Chapstick, gum, cough drops, medications...HELP!

[Brianne03]

Our 17 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Celiac and we haven't had any real education from her doctor yet; we are waiting for an upcoming appointment, so I've been trying to navigate and educate myself on my own. There are multiple products my daughter uses, such as medications, cough drops, chapstick, gum, etc. that do not contain gluten containing ingredients, but the manufacturers have not labeled the items gluten-free due to processing in a place that might pose a risk of cross contact or maybe not wanting to pay to test their products. How do we safely handle this? Is it a matter of comfortability or reaction?

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, Brianne03!

It is relatively easy, as you have discovered, to identify gluten-free products when considering only intentional ingredients but it can be much more difficult or impossible to get definitive answers about cross contamination. Does your daughter fall into the supersensitive category of celiacs? That is, does she have definite reactions to very small amounts of gluten exposure? If not, you might do well to just focus on listed ingredients and not worry too much about CC (cross contamination). In the things you list, gum and cough drops are probably the biggest concern. Most chewing gums have wheat starch in them. But some don't. My practice is to include the terms "gluten free" in my Amazon searches for those kinds of products. As to medications, this might be helpful but CC can not be ruled out with generic drugs: 

http://www.glutenfreedrugs.com/list.htm

[trents]

This might be helpful as well: 

 

[Scott Adams]

Be sure to search our articles, we've covered some of these:

 

 

You can search this site for prescriptions medications, but will need to know the manufacturer/maker if there is more than one, especially if you use a generic version of the medication:

To see the ingredients you will need to click on the correct version of the medication and maker in the results, then scroll down to "Ingredients and Appearance" and click it, and then look at "Inactive Ingredients," as any gluten ingredients would likely appear there, rather than in the Active Ingredients area.

• https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/ 

 

[Brianne03]

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions. She has had stomach issues since the day she was born; when a baby projectile vomiting, as a big kid mostly cramping and stabbing pain after eating and just overall feeling of not feeling great...headaches, tired. We've talked to her doctor about it several times over the years; the did some testing when she was about 2 years old, prescribed a few stomach meds over the years that never helped and most recently did a simple blood test and an endoscopy to confirm and voila....answers!! Her iron and vitamin D were both super low. Wish it didn't take so long for her to get some relief, although honestly she's wishing she didn't know because she's already feeling like she's missing out because everything in our world revolves around food. She graduates this year and going to college is going to bring on a whole new level of stress...for her and me. I'm hoping by then she'll be confident in reading labels and advocating for herself and what she can and cannot eat, etc. 

[Scott Adams]

I am in the same boat--my daughter is in a junior college and staying with us now, but will be going away this summer to a school far from home. We're doing the research now on their food options.