Gluten-free for a week and have a couple of ??

[KylesMom]

We are just over a week into this gluten free thing and I've been reading all I can about it. I read about replacing certain kitchen items because of cross contamination--toaster, bread machine. What all did you replace, or buy a 2nd one of to avoid cross contaminating. I find myself looking around my kitchen wondering if the things are safe for my son now.

Also, did you notice any change in BG after going gluten free? I'm just wondering. My son was tested in the first place because of up and down BG and unexplained lows. Since we started the GF diet he seems to be needing less insulin (but its only been about a week). His lantus has gone down from 11 1/2 units to 10 this week, and he is still dropping too much at night so I will reduce it again tonight. I'm sure everyone is different but just wondering what a GF diet did to others' BG, if anything. Thanks!

[Caldercup]

We still have one gluten eater in the family, so we bought a separate toaster/toaster oven for just GF items.

We also bought a separate (red, so it's noticeable) cutting board to cut glutenous foods. We actually prep glutenous sandwiches and toast on it as well.

We replaced all of our pastic storage containers because we are lazy and sometimes microwave in them. The ones from our pre-GF days had bits of food melted into the plastic. I felt safer just pitching them and buying new.

We scrubbed the heck out of our cast iron pans and re-seasoned them. Haven't had a problem with them.

We replaced our griddle because it had a teflon coating that had scratches on it.

Any wooden spoons or plastic spatulas also got pitched and replaced.


As for BGs, my son sort of "evened out" after about two weeks on the GF diet. There were far less unexplained lows, and he held a pretty even keel on "good" numbers. My understanding is that a damaged gut absorbs carbs inconsistently. A healed gut will absorb them much more as you'd expect, and that should help with a T1D's results from eating/dosing, assuming that carb estimates were correct and the basals and ratio are correct. (We did find we had to adjust ratios a bit 'til we found what worked.)

[jcanolson]

Eileen....how did you just write what I was going to write??

I did end up replacing pots and pans since they were teflon coated. Paranoia took over, and most of my kitchen was switched out due to continuing stomach pains whch ended up being not caused by the Celiac....but that's another story.

Since both my girls are gf, my baking is all gf, so I replaced all baking pans. Our house is 90% gf.

[KylesMom]

Thanks for the replies. So many things I never would have thought of. Heck I hadn't thought of the toaster until the nutritionist mentioned it! This isn't like his other food allergies where we would see an immediate reaction if he ate something he shouldn't have. As of now he has not had any symptoms, but my understanding is that after being GF for a while he will start to have symptoms if he does accidentally have gluten....then I guess things will be more obvious. For now I am just a little paranoid about cross contamination. I am also finding that it isn't always obvious whether or not certain foods are truly GF or not (but again, I am new at this)

[Caldercup]

Originally Posted by KylesMom

my understanding is that after being GF for a while he will start to have symptoms if he does accidentally have gluten....then I guess things will be more obvious.

Oh, my YES!!

My son was totally asymptomatic -- not a single, solitary symptom before he was dx'd with Celiac. In fact, we wouldn't have known if they hadn't done the bloodwork at his T1D dx.

After three months going GF (where I went GF with him as a solidarity move), we had a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store that was GF by ingredient. Well, at 3AM, I woke up sick as a dog with awful, awful "issues." The next morning, I discovered my son had the same reaction at the same time of the night. I mentioned it to our GI a few weeks later and he said, "Oh, yeah. That's pretty classic." He then had me go and get the bloodwork done and I was still above normal on the test, even though I'd been GF for 5 or 6 months.

Guess who's got Celiac too.

Now, if we encounter gluten by mistake, I get the "issues" plus I end up with what feels like little children pinching my intestines for hours on end. It takes at least a full day for that symptom to settle down. Ugh!

[Flutterby]

We did similar that the above posters did. ALthough we don't have a totally seperate toaster, we have a 4 slot toaster, one side is GF, we wrote with a red sharpie GLUTEN FREE on one side so the kids know what side to put the gf foods in. We bought her a pot and strainer for her gf pastas. We replaced teflon pans, most of our bake wear is glass.. if we make anything on a cookie sheet we use tin foil for both gf and gluten items.

We saw an AMAZING improvement in blood sugars after going gf, but it took a LOT more than a week, it several months, but she had a lot of damage (no villi). She's never had to many symptoms.. we DO see issues with random lows that we *THINK* are gluten related but we can't be sure, because we've all the times we noticed it we didn't know for sure that she had been glutenized. A few weeks ago she WAS glutenized at school. a lot of gluten, and we saw no issues, no random lows, no belly aches, so it totally confused us.

[Tyggirl]

At the beginning it was just me with Celiac. I bought Toaster Sleeves off of Amazon for about $6 and they can be used up to 100 times. It is great when visiting Family or going on Vacation to throw them in a suitcase. For my birthday, in June, I got a toaster oven. We all use it, but my husband who still eats some gluten items has to put foil down on the grate.

We also have our own strainer for pasta. I bought a bright red one (Joseph Joseph) that is for gluten free.

I had my husband take the kids out on a Saturday and I scrubbed my kitchen. I emptied the silverware drawer and ran them all through the dishwasher along with all the dishes from the cabinet and scrubbed the bottom while they were in there. I needed a new silverware sorter anyways so I replaced it instead of cleaning the old. I also threw out all the gluten flour I had in the house. I refuse to let that evil stuff in my kitchen.

We've been lucky in that we haven't been glutened at home yet (or at least we don't think so). None of us had symptoms before but I've heard that many people do after being gluten free for a while. It's been 15mo+ for me, 9mo for my oldest, and 8mo for my youngest.

I know it can be overwhelming at first but it gets better once you get into the swing of things! We've found recipes to replace goldfish crackers/cheeze-its, cookie receipes we love, and things at the store that we love. Trial and error!

*****
Sherry
T1 8/80, Hypothyroid 8/88, Celiac 1/11, PA 3/12
Pumping Cozmo 7/08 to present
Dexcom 4/11

Emily (5) - Celiac 7/11, T1 10/11 (diluted Humalog, Lantus)
Claire (2) - Celiac 8/11, Non-D

[aklap]

Here's what we have done...

http://www.gigofecw.org/news/files/l...ixed_house.php

Good luck!