Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Gluten Free Cheerios


pschwab

Recommended Posts

pschwab Enthusiast

I was wondering what the popular opinion is on the safety of gluten free cheerios? I know they have a controversial process to get the gluten out of the oats, and I know they had a slip up about a year ago where they put wheat flour in some batches. I'm assuming after all the bad press that General Mills is testing the heck out of the product to ensure safety. But does anyone have any recent information or personal experience? Lucky Charms are made by the same company using the same process, and no one seems to be protesting or warning against the safety of those. I'm somewhat worried about giving them the cereal, not seeing any outward sign of damage, but having damage done to the intestines. We are fairly recent to celiac and gluten free. My three year old is the only one with celiac, but my husband and seven year old have the gene. As far as I know, my son has not been glutened since we went gluten free 8 months ago, but I'm worried about his ability to articulate if he is feeling glutened and we don't' recognize the signs. I'd like to be able to give my kids Cheerios again, but I'd never compromise their safety if there's any doubt. Any suggestions would be great as most of the info floating around the internet is months or more old. Thanks!


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Froggymom3 Rookie

I just had honey nut cheerios for the first time this week. I have almost eaten the whole box and have not had any negative reactions. ?

Ennis-TX Grand Master

Made me sick when I tried them back in February. But I also have other issues and am hyper sensitive.

cyclinglady Grand Master

I stand with Trisha Thompson of the Gluten Free Watchdog (kind of like Consumer Reports for gluten).  She does not recommend them, nor does the Canadian Celiac Organization.  Scroll down to the comments that are from 2016.  Folks are still reporting  they are getting sick.  It seems to be a bit of Russion Roulette.  Personally, we do not eat them.  My downtime is about three months.  No non-certified gluten-free cereal is worth the risk for me!  

Open Original Shared Link

Anyway, at six months after diagnosis, your son should be re-tested to see if his antibodies are normal or at least going down.  That is standard care for celiacs.  

Open Original Shared Link

pschwab Enthusiast
46 minutes ago, cyclinglady said:

I stand with Trisha Thompson of the Gluten Free Watchdog (kind of like Consumer Reports for gluten).  She does not recommend them, nor does the Canadian Celiac Organization.  Scroll down to the comments that are from 2016.  Folks are still reporting  they are getting sick.  It seems to be a bit of Russion Roulette.  Personally, we do not eat them.  My downtime is about three months.  No non-certified gluten-free cereal is worth the risk for me!  

Open Original Shared Link

Anyway, at six months after diagnosis, your son should be re-tested to see if his antibodies are normal or at least going down.  That is standard care for celiacs.  

Open Original Shared Link

Thanks for the link to the recent comments! Do you know anything about the Lucky Charms? I'm thinking the process is similar to the Cheerios. My son was retested after 6 months and his antibodies had dropped from 300 to 71. We are having him retested after 6 more months instead of a year hoping his levels will have reached normal. That's part of why I'm so hesitant to try any food that is not guaranteed as safe as possible; he is still recovering and doing so well. Thanks!

RMJ Mentor

I don't know if this would help, I've been eating Nature's Path Whole O's which are certified gluten free.  They don't taste or crunch like cheerios (they are harder) but they are the same shape.  They don't contain oats.  They are also a lot more expensive than Cheerios.

cyclinglady Grand Master

I can not specifically speak for Lucky Charms, but if it's made from oats (think it is), I would treat it the same as the Cheerios.  Some celiacs (about 10%) react to oats regardless if they are certified or not.  Certified gluten-free oats must not be grown in fields that once had wheat for four years.   Each batch is tested.  The problem  with GM's oats is their mechanical sorting method and they way the test batches of the final product.  What it comes down to is that some of the boxes could have gluten above 20 ppm.  Some might be less than 20 ppm.

I follow Jane Anderson on VeryWell.  She's a very conservative celiac as she has DH (celiac rash).  This is what she says about oats and Cheerios:

Open Original Shared Link 

Again, some folks are wiling to risk it.  Personally, it's just cereal and I think there are better things to eat for breakfast.  Congratulations on working hard to get your son's antibodies to come down so rapidly!  He's too little to thank you now, but someday he will!  


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Vixen Mum Newbie

I have eaten Cheerios 4 different times, enjoyed the taste, but had a reaction every time.  I gave them the benefit of doubt hoping that they were perfecting their gluten removal process.   Unfortunately, I will not be trying Cheerios again in the future as I do not want to deal with the reaction.  I will continue to pay for and eat certified gluten free oats and not have a reaction.

  • 1 month later...
MamaJoy Newbie

We have multiple children who have gluten sensitivities and one 9-year old celiac. The household is entirely gluten free for practical purposes so naturally, all were excited to see gluten free Cheerios! We had them in the house for two weeks during November 2016 and my celiac daughter had at least one handful daily.  I started noticing a return of some of her symptoms. Bubble belly, inability to focus, speech difficulties, exhaustion, diarrhea. I could not figure out the source and made a list of everything out of the ordinary. Cheerios was the only thing that was different and in spite of that gluten-free label, we stopped buying them immediately. Her symptoms began improving within a week. Not worth the risk to us. 

pdm1981 Collaborator

"The Canadian Celiac Association (CCA) recommends that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity DO NOT consume the gluten-free labeled Cheerios products at this time because of concerns about the potential levels of gluten in boxes of these cereals...Based on the information provided to date, our scientific advisors are not convinced that the testing procedures described by General Mills are sufficient to detect these contamination “hot spots” in the oats and oat flour or in the boxes of cereal that may contain those contaminated oats." 

That was posted on their website earlier last year and to the best of my knowledge, nothing has changed. Some people are eating them and doing fine but I guess it has to due with these "hot spots". If you want to roll the dice I guess it's no different than eating out but I got really sick when I ate the Cheerios in September 2016. Good luck if you give it a go.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      131,187
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Kris46
    Newest Member
    Kris46
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.4k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Ginger38
      So I recently had allergy testing for IGE antibodies in response to foods. My test results came back positive to corn, white potatoes, egg whites. Tomatoes, almonds and peanuts to name a few.  I have had obvious reactions to a few of these - particularly tomatoes and corn- both GI issues. I don’t really understand all this allergy versus celiac stuff. If the food allergies are mild do I have to avoid these foods entirely? I don’t know what I will eat if I can’t  have corn based gluten free products 
    • Kris2093u4
      Geography makes a difference.  I'm in the West and Trader Joe's gluten-free bread tastes great and is a better price than most gluten-free breads sold elsewhere in my area.  
    • JForman
      We have four children (7-14 yo), and our 7 year old was diagnosed with NCGS (though all Celiac labs were positive, her scope at 4 years old was negative so docs in the US won't call it celiac). We have started her on a Gluten Free diet after 3 years of major digestive issues and ruling out just about everything under the sun. Our home and kitchen and myself are all gluten-free. But I have not asked my husband/her dad or her other siblings to go completely gluten-free with us. They are at home, but not out of the home. This has led to situations when we are eating out where she has to consistently see others eating things she can't have and she has begun to say "Well, I can't have <fill in the blank>...stupid gluten."  How have you supported your gluten-free kiddos in the mental health space of this journey, especially young ones like her. I know it's hard for me as an adult sometimes to miss out, so I can't imagine being 7 and dealing with it! Any tips or ideas to help with this? 
    • Jane878
      By the time I was 5 I had my first auto0immune disorder, Migraine headaches, with auras to blind me, and vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound. I was 5 years old, and my stepfather would have pizza night, milling his own flour, making thick cheesy gluten pizza, that I would eat and the next day, I would have serious migraines, and my mother & stepfather did nothing about my medical problems. When I was 17 in my first year at college, I was diagnosed with my 2nd known auto-immune disorder, Meniere's disease. I was a elite athlete, a swimmer, and soccer player. And once again my parents didn't think anything of understanding why I had a disorder only older people get. Now after my mother passed from Alzheimer's disease she also suffered with living with gluten. She had a rash for 30 years that nobody could diagnose. She was itchy for 45 years total. My brother had a encapsulated virus explodes in his spleen and when this happened his entire intestines were covered with adhesions, scar tissue and he almost lost his life. He has 5 daughters, and when I finally was diagnosed after being pregnant and my body went into a cytokine storm, I lost my chance to have children, I ended up having Hashimoto's disease, Degenerative Disc disease, and my body started to shut down during my first trimester. I am 6ft tall and got down to 119lbs. My husband and I went to a special immunologist in Terrace, California. They took 17 vials of blood as we flew there for a day and returned home that evening. In 3 weeks, we had the answer, I have Celiac disease. Once this was known, only my father and husband made efforts to change their way of feeding me. At the family cabin, my stepfather & mother were more worried that I would ruin Thanksgiving Dinner. It wasn't until one of my cousins was diagnosed with Celiac disease. They finally looked into getting Gluten Free flour and taking measures to limit "gluten" in meals. He did nothing but ask for me to pay for my own food and wi-fi when I came to the cabin to stay after our house burned down. When he informed my mother, they proceeding to get into a physical fight and she ended up with a black eye. The is just more trauma for me. Sam had no interest in telling the truth about what he wanted. He lied to my mother that he had asked my husband if I could pay for "food" when he asked Geoffrey if I had money to pay for my wi-fi. My mother hates when he spends so much time on the computer so he lied and said I could pay for my own food. I will remind you I weighed 119lbs at this time. (At 6ft) that is a very sick looking person. Neither parent was worried about my weight, they just fought about how cheap my stepfather was. As my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. He had her sign over the will to a trust and added his children. He had no testimonial capacity at the time, so she signed without proper papers. Making this Trust null and void. When I gave my brother my childhood home, my mother stated I would be getting an equal part of inheritance to the house on Race. It currently worth 2.0 million $. I got nothing, and my stepfather has since disowned me b/c of my claim and he knows that my mother would never have left it uneven between my biological brother and myself. She sat me and my husband down, as we lived at the Race Street house and treated and took care of it as our own. My brother took over b/c he was going through a horrific divorce and needed a home so he could get a better custody deal with his soon to be ex-wife who was a Assist DA for Denver. She used the girls against him, and he & I were the primary caregivers. We, Judd and I spent the most time with them pre the divorce. Once Judd moved into the house, he threw all of my mother, grandmother and my family heirlooms out to the Goodwill. Nobody told my mother about this as she was going through cancer treatment and had Alzheimer's disease in her mother and her sister. My stepfather and biological brother took advantage of this matter, as I called a "family council" that my brother just never could make it to at the last moment. All of the furnishing, kitchen ware, everything was in the house my brother just moved into. He had had 2 weddings, I chose to elope b/c my stepfather ruined my brother's first wedding by talking about his relationship with my brother in front of my dad and his entire family, insulting him and having my grandfather leave the ceremony. It was a disaster. My stepfather just plays dumb and blames my father for the slight. I was the only child not to have a wedding. So, my mother and stepfather never had to pay for a thing. My mother had had an agreement with my father he'd pay for college and all medical issues with their kids, myself and Judd. So truly my mother never had to pay for anything big for me in her entire life. I am looking for anyone that has had a similar story, where they grew up in a household that had a baker that regularly milled flour and ate gluten. What happened to you? DId you suffer from different auto-immune diseases b/c of living with a baker using "gluten" Please let me know. I have been looking into legal ways to get my stepfather to give me what my mother had promised, and he erased. Thank you for listening to my story. Jane Donnelly  
    • trents
      Possibly gluten withdrawal. Lot's of info on the internet about it. Somewhat controversial but apparently gluten plugs into the same neuro sensors as opiates do and some people get a similar type withdrawal as they do when quitting opiates. Another issue is that gluten-free facsimile flours are not fortified with vitamins and minerals as is wheat flour (in the U.S. at least) so when the switch is made to gluten-free facsimile foods, especially if a lot of processed gluten-free foods are being used as substitutes, vitamin and mineral deficiencies can result. There is also the possibility that she has picked up a virus or some but that is totally unrelated to going gluten-free.
×
×
  • Create New...