Wheat Harvest

[scaredparent]

Hi we are new to all of this and we bought a house just before my son was told he is gluten intollerent and my question is how careful do I have to be with my son considering we live 2 houses from the grain elevator? Do I need to keep him locked up in the house and away from the grain dust during harvest. I live in Kansas and I live all around wheat fields. If I do need to be careful does any one know if alleregy shots will help with the wheat allergy from the field. Thanks in advance.

[KaitiUSA]

If your son has gluten intolerance then an allergy shot will not help because celiac is not an allergy.The only way an allergy shot would help is if he had a wheat allergy not celiac . If he has the chance to breathe wheat in then that can he harmful because then traces are breathed in and ingested then. An air purifier in the house may be a good thing to clean the air. Talk to your doctor about it though because people vary with reactions...

[MySuicidalTurtle]

If you notice on this board after awhile of being glutenfree people seem to start having "allergic" reactions to things.

It's best to talk to your doctor because everyone reacts differently.

[lotusgem]

Boy, can I identify! We live in rural Idaho. Yes, yes, I know...POTATOES are grown in Idaho, but that's not all! A LOT of WHEAT is grown here, too. Our house, to our immense joy, is located on the truck route. The farm trucks, heavily laden with wheat, so heavily laden that their contents routinely overflow onto the street, pass our house daily during the harvest, and unfortunately, at other times of the year, on their way to the grain elevators located one street over and one block down. In order to enter or exit a parked car in front of our house, you literally have to walk through wheat. This does not make me happy. No. My husband uses the street parking and I have the garage. We remove our shoes before entering the house (but mainly because we got new vinyl flooring! Ha!) I guess the thing that worries me the most, though, is the big combines, doing the actual harvest. They kick up enormous clouds of, I imagine, wheat-filled dust. Whenever we have to drive by a situation like that, we roll up the windows of the car and close off the vents supplying air from the outside. I only found out last summer that I have Celiac, and have had to go through but one harvest so far with this knowlege. It is a definite concern, but as far as I can tell, I haven't had any reactions to anything that is going on out there. I just try not to fret too much about it.

Hope it doesn't affect your son, either. Don't know if this helps, but at least you have the moral support of someone in the same boat.

Paula

[plantime]

I live in southeast Kansas, with wheat fields all around. I do not worry about the harvest for myself, as I know not to put anything in my mouth (including my fingers!) without washing it off first. However, for a child, it is very different! Kids like to eat outside, and I would worry about the grain dust getting on the food, then being eaten. Keeping him inside all the time is really not a viable option, he and you would go nuts! Maybe you could try hosing down the yard in the mornings, and letting him play outside then. Of course the best thing would be to teach not to put anything at all in his mouth when outside! Allergy shots do nothing at all for Celiac Disease.

[skbird]

Paula -

I was up in Idaho/Washington in Feb to visit relatives and I started having this weird panic attack feeling (not a strong one) while in the car. I asked what the fields around us grow and was told wheat and barley. It was a really weird thing to find out. Don't know why I was having this anxiety feeling but it didn't get any better. But I also feel weird around any nightshade family plants as if by instint - for example we were in a pumpkin patch this last fall and this one weed was growing through everything and I just wanted to stay away from it. I asked what it was and was told Jimson weed, which is a nightshade. And I can't stand petunias either and I just recently found out they are also a nightshade plant, like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and eggplant.

While driving through the fields I kept thinking, wow, I could never live here between the wheat, barley and potatoes... But it is beautiful country! Love the palouse...

Stephanie

[lotusgem]

Yikes, Stephanie! Talk about sensitivity. Do you have arthritis? I ask because people who do are often advised to remove nightshade foods from their diets. We used to live up in Moscow, on the Palouse. It IS beautiful. I think, though, that MY feeling of anxiety while there was because my mother-in-law lives in that town, not because of the wheat!

Paula

[Carriefaith]

You can only get sick from gluten if you inhale it or ingest it. Your son should be ok, however, on harvesting days he might want to limit his time outside, just to be safe. I think it would be a problem if you could literally see the wheat particles in the air.

[plantime]

Since it has to go in the mouth and nose to be swallowed, you might also try some dust masks from the hardware store. He could play cops and robbers with his mask on! Seriously, I use them to keep pollens out of my sinuses when I am outside. It cut my need for allergy meds by 2/3!

[anerissara]

This is really interesting to me...my dad lives in Moscow and yes, it's beautiful...and so full of wheat dust that you *can* see it at times! He is having awful allergic-type reactions to something, has had a bad cough for 2 years now plus sinus problems and awful reflux. I suggested to him that he might want to check out celiac's since it's genetic, but so far he hasn't done so He has many of the symptoms that I have, and I really think he might have it too.

Hmmm, the times I've been the sickest were when we were in Moscow visiting! Now that I think about it, I really do usually get sick with gi trouble when we're there. I was thinking maybe it was because both my dad and stepmom are excellent cooks and I just eat more when I'm there, but maybe there's something to the grain in the air. At times it's so thick (they live next door to a wheat farm and when it's harvest time...well, wheat *everywhere*) that you can see it like a haze or even smoke in the air.

[Merika]

Oh my goodness! I would be paranoid with a grain mill nearly next door, but maybe that is just me. Practically speaking, you will probably just have to wait and see over the next 2 years or so and see what happens. I say 2, because this close to diagnosis he may still be recovering and not notice the subtleties.

As a paranoid (lol) adult, I'd probably be shopping for a new house tomorrow. I'm sure that's not what you want to hear......sorry.

It may or may not bother him at all. I can tell, though, when I have inhaled wheat (from baking at a restaurant or construction dust - if there's enough of it and it contains wheat).

Stephanie-skbird - I have the book your sig picture is in What made you pick it? I love the book.

Merika