kbtoyssni

Another question is: How do we know they are cranky/irritable from gluten, and not just because they had a bad day at school?

Gosh, I can't even tell if my crabbiness if gluten or stress or just a bad day either, and I imagine it's much harder to figure out someone else's crabbiness. Even my stomach acts up sometimes and I have no idea if it's gluten or stress.

It's relativly easy to bake cakes. There is a large start-up cost (xantham gum which is around $15 for a tiny package is absolutely essential, but you hardly use any so it lasts a long time, and buying several kinds of flours at one time adds up, too), but once you get past that it's not much more expensive than regular cakes. The only difference in ingredients is the flour products and it's maybe $1-2 more per cake for the gluten-free ingredients once you average it out.

Although this may be ackward for you to explain, you can always bring your own food to the restaurant. Or maybe you could suggest an alternate event like happy hour or bowling.

I read in a magazine once that if you purposely try to blush, you won't be able to. I've never tested it since I start blushing before I realize, but you could try it.

Just touching gluten is usually not a problem. (NOTE: There are some people, especially those with DH, that do react to touching gluten.) The bigger problem here is that if he touches gluten, then touches the fridge door, then comes back later to get something to eat from the fridge, his food can easily get contaminated. Crumbs are everywhere and it's so hard to be 100% sure that he's not getting contaminated. When I lived with my parents (mum and I were gluten-free, dad and brother not) we ate mostly gluten-free. We bought gluten-free brands of condiments, we ate a lot more rice and bought corn tortillas instead of wheat. There are many little changes you can make to minimize the amount of gluten in the house without giving up anything you used to eat. My dad and brother did keep some gluten things - packaged stuff like cookies and crackers - but were very careful to wash hands after eating it.

My biggest symptom was also joint pain and fatigue. Now I have more energy than I have in ten years so I'm sure things will improve for you, too!

I've been glutened several times at my parents' house which is frustrating since my mum's also gluten-free and the house is 99% gluten-free. Maybe you could cook up some food and put it in single serving sizes before you go. I'd try to minimize the amount of cooking you do there. Try eating things like hard boiled eggs and bananas since there's less chance of contamination.

*Being able to live on my own

*Being able to have a job

*Being able to handle 40+ hours a week at said job

*Working out again - no more joint pain!

*Being thankful for every day - when you're too sick to get out of bed for six months the simple act of getting out of bed is exciting.

*Makes me a more creative cook

*No more falling asleep at parties

Why do you have to use the faculty bathroom? Can't you use the same one the kids do?

I agree with everyone - CC really is a big issue. In my opinion, it's the hardest part of the diet. Avoiding foods that don't have gluten isn't too bad - it's making sure they didn't come in contact with other gluten foods that's more tricky and something I don't feel I always have control of (restaurants for example).

I think you do need to get gluten-free playdough or make your own. I know as a kid I loved to eat the stuff even though my mother told me not to (and I know I'm not the only one here who did that!) That in itself should be reason enough to get rid of it. Give your old playdough to the local homeless shelter - some kid there will love it.

The thing I've found with this disease it that it slowly creeps up on you and takes away your life. For me it was such a slow process that I didn't realize what I was losing until I was completely unable to function.

You should start cooking. I find cooking to be more of a personal challenge now. I'm always trying to tweak recipes to make things taste yummy - I was never ever that adventurous before. I love when my friends like my gluten-free food. A lot of people are skeptical that gluten-free can taste good so I like to prove them wrong and prove that gluten-free is not a death sentence. Maybe start cooking for them and invite them over for dinner rather than eating out. Or start planning non-food events.

I also look at eating out as a social thing. It is not at all about the food for me anymore. It's about hanging out with people and I could care less about the food - I fact, I often bring my own food to restaurants. The only time I wish I could join in is when we order a late night pizza. So I usually keep a frozen pizza in all my friends' fridges so I can pop one in the oven when they order one.

You can get gluten-free beer. Besides whiskey and maybe a few other random brands of alcohol, you can drink nearly every kind of liquor.

You do have a lot of intolerances so it will take some adjustment. It's going to be tough to recondition your reaction to food and its place within your life. Recruit people around you to help. If there are situations (like the eating out scenario you talked about) that make you completely miserable, ask them if you can not do those things for a while. It sounds like your boyfriend is more than willing to eat at home with you - take advantage of that! Why would you want to make yourself miserable going out when you've got a supportive guy who just wants to spend time with you and obviously doesn't mind where and what you eat as long as you're together?

I don't think it's asking too much. If your son needs the same box as everyone else to feel included, I would definitely ask for one.

I'd be inclined to take him off gluten and dairy for at least a few months. Five days is hardly any time to notice a difference. And no one NEEDS gluten to survive so you won't be doing him any harm if you don't feed him gluten.

For road trips I bring:

-A loaf of bread

-Peanut butter

-lettuce

-Slices of cheese and/or meat

-Those mini-mustard packets you get at fast food places

-Potatoes for baking (plus you can put the cheese on them)

-Thai kitchen imitation ramen-noodle packages

-Individual string cheeses

-Apples

-Cereal plus milk

-Some candy (Fun sized M&Ms, almond joys)

-Some crackers or a bag of corn chips for snacking

If you add all this up I've got more than enough calories to keep me going for two days. It may not be the absolute healthiest, but at least I won't starve!

I also agree that a doctor won't be able to help you much. The best he/she could do is give you some meds (which cost money) and which are only going to mask your symptoms and possibly cause other side effects.

Rice, potatoes, frozen veggies and chicken are things that "normal" people buy that are cheap. Yes, you're not going to be able to buy gluten-free bread and cookies if you're on a budget, but what kinds of things are you buying that are so expensive? I think in general food isn't cheap, gluten-free or not. If you can, use store coupons, buy family sized bags of food. Buy things from the shelf of "dented tins" because they're really marked down.

I have been disappointed for a few family functions with my family and they all went out to eat. We just joined them later. I did not trust the restaurants to serve him uncontaminated foods.

Like this Easter they all decided to go out to eat for their meal. I don't feel comfortable joining them so I will make a meal for us and then we will join them later at an Aunts house. I do feel left out.

Have you ever tried bringing your own food to the restaurant? I do this all the time and have never had a problem. If they did hassle me, I'd tell them that if they don't let me eat my own food, I was taking all my friends and moving to a different restaurant. Sometimes I even ask them to heat up my food for me. I'll hand them a grilled cheese in a toaster bag with the instructions "heat it any way you want, just DON'T TAKE IT OUT OF THE BAG!!!"

Good for you standing up to the doctor. It sounds like you've already more than convinced yourself that he's got celiac. I also didn't do the biopsy because by the time I'd done an elimination diet and figured it out I just wanted to get on with getting better.

I don't wear a tag but I do have it in big bold letters first on the list I have sticky noted to my drivers license. If I am unconsious I can not tell them to be aware of it in any meds or any other sort of thing. I may not be eating if I am unconsious or have a stroke but gluten isn't just in food and many med people don't know the gluten statis of anything they give us.

Oooh, good idea. I'm doing that as soon as I get home. I bet a medical worker would look for a license or other ID if I were not able to talk. They'd want to know who you are, but treatment would be Number 1 so it's possible they might give you some drugs before looking for an ID. I figure that one glutening isn't going to kill me (not like an anaphlactic allergy would) so I'll risk it by not wearing a bracelet.

I called Bob's Red Mill one day and if the flour says gluten-free on the label then it is made in an entirely gluten-free facility. Their soy flour is made in the same facility as gluten flour so that's why it doesn't have the gluten-free label. So I'm not sure how CC could happen there, but I guess anything is possible.

St John Wort? I'll write that down. Other people have recomended that we take extra vitamins and such, but I've always been a little resistant to taking any kind of supplemet, especially considering that all our food is cooked fresh and I've read that if you take too many it can cause liver damage.

I know St Johns Wort can interfere with the effectiveness of birth control pills and maybe other meds, too. You might want run this by a doc before you start taking it if she is on any other meds. Omega-3 can be a good supplement to help with depression, too.

I agree with everyone in that you should bring all her food. Or only allow the hospital to give her food that can't be contaminated: hard boiled eggs still in the shell, bananas, oranges, etc.

And you sound like the best finance ever! Alex is very lucky to have you.

Ironically, I eat out more now. But I'm also well enough to go out and socialize, and I am not going to let celiac get in the way of my social life. But for a lot of lunches out during the week I just bring my food while my friends order restaurant stuff.

I use a similar flour mix to what Guhlia recommended. I also make all my old recipes with this mix plus 1/2 or 1 tsp of xantham gum and about the same amount of egg replacer. Everything turns out fine this way. I love mixing my flour because each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes I'll use 1/2 soy flour in place of some of the flour mix, too. Soy's a bit silkier and I like it for dense things like cake because the slightly gritty rice flour taste is more obvious in a cake. For things like chocolate chip cookies you can't really tell.

Wow, I hadn't heard about a new Fresh and Natural in Bloomington. I love that place - I do all my gluten-free shopping at the one in Shoreview.

I also do all my gluten-free shopping at the FNF in Shoreview. I wonder if I've seen you there and didn't even know it!

I am also concerned that something else is going on - either CC or another medical issue. Because once you go gluten-free, you should be able to lead a normal life. And eight years is too long to have not made a complete recovery.

I don't have any studies to back this up, but I wouldn't think there's anything you can do to lessen the risk of your child having celiac. It's genetic - if he/she gets the gene he/she will be predisposed to getting it. The one thing I like about celiac as opposed to other diseases is that it's treatable and certainly not a death sentence. If your child does have it, he/she will probably be just as healthy if not healthier than other children.

I'd go gluten-free ASAP. There's no point in delaying her healing. And that means no school pizza on Friday. Try making your own pizzas out of tortillas, eggplant, etc. Glutino makes a great frozen pizza but it's pricey. I make my own pizza crust using the recipes in The Gluten Free Gourmet.

Most people on here will say that a dietitian often isn't that helpful since they don't live the disease and aren't up on the latest ingredients, etc. I think this site is a much better resource than a dietitian.

Also, don't worry too much if you mess up. I made plenty of mistakes in the first few months, but now I rarely make one.