Started gluten-free Diet Due To Positive Celiac Test - But Found Out My Lotions Have Wheat!

[thecatlady]

Recently my blood test came back positive for Celiac so I officially started full Gluten Free March 1.

I found out some of my lotions have wheat in them...including my face cream. It has SPF so I avoid putting it near my mouth, but I'm going to give it away as I don't to risk using it now. Would I have had to ingested it to gluten myself, though?

I did give away some lipsticks with wheat (my doctor told me to check my lipsticks). I also checked my shampoos as I have longer hair and had to discard my hairspray as it sprays in the air and there is a chance I could 'ingest it.'

Is there anything else I should check? My doctor said topical wouldn't affect Celiac unless you eat/ingest it so I didn't much think about the face cream. But it is close to my mouth so it's not worth the risk for me.

It's hard enough to eat, avoid crumbs and all that. Now to have to deal with hairspray and body lotions and face creams!

[bluebonnet]

about a week into my gluten free living i couldn't figure out what made me sick and this site said to check my hand lotion ... which ended up having a hydrolyzed wheat protein in it. i was eating popcorn so my thinking was that the residual lotion glutened me.

its up to you but there have been a few posts on here about being inadvertently glutened by personal care products such as lotions, shampoos, etc. just gotta be reaaaally careful!

[Gemini]

Recently my blood test came back positive for Celiac so I officially started full Gluten Free March 1.

I found out some of my lotions have wheat in them...including my face cream. It has SPF so I avoid putting it near my mouth, but I'm going to give it away as I don't to risk using it now. Would I have had to ingested it to gluten myself, though?

I did give away some lipsticks with wheat (my doctor told me to check my lipsticks). I also checked my shampoos as I have longer hair and had to discard my hairspray as it sprays in the air and there is a chance I could 'ingest it.'

Is there anything else I should check? My doctor said topical wouldn't affect Celiac unless you eat/ingest it so I didn't much think about the face cream. But it is close to my mouth so it's not worth the risk for me.

It's hard enough to eat, avoid crumbs and all that. Now to have to deal with hairspray and body lotions and face creams!

It is true that you have to ingest gluten into your GI tract to invoke an autoimmune response. Gluten cannot be absorbed through the skin. However, if you eat finger foods after putting on lotion with wheat in it, that could be a potential problem. If you stand in the shower and let the soap run down your face, yup, another potential problem. Anything which goes on the lips, for obvious reasons, has to be gluten-free.

I never worried about my hairspray and use a good, salon quality spray. It's been 5 years gluten-free for me and I haven't had a problem at all. If you are unsure as to how careful you want to be, you may want to consider going gluten-free with everything. I do not use all 100% gluten-free products but never gluten myself. It's very easy to be that careful when you get violently ill from ingesting the stuff! Don't worry too much....you'll get the hang of it all and find a way to make it work for you!

[thecatlady]

Thank you all very much. Fortunately, I don't think I've 'glutened' myself yet. But wheat/gluten sure shows up in a lot of things!

At least I know to watch for it now and will be extra careful with hand lotions/lipsticks.

[Reba32]

I had a couple hand lotions that had wheat germ oil in them, so I gave them to a friend. I have a habit of sticking my fingers in my mouth, or resting my face on my hand, with my hands near my mouth, so I was sure I was getting glutened from the lotions.

My shampoo and conditioner had wheat in it, so I tossed those out. I had a box of hair dye that had wheat in it, so I gave that away. I tossed out all my lipsticks and bought new, and tossed out my Physicians Formula Organics tinted moisturizer because that had wheat in it too. My make-up bag needed tidying anyway.

I had a rather expensive trip out to buy all new cosmetics I tell ya! But I found some nice lipsticks on sale at Burkes last week. Only $1.99 and gluten free! ;-)

[WheatChef]

Two days ago I had a dulling of my cognition, heart racing, hot flashes, severe lethargy and some GI problems and couldn't figure out what had caused it. Had only eaten fresh produce/eggs and a number of items with big Gluten Free labeling on their packaging. Upon retracing my eating steps that day I realized one thing that was out of the ordinary.

Normally I am super stingy with doggy treats and seldom actually dole them out (my two dogs are currently a little overweight so I'm trying to get them down in the pounds). Well that day I decided to give them both small doggie treats by hand and then without washing my hands (I know, I know) went on to eat some gluten free chips and homemade hummus. Apparently wheat is a common item in both dog food and dog treats, so now I realized I have to be careful not only making sure to wash my hands thoroughly after feeding/treating them but also have to make sure they never sneak in a lick on my face...