Help; New To Gf Diet

[Guest Mari]

I'm new to all this, having been diagnosed only a week ago (and it came as a big surprise, since I am asymptomatic.) I have a 3 year old and a husband who all like gluten. Am I supposed to cut it out of their diets too? Or do I have a dual kitchen. How do I do that? Do I need all separate utensils, pots and pans, etc? what about sponges? Please Help, I feel so overwhelmed! (not to mention, what do I eat now?

Mari

[KaitiUSA]

You definately need a separate toaster....pots and pans need to be cleaned....you should get new cookie sheets too.

https://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=12

You should definately print out these lists. They are a good guideline for the forbidden ingredients and safe things. You should also check makeup, toothpastes, lotions, and such for risks of getting into your mouth.

Brands such as Kraft and General Mills will not hide any gluten in their label so unless it says wheat,rye,barley,oats on the label then it is safe. There are quite a few brands that do this.

It will get easier with time and this is an excellent site to get information off of. Good luck and hang in there....if you need anything let me know

[catfish]

I cook almost exclusively in my house, and I can make almost anything better gluten-free than anyone I know can make the same with gluten. There are exceptions;

Pasta is one. I can make an exceptional gluten-free pasta, but it takes all day. So I normally make a large batch and freeze it, but only I eat this. My family gets regular pasta boiled in a seperate container.

Bread is another. I can make a great loaf of bread but it stores poorly compared to regular bread and grinding the great northern beans to make the flour is time consuming, so my family gets regular bread and I eat the gluten-free stuff.

I allow my family to eat store-bought cupcakes and brownies and all that junk-type snack food (I don't care for it anyway) and I sometimes make Ramen or easy mac & cheese for the kids, but almost everything else we eat is gluten-free. So I basically only worry about contamination when I make pasta or sandwiches, and then I'm just careful to clean the pots and utensils well and when I make sandwiches I use paper plates (great things those paper plates).

[kabowman]

I am the only one gluten-free in our family of 5. I have a husband, two sons (one with stomach problems but neg. test for celiac disease), and a step daughter.

I got rid of all regular flour and flour type mixes like bisquick that we kept on hand for pancakes. I keep all my flours on hand for baking and cooking. I have a separate shelf in the pantry for my specialty foods and a special shelf in the 'fridge for my foods and they know those are mine and do not touch.

All condiments, get duplicates...I use the same pans but are dilligent about washing, the wooden utensils are used only for gluten-free. I do have one separate cast iron skillet from the rest of the family since those don't get washed. I am nuts about keeping the counters clean since getting sick from bread crumbs in the past.

Go to the library and check out all the gluten-free cookbooks you can carry and start reading. There are tons you can do, they just require cooking. My motto is, if I don't cook, I don't eat. Pretty simple. There are some things that I buy but basically that is it for me...

My husband and I both cook, most meals are gluten-free (among other things, I have many OTHER food intolerances), however, I keep normal frozen pizza's on hand for quick meals for the kids and hubby, I also have some side dishes like mac & cheese to go with the gluten-free foods. We keep all utensils separate when we do cook some of these non-safe-for-Kate foods. Only occasionally do we cook two meals - like pizza night. I cannot have yeast or dairly so I fix my pizza first (fumes in the oven) and then we fix pizza for the rest of the family.

Everyone has adjusted...there had been complaints but my husband was right there with me - we let the kids complain that the pancakes were different, etc...they now don't say much and eat along with me.

It gets better with practice but read every lable and then re-read it when you buy it again just in case they have changed the ingredients! I don't do that EVERY time but do routine checks for the stuff I do buy regularly.

-Kate

[cdford]

I started out keeping a separate cabinet for the gluten-free stuff. I found that only using a separate shelf allowed for too much risk of cross contamination. When we realized that our celiac disease kid was sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night and eating everything she could get her hands on that she shouldn't, we had to go completely gluten-free.

I replaced my baking pans and most of my cookware. I have a set of cast iron skillets that I boiled out repeatedly then reseasoned. They seem to be working okay. Since we did a lot of baking, I had to go to extreme a little and wipe down all walls and cabinets in the kitchen to ensure that there was no wheat dust hanging around. I am pretty sensitive. I keep one of each type of pan for those rare times when they are allowed gluten items in the house (when my daughter is out).

Most stuff can be made easily gluten-free and the family doesn't know the difference. Exceptions to that are breads, pastas, and some baked desserts. I don't buy separate ice creams or spices. I just keep one type--gluten-free.

Our biggest concern with not keeping a totally gluten-free home has been the carelessness of the non-cders in our family. They don't even think about grabbing the wrong pan from the cabinet or eating wheat loaded chips on the couch or in my bed. They tend to leave the crumbs sitting around on the cabinets to get into everything.

Make your choices based on your personal situation. If you are extremely sensitive, you may have to be tighter than most. If not, a dual system may work acceptably for you.