They Can't Really Be Serious About This?

[rgeelan]

I will have to buy new kitchen stuff??? If William comes back + for celiac disease I keep hearing that I will have to go get new thigns like a new toaster for his gluten-free bread only and I won't be able to cook his gluten-free food in the same containers that I use for regular food unless I wash them very well first... So I will have to make his food first if I dont want to buy a seperate set of pots and pans for him. And I should buy new seperate condiments for gluten-free food only. All this so that there is no chance of cross contamination by even a few crumbs of gluten getting in his food. Kris and I are 100% convinced that he has this allergy now because he hasn't had any Gluten since Thursday night and he is FINE! Not even a stomach ache!!! But when we tested it and gave him food with Gluten on Thursday night he threw up Friday morning again. I just keep praying that it is just an allergy because then he has hope of growing out of it where as if he has celiac disease he wont ever grow out of it and from what I keep reading even a little Gluten can cause major damage to him. The specialist was 75% positive that he has celiac disease just by the 1 blood test that came back but the base wont take that as a positive diagnosis...

I am beyond stressed at this point. We are so broke it isn't even funny... I splurged and bought Emma her coat.. It's furry like a dalmation print. She loves it... Cost $25 which I guess isn't all that bad for a winter coat but since we're broke it wasn't easy... Of course I also let William pick up a couple of cheep Star Wars toys he wanted. We're spoiling him this past week to make up for all the food we're saying no to and all the doctors he's seen and tests he had done...

I bought 3 books to help with this... 2 are cookbooks Wheat free and Gluten Free, 1 is normal food and 1 is just deserts. I figure if I can learn to make him good things like cookies and cakes then he won't be so upset over the things he can't have. I also got a book called Kids with Celiac Disease. It is good even if he doesn't have full blown celiac disease because the doctor said that if he doesn't have full blown celiac disease with the symptoms he had and how strong his allergy was it is very possible he could be a carrier still and have it show up later and he still has to follow the same diet because of his allergy. This book offers lots of suggestions for gluten-free foods and how to handle different situations which we are going through anyway becuase of his diet...

I just dont know what to do at this point... I keep reading and researching and even if he doesn't have celiac disease yet he at least has to have the same gluten-free diet because he has a strong allergy and all this stuff about needing a new toaster and things like that is just STRESSING ME OUT! We told our parents that from now on if they want to buy the kids something to buy food because we have enough toys and clothes for them but the food is killing us financially...

[tarnalberry]

You absolutely cannot use the same toaster - there's no way to get all the crumbs out. (Then again, I never use a toaster, but you can get a $10 toaster from WalMart after saving up.) But, depending on your cooking implements, you may not really need new pots and pans. If you've got stainless steel that's in decent shape, then just washing well is fine, but if you're using cast iron, you'll need new pans. You definitely have to clean the pan between uses - if you've ever cooked pasta, you can see how much starch comes out in the water. And if you've ever made a PB&J sandwhich, you see crumbs come off on the butterknife and can see that they'd contaminate peanut butter or jelly, so yes, any shared condiments need to have a unique container for the celiac.

But you may find that sticking to the basics - lots of rice and corn - makes it cheaper. You don't need to buy specialty gluten-free stuff, for the most part.

[celiac3270]

Just stay away from specialty foods.......go through your grocery store and find all the foods that are gluten-free........rice, potatoes, veggies, some canned goods, etc. There are a lot of mainstream products, but it helps to know brand names going into it.....FritoLays, Hormel, Oscar Mayer, etc. and find out what products by each are gluten-free if possible. Remember that Kraft clearly displays gluten on their ingredients lists......here's a section of the site that has mainstream products/brands that are gluten-free:

Mainstream products that are gluten-free (celiac.com)

[rgeelan]

Thanks guys... I laughed when I started reading my book that I bought and the lady who wrote it said how her first trip to the regular grocery store looking for food she left with a bunch of Fritos. LMAO! I did the same thing. I went looking for what I could buy and left with Fritos as the only "non specailty" food. The store I went to had a lot of natural and healt foods so I was able to find things like those Envirokidz bars that William likes...

I keep thinking I am getting ok with the idea of this new diet then it slaps me in the face again and I start freaking out again. William keeps asking for food he can't have and I keep telling him over and over why he can't have it but he laughs and says no, my tummy is fine... LOL! Of course he hasn't had Gluten since Thursday night...

I have to ask though... WHY a new toaster? My husband and I are going around in circles trying to figure this out. After all the crumbs fall down to the bottom and the bread just rests on a little metal wire so how is it getting contaminated?

[tarnalberry]

Have you ever tried cleaning one out? You'll find that there really are crumbs all over the metal that the bread does touch. For $10, it's not worth the risk

[dmbaird1230]

my husband and I have a toaster oven and when I toast my gluten-free bread I put it on a piece of foil so that it doesn't touch the metal grate that the other bread has touched, do you think that's ok?

[celiac3270]

Well, it's better than just using the same toaster, but for $10 you could make things a lot safer and reduce the risk of contamination

[debmidge]

I too thought we could get away without getting a new toaster....and I tried cleaning out the old one....cleaning it to the point of almost wanting to wash it out!! But my meticulous cleaning still couldn't dislodge all of the residue. There were layers of crumbs that unless I used a flashlight I couldn't see. I then realized that when using it for gluten-free toast, everytime the toast would pop up the residue would dislodge itself and get on the gluten-free bread. This would be unacceptable. I also purchased new wooden spoons and spatulas based on this same theory (that gluten gets into the worn out cracks and crevices).

I broke down and purchased a $10 toaster, but kept the old one for the gluten breads (but haven't used the old one since - my husband is celiac, not me).

Am I glad I purchased new? You bet! He was so sick that he didn't need any more risk factors for a reaction.

I do have a question for the long time celiacs, what about an aluminum pot that isn't stainless steel and was used to cook wheat macaroni? Would using a Brillo pad in it be sufficient to clean out gluten residue?

[Pegster]

I'm not a long time celiac, but I've never had a reaction from using my same old pots and pans (aluminum, stainless, etc.) The only thing I bought was the same cheap $9.99 toaster that everyone else seems to have. Oh, I did buy a pasta pot with a strainer in the lid for my special pasta- but now my whole family has the gluten-free pasta with me.

[tarnalberry]

I haven't replaced my pans either - though I no longer use my cast iron skillet, which I will have to replace as soon as I want to use one. We don't primarily use teflon anyway. (I've got a bird, and at high temperatures, non-stick coatings can give off toxic fumes. Birds are highly sensitive to these fumes (though they can harm humans, they hit birds way before that stage) and can die from very brief, very minimal exposure.) And the rest of our pots are either stainless steel or anodized aluminum, both of which clean well and have hardly ever seen wheat anyway (and not something that would relentless stick).

We do have one non-stick gridle, purchased after I went gluten-free, that is used for pancakes and corn tortillas only. We do use it for both gluten-filled and gluten-free pancakes, however, but I am extraordinarily anal rententive about no metal and no abrasive substance touching it, so the surface has not been scratched and I've never had a problem. While most non-stick surfaces can be porous, you're supposed to heat them well first, so that the non-stick chemicals on the surface of the pan expand and flow together, leaving no spaces between them. I've never had a problem from this pan. (I would, however, never cook something that would stick on it - once that happened, I'd replace it.)

You know, I haven't replaced my plastic strainer, but I probably should. I usually use a pasta cooker anyway (the pots with the built in stainless steel insert that acts as a strainer), and I feel confident about being able to fully clean that one.

I was also a bit worried when I read about pots and pans, but I think you really need to use some good judgement on this one. Well, first throw any considerations about money out the window - you don't want a biasing effect on your decision, and you can always find a way for the solution to fit into your budget. I decided that between the type of pots and pans that I've got and the type of cooking that I do, there was little chance for wheat to be stuck to my pots. In other situations, it may have been necessary.

I have stopped using my old bakeware, though kept a set of non-stick bakeware (and worry about my bird every time I use it, and only use it on lower temperature baking...) which I had purchased just before going gluten-free and had kept unscratched doesn't have any stuck on residue.