Preschool Cc Or Yoplait Kids?

[Esther Sparhawk]

Now that school is back in session, Annie has been back at preschool. While she was home with me -- the gluten-free-freak-mom -- her diet was going pretty well. Now that she's back at preschool, I've seen some occassionally looser stools.

Of course there's going to be cross-contamination at a preschool: other kids' fingers, table crumbs, spills on the floor. Gluten happens.

But I'm also concerned about an item that I recently added to her diet. I emailed Yoplait about the gluten-free status of their products. Their response email said, "All of our products are gluten-free, but you should read labels just to be sure" -- that handy catch-all phrase that companies like to use these days.

Has anyone else tried Yoplait Kids yogurts? Their ingredients list modified corn starch and natural flavors, two items we can never be sure about.

I know this could be posted under "foods", but since it's a kids' food, I'm thinking other moms will know better than the general public. That's why I posted under "parents".

[Guest nini]

yoplait kids is fine.

I would suspect cc at preschool is the culprit, anything from playdough left on the tables to crafts with pasta to paste or art supplies or simply other kids gluteny fingers leaving crumbs and trails everywhere. Even the hand soap they use could be suspect. Check EVERYTHING!

Fortunately for me when my daughter was in preschool the first year she was gluten-free, her teacher was my best friend, so I trusted her to make sure everything was clean and she always checked ingredients on art supplies and soaps and such. Even so it still took us a while to figure out that the play dough she was playing with everyday contained wheat and that is what was causing her to break out in hives and continue to have diarrhea.

[Guhlia]

Do they have Play-Doh at her preschool? That could be the culprit. And, as Nini said, art supplies are notoriously sneaky for containing hidden gluten. Another possibility could be her teacher... Does her teacher wash her hands a lot and therefore apply lotion often and then touch the kids? Not all lotions are gluten free. I hope you figure it out soon.

[Esther Sparhawk]

Check EVERYTHING!

You guys on this website are so awesome! Glad to hear Yoplait Kids isn't the guilty party, because she was really enjoying them in her lunches!

Before I even checked your responses on this website, I had also come up with a possible art supply source in my mind. Yesterday, for example, they used paint. I gave the preschool teacher some paints (Crayola) which I had researched and believed to be gluten free. I wonder if the preschool teacher forgot to use the gluten-free paints. I'll enquire about this today.

I hadn't thought about the soap at the preschool. I'll check that too. This preschool is run through a home, so the lady in charge hates it when I nit-pick about stuff like that, but maybe it will lessen the blow if I suggest bringing Annie a little soap in a portable soap box, for times when they get really messy, and the rest of the time, she can just wash with water.

I was the one who posted complications with Colorations gluten-free playdough last summer. I've since gotten the right gluten-free Colorations playdough in the mail, and she uses that at preschool.

Thanks again for all your ideas.