Reaction After Touching Foods ?

[wildones]

My kids (I have 8 yr old triplets all 3 have celiac disease or gluten intolerance) made a project at school that had pretzels, oreo cookies, saltines and licorice of all things used as building materials. My kids know better than to eat any of those things and they said they washed their hands several times afterwards. One of my boys, the one with the most severe problem has had diarrhea for the last 3 days. He also has other major GI problems too- short bowel syndrome so it can be hard to say what is the source of his problems sometimes.

Has anyone seen a similar reaction to/problem with touching foods ?

My kids are hand washing experts (better than almost everyone I know ) because of all the medical issues we have dealt with.

The food challenges at school have been dealt with, but this is a new one to me.

[lovegrov]

I'd look for another source of the problem. Even fine or liquid gluten cannot be absorbed through the skin (molecules are too big), much less gluten in the form of cookie crumbs or such. He might have gotten some into his mouth accidentally, but he did not absorb it through his skin.

richard

[gf4life]

I know that they say that gluten cannot get into the intestines via the skin, but I have had reactions to touching gluten foods. I also wash my hands thouroughly after touching the offending foods, but still get a reaction. I think it is that the gluten is just very hard to wash out of the skin. So some residue must be there the next time I touch my own food. My solution is not always possible. I try not to let my kids or I touch any gluten. I have the problem with myself almost every week in Sunday School. I work in the nursery and the snacks are filled with gluten. I have to serve it, which is fine, but then I have to take care of the kids who have gluten all over their faces, hands, crumbs on the tables, and the toys, and the nightmare never ends! I would love to just say no to working in there, but I'm the boss. They put me in charge a few years ago, before it was a problem. I would love to step down, if someone else would take over for me, but our church is very small and I just don't see it happening yet.

At my daughter's kindergarten class I have to make a gluten-free alternative every week. They do a food/cooking project every Friday. So far it has been biscuits, celery with peanut butter and Alphabits cereal, a peanut butter playdough with powdered milk and graham cracker crumbs, and last week it was graham cracker "buses" frosted with yellow coloered whipped cream and chex cereal windows and mini oreo wheels. This week it is apple turnovers! I don't let my daughter touch the items the other kids are using. I bring everything for her that she needs to make the project gluten and dairy free. The teacher is very helpful and reminds the other kids not to touch my daughters things. It has taken a lot of preparation, but one good thing is that it is getting me busy trying new gluten-free recipes that I haven't been brave enough to try yet.

I'm curious what the project was that they were making. Almost all of the things on there could have a gluten-free alternative that is almost the same (except the licorice, but I have found a rolled up fruit-by-the-foot or fruit roll up can work if you need it that bad). You have to get creative sometimes. I know it is triple hard for you, since you've got the three the same age and the one with lots of health problems. I have found that the older grades don't do so many food related projects. So my boys only need special gluten-free foods brought to school a few times a year.

Maybe the next time they have a gluten filled project come up the kids can wear plastic gloves so they don't have to actually let the gluten come in contact with their skin.

God bless,

Mariann

[Guest gfinnebraska]

The only time I have had a reaction was when I was making a lot of cookies and breathed in the air-born flour. I don't think I have ever had a reaction touching it.

I would be interested in hearing other opinions on this. Thanks!

[hapi2bgf]

I know I have heard everyone say you can't absorb Gluten through your skin, but I know my hands split open and bleed whenever I touched Gluten. I do not have DH. Now I wear gloves when touching any foods that contain gluten. I do not recall an intestinal reaction, but the last touch reaction was close to a year ago.

[tarnalberry]

You can have contact dermatitis from gluten that is not related to being celiac as well.

[wildones]

Thanks for your replies. My son who has had diarrhea does not have DH. I will next time make it known to the teachers that they can't even touch things with gluten in then, if I had known they were doing this, I would have had them use the gloves like suggested. I suppose it is possible that he didn't get his hands clean enough to get rid of all of the gluten maybe ?

The project they made was a Roman road. It would have been expensive (but worth it) for me to provide alternatives for them to use. We have to bring food to everything we do and it gets really expensive for some things, especially since a lot of places won't give you any kind of break for not utilizing the food provided

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Hey there,

this is interesting. Just a few weeks ago my mother sent me a letter from germany with an articel from the newspaper. They were talking about a doctor who finds out allergies and intolerances with "Kinesiologie". I don't know the english word for it. But "Kinesiologie" is very widespread over there. Well, what they do is: They have different glass tubes shut with a lit. So nothing can come out of these glass tubes. Inside are pills with the allergen like wheat or so. The patient lies on the back and the doctor puts one glass on his belly. Then the patient has to lift one arm straight in the air and the doctor tries to push the arm down to his side. If the patient is strong enough to hold his arm up, there's no reaction to the substance in the glass. If the arm goes down, the patient also will show a reaction to the substance in the glass. After they tested all substances, they open the glasses with positive reaction, take one pill out and put it on your tongue, to make sure, the result was right. In the article they didn't say what reaction will show then. But that's kind of amazing. Unfortunately i've thrown it away. So i could've translated it word for word.

Greetings, Stef

[sashabetty]

Then the patient has to lift one arm straight in the air and the doctor tries to push the arm down to his side. If the patient is strong enough to hold his arm up, there's no reaction to the substance in the glass. If the arm goes down, the patient also will show a reaction to the substance in the glass.

The idea being that the patient doesn't know what is in which vial, and so the reactions are not biased. There are Americans that use this technique as well, which I have heard referred to as "muscle testing." Some people believe it to be a diagnostic tool and some people take it as quackery. I find it all interesting but am not really pro or con myself. But I am a believer that your body intuitively knows on some level what is and isn't good for it, so maybe for some people this would work.