"De-glutening" The House Question

[weekendwarrior]

Hi again everyone,

I'm in the middle of planning a full kitchen / pantry overhaul this weekend, and I have a few questions:

1. We have school aged children. Can I buy individually wrapped snacks to put in their lunches, without worry? Meaning, they'll never be open in our house, but it'll help them "not notice" the changes going on around them! ?

 

2. Is there an overall rule with pots / pans and ceramic plates / bowls when it comes to replacing? We plan on replacing all cutting boards, plastic Tupperware and wooden / plastic spoons / utensils (because of their cross contamination issues), but I'm not sure about the other things.

3. Along with #2, we have a slow cooker, should that be replaced? We're going to replace the toaster & waffle maker.

Thank you all in advance for the advice! I want to do this once, and do it right, so I don't have to feel like this any longer.

 

 

 

 

[pschwab]

1. Yes. We keep individual packs of things in our garage to send to school. The only reason we keep them in the garage is our kids are 3, 5 and 7 with the 3yr old having celiac. Our rule is absolutely no gluten in the house since they are young and forgetful. And that way he knows everything in his home is always safe. If your kids are safe enough there should be no worries. It might be overkill but I'm also very cautious about not allowing the 3yr old to use their plastic reusable water canteens that they use at school in case of cross contamination.

2. We replaced glass, ceramic and metal items only if they were noticeably scratched. We replaced all our pots and pans because they were older and definitely scratched. We didn't replace our slow cooker because it was fairly new and didn't have noticeable scratches. So basically check for scratches that could hold old gluten.

Our entire house went gluten free so I figured replace anything in question. Like you said, "Do it once and do it right." I hope you start to feel better!!

[Ennis-TX]

9 hours ago, weekendwarrior said:

Hi again everyone,

I'm in the middle of planning a full kitchen / pantry overhaul this weekend, and I have a few questions:

1. We have school aged children. Can I buy individually wrapped snacks to put in their lunches, without worry? Meaning, they'll never be open in our house, but it'll help them "not notice" the changes going on around them! ?

 

2. Is there an overall rule with pots / pans and ceramic plates / bowls when it comes to replacing? We plan on replacing all cutting boards, plastic Tupperware and wooden / plastic spoons / utensils (because of their cross contamination issues), but I'm not sure about the other things.

3. Along with #2, we have a slow cooker, should that be replaced? We're going to replace the toaster & waffle maker.

Thank you all in advance for the advice! I want to do this once, and do it right, so I don't have to feel like this any longer.

 

 

 

 

I personally would play it safe and replace everything, few thing should be ok like non scratched ceramic, and stainless steel if you scrub the heck out of it and it has no new scratches. As to the slow cooker they have liners for them that should help. For a while I would suggest using freezer paper for your prep surfaces to help with issues. And you seem to be well on track, scrub out the ovens, handles on everything, like you were cleaning a crime scene. Gluten is a protein chain, >.> I apply very similar cleaning methods if you can clean it like blood where a forensic team can not find it you should be fine.

As to the snack Enjoy Life has gluten-free cookies, bars, etc that are great for kids and can't tell. Gerbs allergen Friendly foods has great line up of dried fruits and seeds. Just to get you started. I can give you other companies if you need help finding flours, nuts, etc. and recipes for making foods and deserts. Spicely Organics has gluten-free spices, Authentic Foods for flours, and I found a place call YumRush that has dip mixes, soups and dried veggies that are great in soups. Van's Makes some great gluten-free cereal, waffles, muffins.

[kareng]

You will want dedicated gluten-free waffle makers, toasters, colander, etc.  remember not to rinse fruit in the glutened colander.  But you really don't have to go nuts with this.  I know people on here can get a bit over zealous, but most of the Celiac world does not  throw away thier dishes or replace all their  pans.  Many of us have gluten and gluten-free in a single house.

Slow down.  Start for a week or two with trying to figure out some basic gluten-free cooking.  You can tweak it after that.  Use some common sense.  If you can clean something well, it's fine.  Colanders, toasters and waffle irons are hard to clean thouroughly.  That old jar of PB that probably has crumbs in it needs to be for the  gluten eaters.  The utensil drawers seem to harbor crumbs.  The sugar canister might have flour in it.  

 

I find it easiest if we all eat gluten-free pasta as it is a logistical nightmare to keep two pots of pasta and thier spoons separate.  But you can keep cereal, crackers, bread, etc separate.  I use red duct tape on the top of the gluten-free pb, butter tubs, etc.  

 

white vinegar dissolves wheat flour residue - so a nice soak of the crockpot and a scrub should do the trick.  Same for pots.  If you worry you didn't get all the gluten - cook some plain water.

[Alwayssomething]

When I had no gluten free children in the house I used a over the door shoe holder with clear pockets and each pocket had a fruit cup, bag of chips or a fruit cup and cheeze it's or cookies or something in it.  The kids just grabbed and put in their lunch, sometimes it had other things like fruit leather or nuts.    Worked great and was convenient.