartments tend to be pretty warm without it. I even opened my window a crack today, and it's 20F outside! It is pretty dry (as it always is during Minnesota winters) so I can try a humidifier. The dryness can get uncomfortable with itchy skin. I didn't sleep well in August and September before I needed a heater, though, so I feel like there's something else going on.

I'll try blacking out the room tonight.

There are two smoke issues.

1. The former tenant smoked. It doesn't smell like smoke; I was more concerned they used chemicals on the carpet to get the smell out. Could smoke chemicals be coming out of the carpet even if I can't smell it?

2. The people down the hall smoke. This is really bugging me. I've talked to the landlord a few times about it (nothing like coming home to the smoke smell the night before a final, getting a migrane and throwing up and being unable to study). Sometimes it makes me feel sick, sometimes it doesn't. The ventilation in the building doesn't isolate the apartments. The smoke was coming under my door so I put a doorsweep on. Then they covered the vents in my bathroom and kitchen to hopefully prevent air from being sucked into them and being replaced with hallway-smoky air. It's helped a lot, but it's not 100%. I wonder if legally I can do anything about this. I'm sure this doesn't help sleeping, but the smoke is mostly in the kitchen and bathroom. I've never smelled it in my bedroom. A little side note: Minnesota recently banned smoking in public places. They had a lot of money left over from the advertising campaign so they're going to start campaigning for smoke-free apartments for this very reason. I don't think it will ever pass because people want the right to do what they want in their own apartments, however.

I do have dust covers on my mattress and pillows. I haven't had any problems with dust for years since getting them.

Ah, perfect! That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

My mum (also a celiac) is traveling to Egypt in February and wants something like a Triumph dining card to take with her. Triumph doesn't have a card in Arabic. Does anyone know where I can get one?

It is really just oats, there's no other ingredient. The reason they call it "Only Oats" is because it's produced in a dedicated field (not crop rotated with wheat, barley, or rye), and processed on dedicated lines. Hence, if you are one of the 90% or of celiacs who do not react to avenin, the oat protein, you'll should be fine.

Is it really 90% that don't react? Just wondering if you've seen a study that shows that number.

I moved to a new apartment five months ago (from the suburbs to the city), and I have never slept well in this new place. I have no idea why. I can be really tired, but lie down and something makes me feel like the room is not conducive to sleeping. I have trouble falling asleep and I often don't wake up refreshed. On weekends (I work M-F) I have been waking up not feeling very well, either. It's like I've always got a headache or something and just want to go back to sleep. Seems to happen whether I stay up late or not. Here are my thoughts:

-I've got the same bed with a 1.5 year old mattress so that's probably not it. Same sheets/blankets, too.

-I now close the blinds, but they're just the cheap plastic ones that come standard with apartments so they're certainly not light-tight. I've never liked sleeping in complete darkness, and I like the light to come in in the morning. At my old place I never even closed the blinds and there was a street light right outside my window.

-I only use my bedroom for sleeping and getting dressed. I do not have a TV or computer in there - just the bed, my clothes, my bike in the corner.

-I have been watching more TV lately (new apartment gets the style network and it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me).

-I haven't been working out as much. I got whooping cough at the end of August. It is impossible to do any cardio with the whoop! The past few weeks I've just started being able to work out again. Combine that with an arm injury and that means not much in the weight lifting department, either.

-Could it be something in the carpet - chemicals or something? The guy who lived here before me smoked, but I thought all they do for that is repaint and shampoo the carpet. I also occasionally get problems with smoke from a few apartments down wafting into my apartment although the smoke never gets in the bedroom.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm sick of being tired!

I wouldn't think there's enough sugar in one tablet to make a difference how you feel. Compared to how much sugar you consume in a day, this would be only a small, small percentage of total sugar.

Could you talk to you doctor about getting B12 shots? I'm wondering if those might have less additives.

Welcome! Going gluten-free is the best thing that ever happened to me. My life is so much better now that I have my health so hopefully this will be the answer to your health problems, too.

Green tea is usually ok. Always have to check just to be sure, but there's a 99% chance it's fine.

My first thought is that he's only been gluten-free for a few days which probably isn't long enough for him to have done a lot of healing. So the stomach pain could be a holdover from the intestinal damage. Once your gut is damaged, it seems like lots of foods will aggravate it even though you don't have an issue with them. Or you could still have CC issues. It takes a while to get all gluten out of the diet. Have you replaced wooden spoons, collenders, toasters, opened new condiments that might have been "double-dipped" with gluten knives, checked pet food, shampoos and lotions?

Note that gluten free substitutes can be hard on the stomach. They're very dense, and many people find they don't feel that great eating them. They often don't taste great, either. You might be best sticking with very plain meals, plain meats, veggies, etc.

I wish I had some better advice, but I think you have to just keep reading ingredients and give it a bit more time.

I wonder if this is partially in response to several articles this year that were along the lines of "having trouble losing weight? Then cut out gluten!" These articles were indirectly saying that if you have celiac you may have trouble losing weight, but they came across as a fad diet which, even if you don't have celiac, probably works because you eliminate so many foods. Those articles always annoyed me by downplaying the read medical problems that accompany celiac and just hype up the potential for weight loss. And for me, as I'm sure is true for many of you, too, weight loss was the least of my concerns when I was too sick to get out of bed. Articles like this are very unfair to true sufferers of the disease. I don't want people dismissing me as being on a fad diet.

I clicked on the link but didn't see the article either. Has it been removed???

I also agree that no one *needs* celiac to have a healthy diet. Most of the things I've had to cut out since diagnosis are the high-gluten processed foods like white bread, chips, cookies, cereal, etc, and those contain a lot of sugar and HFCS and other ingredients that aren't considered good for anyone. Products that contain small amounts of gluten like chicken broth or soy sauce don't gain their nutritional value from the gluten and can easily be replaced with a non-gluten alternative with equivalent nutritional value.

If the tests come back negative I am torn, should I take him gluten-free since he tested positive for the gene? How will I enforce it later if I can't tell him that he actually tested positive for Celiac? How do I take away the things he loves just because of something that might happen when the tests are negative? I know that the tests a somewhat unreliable at his age but here is my real question... would I be doing all this if Katharine hadn't tested positive? Is he acting out or just acting his age? His demeanor has changed, but he is also almost 3.... Just thinking outloud here, I am fairly confused and trying to decide to do what is right for my baby. They leave this stuff out of "What to Expect..."

One other thing, he gets a couple of servings of gluten per day right now for the Jan test, is that enough to trigger a positive if it is infact Celiac? We may look into Enterolab if this round of tests is neg as well. My mommy gut just isn't convinced.

TIA

Tough questions. Honestly, you probably wouldn't be thinking celiac if his sister hadn't tested positive. But now that you know, I think it's the responsible thing to get him tested. That's just being a good mother.

If he does test negative and you try the gluten-free diet, you'll likely know if gluten is a problem. And dietary response is a positive diagnosis in my opinion. I don't think enforcing the gluten-free diet will change based on method of diagnosis. If he wants to rebel and eat gluten, he will. If gluten makes him sick and he wants to stay gluten-free, he'll do it. What might help is doing a food and behavior journal you can show him later in life. My mother did that with me (milk and sugar made me hyperactive as a kid) and now, at age 25, I'm quite embarrassed to read what a terribly behaved child I was Luckily I grew out of that, but if I hadn't that journal would probably be enough to convince me I have a problem with those foods.

I love that word "unbeknownst"! How did you even know how to spell that? You must be a teacher or author (a very pretty one I might add).

best regards, lm

Thank you! I'm actually an electrical engineer - one of the few who can write well I think! My talents are being wasted on technical documents...

My first advice would be don't assume the doc will automatically blow you off. There are good doctors out there, and you're going in for the stereotypical digestive symptoms so you might have an easier time. Have your facts down - be able to say you've been reading about it and recent studies show it's much more common than previously thought, tell her why you think your son has it (how did you find this site - is there a family history, were you just googling symptoms, etc - most people wouldn't automatically think celiac when a kid has stomachaches), and firmly insist on the blood test.

Remember if this appointment doesn't go the way you want it to, you can always take your son to a different doctor. You can always try to gluten-free diet on your own as a last resort. And remember that you may have to do that - the blood test may be negative even if your son does have it simply because he hasn't got enough damage yet.

Good luck!

Well, you are the oldest so things like you not having as many restrictions on computer time is just something that happens as you get older. She'd probably be jealous of this regardless of celiac. And maybe your family ordered lots of pizza before so it's a hard adjustment, but takeout pizza isn't very good for you anyway so in a way, this is good for her health, too.

I do think it's hard for the siblings of the kid that been sick, though. Including her in cooking is a great idea. Or doing lots of things as a family or just the two of you - going ice skating, to the mall with her, letting her pick the movie, etc. Eventually your health will be much improved and the celiac won't be such an issue with your family relationships. I'd talk to your parents, too. Maybe they can do something special for her or make sure they spend a little bit more time with her individually each day.

I've heard of all this before but not so sure how much it really affects bone loss. Most Americans eat tons of meat and drink alcohol and I doubt everyone has soft bones. I think moderation is the key and a good diet is probably the best defense, along with all the other things frec mentioned.

What I find weird is that I have never broken a bone in my life and I have activities that could accomplish this, while many people I know who are not Celiac and don't have bone problems have fallen and badly broken their bones....go figure!

I read that as the consumption of cow milk increases, so does the incidence of osteoporosis. That doesn't mean that if you drink cow milk, you will have osteoporosis, but it was a statistically significant study. I *think* I read it in the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" - a very long read, but full of interesting stuff about how agriculture and cities began.

Many of my doctors have commented that broken bones are more common in people who are not as flexible. If a non-flexible person plants a leg, the stress often breaks the bone. When a flexible person plants a leg, the ligaments/tendons in the nearest joint are able to stretch and take most of the stress. Of course, this means the ligaments can stretch too far and snap. In my family my dad is not at all flexible and has had 20+ broken bones; I am very flexible and have injured nearly every joint in my body. There are many exceptions, of course, and the circumstances around each injury are different, but as a general rule I've found this to be true.

I've always felt that GS and celiac are part of a spectrum of how sick you've become. You start off gluten sensitive, keeping eating gluten and get more and more damage until you end up celiac. GS is a good thing in my opinion - it means you caught it before it got really bad.

Unfortunately your experience with the doctor not giving you much info is very typical. Most doctors don't know much about celiac and can't give out a lot of information. It's up to you to learn about it to keep your kids healthy.

Just wanted to make sure you are also eliminating barley, rye and oats (you may already know that, but you did say just wheat and I'd hate for you to go through the effort and not be 100% gluten-free).

As for your son having a hard time with donuts at school, you've got to teach him how to deal. Letting him eat gluten is not going to help him and his health. You can get gluten-free donuts. Check out the parents forum - there's lots of great tips on how to deal with children having to eat "differently" than everyone else.

Hi, do you have any idea if once this drug is approved will it also be dosed for children. Also, I understand that it will not be used to replace a gluten free diet and just for cc issues. But what about when we go out to dinner and my son can't eat the fries because they are not in a dedicated frier. Do you think that counts as cc or as out right eating gluten?

Nicole

I consider it outright eating gluten and with a pill that doesn't claim to replace a gluten-free diet, I would not eat them. I consider the type of CC this pill is designed to treat as the stuff you have no control over - you've checked that every ingredient is gluten-free, asked people to use clean utensils, yet something still goes wrong unbeknownst to anyone and you get sick. I feel like this pill is going to make people very lax about the diet. I mean, those fries can't have *that* much gluten, right? And Lays has problems with CC in their chips, but it's not a big deal if I'm taking the pill, right? Which leads to "one bite" of grandma's cookies, etc. I'm mostly concerned that symptoms may be lessened but damage is still being done, leading to major health problems down the road. I don't see how they can test for this, though, because it would take years to show up on a scope after being gluten-free for a long time. Hopefully they'll publish some of the research they did to determine if it wasn't doing damage.

In a few months when you can start telling the difference, you should also start teaching her how to deal with gluten-induced behavior problems. When I've been glutened, I know I need to think three times before I say anything. My first reaction is to get mad at people bothering me and there are many times when I just want to yell at coworkers. That's obviously a terrible career move, so I've got this internal timer going that makes me count to five, smile, and be nice about things I don't want to be nice about.

3. Start exercising again when it's not so cold and snowy and icy out.

You should try walking around the mall - it's nice and warm and you can still get a workout. Or cross country skiing or snowshoeing - cold and snow is no excuse not to workout!

This year I'm going to start taking canvas totes with me to Target/Wal-Mart/Grocery Store and leave as many plastic bags at the store as possible!!!

I do this - I leave my bags in the car so they're always there when I need them! Some stores will give you 5 or 10 cents back per bag that you reuse.

I think blood tests for celiac should be part of a yearly checkup, regardless of whether the person is symptomatic. But realize that a negative test doesn't mean the person doesn't have celiac.

I'd like for doctors to ask more questions about symptoms. I had symptoms I didn't realize were symptoms until post-gluten-free. I did have a lot of digestive issues, but didn't even realize it so I never mentioned it to my doc.

Don't tell a patient "nothing's wrong" and let the patient go on their way. If the patient comes to you with something wrong, then there's something wrong. I currently have an arm injury. My doctor's run a ton of tests and can't come up with a diagnosis. Past doctors would have said that I'm fine, but this guy keeps searching. He's admitted he doesn't know, discusses possible diagnosis with me and why he doesn't think they're right for me, and is now sending me to a doc at the Mayo Clinic. He doesn't know the answer, but I'm super impressed that he hasn't given up, and I feel like he's giving me the best care he possibly can.

In general, I'd like doctors to take a more whole-body approach (which can be difficult with specialists). If someone's got depression, you can give them drugs for the chemical imbalance, but where's the research into why the chemical imbalance exists? And I think it's rare to think the imbalance might come from a food allergy. And I think doctors need to emphasize the importance of eating well and exercising. Even giving out pamphlets about portion size and how to easily integrate vegetables in place of fast food and how taking a quick walk at would do wonders for some people. Most of us here know this stuff, but I'm shocked at how many people don't know it. We can prevent a lot of medical issues if people just treated their bodies better.

To be honest, sometimes it's just easier to bring my own food. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to supervise cooking, ask a ton of questions, etc. I'm very comfortable around some of my friends and will eat what they cook, but they know the rules about no dipping crackers in the dips, etc. When I'm around people who I don't hang out with much, it's a ton of extra effort on my part and I just want to hang out and have a good time and not have the stress of supervision and playing russian roulette with my health. There are just so many things to consider - it's so easy to forget and use contaminated ingredients or not realize that a certain company has problems with contamination of their products even if the ingredient list doesn't say gluten. Or how about this one - I was at my friend's house and she has a cat that uses wheat-based kitty litter. The cat managed to jump up on the kitchen counter. Now the counter needs to be scrubbed.

Some things your sister might appreciate: purchasing a NEW cutting board and labeling it with her name, having NEW jam, butter, etc in your fridge with her name on them, having lots of fruit around because it's so easy to wash, having things like individually wrapped string cheese and eggs (wait, I can't remember if you said dairy free, too ) This is all safe stuff that she can eat and not have to worry about it being contaminated.

About the antihistamine - some people don't like to take drugs if they don't have to, so that might be why. Did you ask her why?