Husband Eats Gluten At Home - I Keep Getting Sick - Cc?

[8Curvey8]

I have been sick about 4 times in the last 7 weeks, lasting 3-5 days at a time since New Years. I've been having problems off and on all Spring and Summer, and was much better in December. Prior to that, it was very occasional I would get sick.

My husband has an area in our small kitchen where me makes his sandwiches, his toaster oven, and cutting board. There are always crumbs on the cutting board, toaster over, and counter area around them. He also heats up frozen pizza for his lunches in the mornings in our oven. The whole house smells like toast when I get up in the morning when he has pizza.

Do you think just having crumbs around makes you sick, or toasting bread smell?

[mygfworld]

Sorry to hear you are having trouble. I have a mixed house and it works for us. We have multiple food allergies besides the gluten. Try picking up crumbs with paper towels not a sponge or dish cloth. Use a scrub brush to wash dishes. Wipe down the counters before you cook. Have your husband wipe up when his is done too. Be very careful about double dipping. Buy the pourable condiments as much as possible. We go through lots of spoons everyday. Label the left overs too.

When you get a routine that works for both of you, you won't get sick anymore.

[chasbari]

I have been sick about 4 times in the last 7 weeks, lasting 3-5 days at a time since New Years. I've been having problems off and on all Spring and Summer, and was much better in December. Prior to that, it was very occasional I would get sick.

My husband has an area in our small kitchen where me makes his sandwiches, his toaster oven, and cutting board. There are always crumbs on the cutting board, toaster over, and counter area around them. He also heats up frozen pizza for his lunches in the mornings in our oven. The whole house smells like toast when I get up in the morning when he has pizza.

Do you think just having crumbs around makes you sick, or toasting bread smell?

At present my eyes are burning.. I can barely keep them open. I have a small area in the kitchen that is gluten-free and they are in there fixing dinner. Been a relentless barrage of toasted cheese sandwiches and grilled tortillas and the list is endless this past week. I have been feeling particularly bad this week and the only thing I get is a bunch of defensive retorts and looks that imply that I am making too big a deal over the whole issue. Do I think you can be experiencing CC... absolutely. Whenever they start fixing a meal I end up with the ringing in my ears, pain in the gut and burning eyes. I had to kick a student's parent out of my studio because she started to pull out pretzels to eat during his lesson in the one place that is my gluten free haven. I am tired of people thinking I am crazy. I just want to feel better. And yet, by comparison, I feel much better than a year ago. They eat out of boxes, I peel, cut, pare and grill. They are hacking and coughing all winter long and I no longer have that. Yet they think I am the crazy one. I love my family. No one will listen to me though. Good luck and sorry for my personalized rant in pseudo response to your inquiry.

[Reba32]

HA! Sounds like my house. Except my husband won't even bother to have a gluten free area, or a place for him to have his foods. I definitely get contaminated all the time.

He made pancakes for lunch today. Then looked at me and said "oh, is that gluten stuff in these?" ugh...

[mygfworld]

Maybe some of the old pro's can chime in about the ways they got family and friends to listen to what Celiacs is and why they have to help maintaining a safe household environment. I was very very sick before diagnosis, so it was easy to see a change in health for me and my husband. Still it took us a while to figure out what would work for us. Basically family meals are gluten-free except pizza and pasta nights. We have separate pasta pans and utensils for pasta. We are strict about crumbs. We have separate toasters. It's hard for the whole family to adjust to the new diet. Maybe an in person chat between hubby and the gastro would help. There are serious consequences for long term constant glutening.

Hope you feel better soon!

[YoloGx]

The simple answer is yes, one can get sick from stray kitchen bits of gluten like that--most easily for many of us!

Just today I got the beginnings of a migraine simply from my visiting my new boyfriend in his kitchen the other day. He momentarily heated up his toaster and my stomach started feeling queazy immediately after. I had some baking soda and felt better; I thought I was just imagining things and put the matter out of my mind.

However today I woke up (36 hours later) with sore eyes and a grumpy squeezed brain which would not go away and gradually just kept getting worse--something I haven't felt in a long while. My boyfriend came over to my house today this afternoon and saw what was happening. He immediately recognized what was happening actually and pointed it out to me. It had been so long since I had felt this way I kind of forgot that this really was the beginning of a migraine, but I really did have all the classic symptoms.

Thus I finally acted on my situation and had some more baking soda in water and then a while later my home made 24 hour yogurt followed by bromelain/papain, nattokinase supplements, all of which reduce inflammation plus the yogurt and enterically coated acidophilous which help create a restorative flora balance in the gut. After dinner I followed it with some more 24 hour yogurt. I now feel so very much better! I plan to have some L-glutamine in a few miniutes to put the finishing touches on it (I hope, though may need to do more to help myself out later). The fantastic thing is that these remedies do work!!

Interestingly my boyfriend too had a bit of a migraine he was fighting--and got over it after eating some of my home made yogurt as well as the other above mentioned remedies. He has been gluten free since last summer but the toaster had not yet been changed out--until yesterday, after my queazy stomach incident--and my explanation about toasters and such).

So yes, this is part of the world of being highly sensitive to CC with gluten!

On a side note, my boyfriend no longer is getting ill this winter as apparently he always used to do--just as I did too in the past during my trace gluten days. He still has been getting these occasional headaches however, no doubt due to the trace gluten from some of these extra places he never even considered could be a problem before...

So yes, yes, yes be careful. And if your family really cares, consider finding an alternative solution so they aren't cooking, toasting and eating gluten in your kitchen.

Bea

[bluebonnet]

well there could be something not getting properly cleaned afterwards. i will make my boys' sandwiches or add garlic bread to my family's meal and even though i cleaned it and controlled where it was in the back of my mind i'm thinking to myself "is it really clean, did i get it all?"

that is a great idea to keep part of the kitchen off limits. i hope you get it figured out ... because its a bummer you can't eat the pizza but still feel bad!

[Squirrelflight]

We also have a shared kitchen and cc can be a problem. One thing that really really cut it down for me was hand washing. I wash my hands after touching anything in the kitchen and immediately before having anything to do with my food. I frequently am cooking gluten free and non-gluten free meals at the same time so this helps a lot.

Also before I start I wipe down the fridge handle, drawer pulls and cabinet handle as well as the sink handles. Things every body touches that may have been exposed to gluteny hands. I pull things out of the fridge like mayo, or whatever I will need for cooking and wipe down jars, etc. And salt/pepper shakers. Personally, I found it was not so much the crumbs getting into my food as it was my touching something that they have touched while making a sandwich and then touching my food or stirring a pot and waving my cc hands over the food.

I also dont set things down in my kitchen. I get clean bowls or plates for spoon rests and use a clean hand towel for each meal that I prepare.

[NorthernElf]

I'm the only gluten-free one in my house (of 5). Most of the counters are "mine" - I bought a small island on wheels at Walmart for about $200 and placed it on one side of the kitchen - all the bread products and the gluten toaster is over there. I actually have small signs I printed on the tile on the wall by the rest of the counters saying "gluten free zone" so no one mistakes my areas or my toaster ! (or my cutting board, or knives, etc.).

I moved the gluten breadmaker downstairs - no one uses it anymore - too many crumbs !

Having said that, I do still get CCd once in awhile but I do try to be careful. I still make cookies for my kids and stuff, which doesn't help. There are gluten-free & non gluten-free cupboards as well. I have my own measuring cups, bakeware, and colander - and they have theirs.

[8Curvey8]

I'm the only gluten-free one in my house (of 5). Most of the counters are "mine" - I bought a small island on wheels at Walmart for about $200 and placed it on one side of the kitchen - all the bread products and the gluten toaster is over there. I actually have small signs I printed on the tile on the wall by the rest of the counters saying "gluten free zone" so no one mistakes my areas or my toaster ! (or my cutting board, or knives, etc.).

I moved the gluten breadmaker downstairs - no one uses it anymore - too many crumbs !

Having said that, I do still get CCd once in awhile but I do try to be careful. I still make cookies for my kids and stuff, which doesn't help. There are gluten-free & non gluten-free cupboards as well. I have my own measuring cups, bakeware, and colander - and they have theirs.

Thank you all for your replies. I think I have to have more of my own cooking pots, etc. I've taken my dogs and daughter off gluten, so it's only my husband now. I have gotten sick 4 out of the past 7 weeks, and not sure if it's eating too much or the wrong thing too soon, or if I'm getting glutened? I've been on a gluten free diet for 3 years now, but never been as sick as this past 6 months, especially this past month. It's very hard to figure out what is causing me to get sick!

[8Curvey8]

PS - I'm on day 2 of recovery and my husband cooked pasta at 6am for his work lunch. Now I'm in a gluten smelling house, sick, and I think feeling sicker from the smell? I aired out the house a bit as I could for January, but it still stinks! Just had to vent...

[mbrookes]

I have been gluten free for a little over two years. I can't imagine having to share my kitchen with gluten. My husband eats gluten free (he has no reason to except that he loves me) and I have learned to prepare almost eveerything we have always eaten in a gluten free way.

He does have one loaf of regular bread, but he is very careful with it. Anything else he craves he eats when we go out or when he is out at lunch.

Really, wouldn't you give up something that made him sick?

[8Curvey8]

YES I WOULD! He tells me last night that a crumb from him wouldn't make me sick - what!?!

Some days he tries, others he seems to fight it ~ like the other day he threw crumbs from his cutting board into the sink all over everything in the sink, and me standing at the sink! Then last night he sees me super sick, our kid with my parents cause I'm too sick to care for her, and then gives me crap for getting sick again and tells me how much my highs and lows of getting sick so much lately is affecting him! ROAR!!!

[Reba32]

Yep! Sounds like mine! HIS life is hell because I can't eat bread. ugh. And yet if I suggest he eat chicken for dinner, he accuses me of wanting to kill him. He has no physical ailment that would require he cannot eat chicken. He just won't touch it because he got sick on some poorly cooked chicken when he was 4! For YEARS I wouldn't even cook chicken in the house. Then I finally said "f#$% it." I make chicken about once a week now.

[mygfworld]

If you are getting sick 4 out ofthe last 7 weeks, another thing to lookinto in additionto the crumbs is a change from a manufacturer. Some of the worst contaminations for me have come from drinks and vitamins. So it might be worth the effort to recheck all the products you use. Check everything and remove the questionable things for a few weeks. My husband had to call and check my favorite drink when I was first diagnosed and still having a hard time. Turns out it contained gluten. Made me so mad, but I felt better after I removed it from my diet.

Good luck

[8Curvey8]

I think you may be right about that. I've gone back onto just rice, no supplements or anything, and will start adding in foods to give me healing time and find out where it's coming from.

If you are getting sick 4 out ofthe last 7 weeks, another thing to lookinto in additionto the crumbs is a change from a manufacturer. Some of the worst contaminations for me have come from drinks and vitamins. So it might be worth the effort to recheck all the products you use. Check everything and remove the questionable things for a few weeks. My husband had to call and check my favorite drink when I was first diagnosed and still having a hard time. Turns out it contained gluten. Made me so mad, but I felt better after I removed it from my diet.

Good luck

[Reba32]

if you have pets, you might also consider switching them to a gluten free food.

I have 2 dogs who are always all over me and slobbering all over the place. I'm going to switch them to grain free food. I'm hoping that the feed store where I bought their current food will let me just exchange the cans I have left for another brand. I usually mix kibble with a bit of canned food for them, both of which currently have wheat in them.