"getting Glutened"

[LandonL]

How do you keep from freaking out about wether or not you have been glutened or not? Let me be more specific. After you eat something, rather it be right after or a couple days after, how do you decipher between what was glutening and what was just a fluke feeling or something that just didn't agree with me. The reason why i'm asking, is like others have suggested i'm keeping a food journal, but I don't want to find something I like, eat it, then a couple of days later have some pain, or not so good feeling and blame it on that food if it wasn't glutening and then eventaully axe out all possible foods because at some point in time I felt something after eating it. My problem is before I found out I had celiac disease which I had never even heard of, I never even went to the doctor. I just "toughed" things out all the time. Now that I have been diagnosed with this, I attribute EVERYTHING to it and it sucks. If I wake up with a little muscle pain (after playing softball the night before) I wonder to myself oh no did I eat something with gluten. Or if I get a headache, I think must have got glutened. This is probably one of my biggest obstacles so far is just deciphering what is what? sorry this probably makes no sense to most, just feel lost sometimes in this whole process

[miles2go]

It makes sense to me. I think a lot of people are in a strange place when they are doing the food journal thing, at least I was. I have multiple allergies, too, so it was a matter of trying to make sense of the limited testing that I had to try and figure out what was okay to eat. My dietician told me to have three columns, one that was for 'bad' food, one for 'good' and one for 'questionable'. I still have a column for questionable foods four years later, but I can eat even the foods that I'm allergic to, as long as my body is fairly balanced on the allergy front. As far as you getting glutened, you will probably soon learn how to distinguish that from other things, once you stop eating gluten and then get glutened again. It's usually much more pronounced than it was before going gluten-free and for most of us, it's a specific reaction that is the same ol' thing every time.

Once you get your 'gluten-legs' you'll probably be able to narrow down what you ate that likely contained gluten. So, for me, for instance, it's always 15 minutes afterwards that I have debilitating cramps that come from my side and work their way toward my belly and the bathroom, or want thereof, comes right after that. No headache, no nausea, but brain fog and the shiz for the next 9 days. This is quite different from my sulfite reactions, which involve hives or my lobster reactions which involve my insides itching like crazy. HTH.

Margaret

[sneezydiva]

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. It is very hard to distinguish things at times, especially if dairy and/or high fiber foods aren't agreeing with your right now. Miles2go is right though, after a while, you will be better able to distinguish between true glutenings versus a random "tummy rumbling."

Also when keeping the diary, I look over things carefully, and if I prepared it myself, and I'm positive it is gluten-free, I know it was just a fluke. If it appeared gluten-free, but is a processed food, I carefully reexamine the ingredients and do a little internet searching. If other people seem to also have trouble with the food, I eliminate it from my diet. If it still appears safe, I wait a couple of weeks before trying it again. More often than not, it turned out to be okay. But the easiest way to keep things straight is to use whole foods to prepare your meals. and as little processed foods as possible. That way there are only a couple likely culprits.

[LandonL]

i don't worry so much bout the actual foods, as that is one thing i'm good about it using whole foods cause chicken and fish and veggies are tasty to me now just as much as before being celiac. It's all the cross contamination talk that terrifies me, i'm always scared I got cross contaminated even if I don't have reactions, I just always feel scared that a crumb found its way into my food, or something. its the FEAR that is my number 1 problem.

[sneezydiva]

Another thing I keep track of in my diary is whether all my meals for the day were prepared at home. Not only do I record that th particular day was all homemade, but I also record streaks such as "4 days in a row eating meals from home" My house is gluten-free, so if I do get symptoms, and I look back over the last couple of days, I can immediately zero in on the day I ate out as the culprit. If everything was prepared at home, you know to either check up on certain processed foods, or you can be confident you didn't get any gluten, and your body is still just "working out the kinks"

[ang1e0251]

It's all the cross contamination talk that terrifies me, i'm always scared I got cross contaminated even if I don't have reactions, I just always feel scared that a crumb found its way into my food, or something. its the FEAR that is my number 1 problem.

It is very frightening at first. But every time you go out and Don't have a problem, relive that time over and over in your head. Reassure yourself. You know what you're doing. Every time you do it, you'll do it better with more knowledge. When you have a slip, remember that too so not to repeat the same mistake. It's kind of like dating, you might get burned but you also might have a great time. So keep trying.

[miles2go]

i don't worry so much bout the actual foods, as that is one thing i'm good about it using whole foods cause chicken and fish and veggies are tasty to me now just as much as before being celiac. It's all the cross contamination talk that terrifies me, i'm always scared I got cross contaminated even if I don't have reactions, I just always feel scared that a crumb found its way into my food, or something. its the FEAR that is my number 1 problem.

Are you in a household that can be completely gluten-free? This is important, because you can weed out a whole lot of variables there. And, I guess, when I say the above, I mean no other humans consuming gluten, pets eating (any) gluten kibble/wet foods only with your utmost mindfulness and maybe some appliances and pots and pans kicking around from the olden days that are clean beyond belief? And, you don't eat out much?

[adelaidez]

Im very new here but i thought id start off here, i am new to this whole situation so im not sure how long it truly takes for my symptoms to go but i mean it takes a good week for them to subside but then the bloating isn