Jump to content
  • 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

Play Doh Alternatives?


mom2twoangels

Recommended Posts

mom2twoangels Apprentice

Hi,

Do you all let your kids play with play doh? I understand it has wheat in it? Alternatives?

thanks,


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



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



ravenwoodglass Mentor
Hi,

Do you all let your kids play with play doh? I understand it has wheat in it? Alternatives?

thanks,

I would not risk it. Sculpey clays are gluten-free and you can bake the art work if you want and keep it forever or you can break the projects down and reuse.

CeliacAlli Apprentice

When I was in kindergarten I got VERY sick from playing with playdough, don't risk it.

Alternative:

Gluten-Free Play Dough

Ingredients:

happygirl Collaborator

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

dandelionmom Enthusiast

The two commercial gluten-free playdohs we've tried have been disappointing. One is crumbly and not very moldable and the other has a very strong scent added to it that was okay at first but now the kids complain about it. We usually use moonsand in place of playdoh. It is a pain to clean up after but the kids love it. Target has a few sets on clearance right now so I stocked up!

jitters Apprentice

I was watching the show John and Kate plus Eight the other day and she made her kids edible play dough.

Said the recipe was equal parts peanut putter, powdered sugar, and honey. I've never tried it but it might be fun for little kids, just give them their own little ball of dough and let them nibble on it a little at the end.

mom2twoangels Apprentice

Thanks for the replies, I will probably try the moonsand but I hear that it makes a huge mess? I can't do the edible version as my son has Ige food allergies to nuts. Perhaps I could sub sunbutter - once I challenge him on sunflower seeds...


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



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Swansonjohnson Newbie
Thanks for the replies, I will probably try the moonsand but I hear that it makes a huge mess? I can't do the edible version as my son has Ige food allergies to nuts. Perhaps I could sub sunbutter - once I challenge him on sunflower seeds...

We sometimes use "Play Foam" it is gluten free and doesn't make as much of a mess....we are talking about an activity that is messy to begin with so I always try and tell myself "let's be realistic" We use sunbutter as a substitute for pb all the time! :)

  • 4 weeks later...
mtngirl Newbie

Hi, sorry about the ignorance, but is Play Doh unsafe becasue kids may eat it or will they get sick if they just touch it? Thanks!

  • 1 year later...
Roda Rising Star

I am replacing my 5 year olds play doh so I can play with him and not have the risk of cross contamination. I just ordered a variety pack of Soy-Yer dough. I believe it has 11- 6 oz tubs in a variety of colors. They do have a soy free version if you have problems with that. They are scented, so if smells bother you this may not be desireable. I know that my son will love that they smell. Alot of his play doh toys are food related. I am going to sanitize the toys so they will be ready to go when I get his new dough. I'll post back after I recieve it and tell you what I think.

Glutenfree4LJS Newbie

I buy my sons from Lakeshore Learning Center. If you don't have a store near you I think you can buy online. They sell both regular and gluten free. Been using it for a few months now and really like. Smells much better to me than regular playdoh. Good Luck!

mygfworld Apprentice

We use the dough from Discount School Supplies. It's a web site just google it. The dough is gluten-free. It's a big tubthat lasts forever and works well in the playdough presses and toys.

RE why you can't use real playdough. Lots of celiacs can touch gluten without problems. I'm not one of them. I can't touch the stuff. My daughter got very sick glutening off playdough once. It got stuck under her nails at a friends house. After a day of play and eating her gluten-free lunch she must have ingested the dough. So we never use real playdough anymore.

We also have a nut allergy. Try the enjoylife brand cookies and cherrybrooke kitchen mixes. Both gluten-free/cf and nut free.

Roda Rising Star

The soy-yer dough came today. I washed all of my son's play doh toys so we could play with the new stuff. We love it! It works really well with his toys. The scents are very subtle, not to strong. Some of them I can hardly tell they are scented. He has a martian matter toy that uses a wheat based modeling compound that I am going to clean up tomorrow and use this for making his aliens! We are going to have a full day of playing tommorow. :)

Archived

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


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      132,397
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Megannnnn
    Newest Member
    Megannnnn
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
    • Scott Adams
      I had the same thing happen to me at around your age, and to this day it's the most painful experience I've ever had. For me it was the right side of my head, above my ear, running from my nerves in my neck. For years before my outbreak I felt a tingling sensation shooting along the exact nerves that ended up exactly where the shingles blisters appeared. I highly recommend the two shot shingles vaccine as soon as your turn 50--I did this because I started to get the same tingling sensations in the same area, and after the vaccines I've never felt that again.  As you likely know, shingles is caused by chicken pox, which was once though of as one of those harmless childhood viruses that everyone should catch in the wild--little did they know that it can stay in your nervous system for your entire life, and cause major issues as you age.
    • trents
    • Clear2me
      Thanks for the info. I recently moved to CA from Wyoming and in that western region the Costco and Sam's /Walmart Brands have many nuts and more products that are labeled gluten free. I was told it's because those products are packaged and processed  in different  plants. Some plants can be labeled  gluten free because the plant does not also package gluten products and they know that for example the trucks, containers equipment are not used to handle wheat, barely or Rye. The Walmart butter in the western region says gluten free but not here. Most of The Kirkland and Members Mark brands in CA say they are from Vietnam. That's not the case in Wyoming and Colorado. I've spoken to customer service at the stores here in California. They were not helpful. I check labels every time I go to the store. The stores where I am are a Sh*tshow. The Magalopoly grocery chain Vons/Safeway/Albertsons, etc. are the same. Fishers and Planters brands no longer say gluten free. It could be regional. There are nuts with sugar coatings and fruit and nut mixes at the big chains that are labeled gluten free but I don't want the fruit or sugar.  It's so difficult I am considering moving again. I thought it would be easier to find safe food in a more populated area. It's actually worse.  I was undiagnosed for most of my life but not because I didn't try to figure it out. So I have had all the complications possible. I don't have any spare organs left.  No a little gluten will hurt you. The autoimmune process continues to destroy your organs though you may not feel it. If you are getting a little all the time and as much as we try we probably all are and so the damage is happening. Now the FDA has pretty much abandoned celiacs. There are no requirements for labeling for common allergens on medications. All the generic drugs made outside the US are not regulated for common allergens and the FDA is taking the last gluten free porcine Thyroid med, NP Thyroid, off the market in 2026. I was being glutened by a generic levothyroxin. The insurance wouldn't pay for the gluten free brand any longer because the FDA took them all off their approved formulary. So now I am paying $147 out of pocket for NP Thyroid but shortly I will have no safe choice. Other people with allergies should be aware that these foreign generic pharmaceutical producers are using ground shellfish shell as pill coatings and anti-desicants. The FDA knows this but  now just waits for consumers to complain or die. The take over of Wholefoods by Amazon destroyed a very reliable source of good high quality food for people with allergies and for people who wanted good reliably organic food. Bezos thought  he could make a fortune off people who were paying alot for organic and allergen free food by substituting cheap brands from Thailand. He didn't understand who the customers were who were willing to pay more for that food and why. I went from spending hundreds to nothing because Bezo removed every single trusted brand that I was buying. Now they are closing Whole foods stores across the country. In CA, Mill Valley store (closed July 2025) and the National Blvd. store in West Los Angeles (closed October 2025). The Cupertino store will close.  In recent years I have learned to be careful and trust no one. I have been deleberately glutened in a restaurant that was my favorite (a new employee). The Chef owner was not in the kitchen that night. I've had  a metal scouring pad cut up over my food.The chain offered gluten free dishes but it only takes one crazy who thinks you're a problem as a food fadist. Good thing I always look. Good thing they didn't do that to food going to a child with a busy mom.  I give big tips and apologize for having to ask in restaurants but mental illness seem to be rampant. I've learn the hard way.          I don't buy any processed food that doesn't say gluten free.  I am a life long Catholic. I worked for the Church while at college. I don't go to Church anymore because the men at the top decided Jesus is gluten. The special hosts are gluten less not gluten free. No I can't drink wine after people with gluten in their mouth and a variety of deadly germs. I have been abandoned and excluded by my Church/Family.  Having nearly died several times, safe food is paramount. If your immune system collapses as mine did, you get sepsis. It can kill you very quickly. I spent 5 days unconscious and had to have my appendix and gall bladder removed because they were necrotic. I was 25. They didn't figure out I had celiac till I was 53. No one will take the time to tell you what can happen when your immune system gets overwhelmed from its constant fighting the gluten and just stops. It is miserable that our food is processed so carelessly. Our food in many aspects is not safe. And the merging of all the grocery chains has made it far worse. Its a disaster. Krogers also recently purchased Vitacost where I was getting the products I could no longer get at Whole Foods. Kroger is eliminating those products from Vitacost just a Bezos did from WF. I am looking for reliable and certified sources for nuts. I have lived the worst consequences of the disease and being exposed unknowingly and maliciously. Once I was diagnosed I learned way more than anyone should have to about the food industry.  I don't do gray areas. And now I dont eat out except very rarely.  I have not eaten fast food for 30 years before the celiac diagnosis. Gluten aside..... It's not food and it's not safe.  No one has got our backs. Sharing safe food sources is one thing we can do to try to be safe.        
    • Mmoc
      Thank you kindly for your response. I have since gotten the other type of bloods done and am awaiting results. 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.