Oatmeal

[Guest Lucy]

Is oatmeal safe? I would love to make monster cookies for my son. I feel that this site's articles are saying it is safe. What do you all think.

My sons biopsy showed very very minimal damage to intestines, he has NO symptoms.

I am learning. Tell me of your experience.

[celiac3270]

If you really, really, really need to use oats, use McCanns or Country Choice...DO NOT USE QUAKER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES--major contamination, nor any others besides those listed. McCanns claims to have eliminated the one contamination problem they were having--one machine that was contaminating the oats, and now they claim to be gluten-free and even cleaning the trolleys that they carry stuff in and out on . I would never eat oats, just because I don't need them so why risk it, but if you want to, just use those brands.

[relkins]

My son was just diagnosed in December with Celiac's. His favorite food is oatmeal and the dietician told me that Quaker was the only one that had verified that their product was gluten free.

[KaitiUSA]

Oatmeal in the US is known to be highly contaminated. I avoid it all completely. As celiac3270 said though....DO NOT USE QUAKER...they have high contamination issues.

Dietitians tend not to know alot about celiac. I was told I could have Spelt which is a form of wheat. So do not solely rely on them for your info.

[lbsteenwyk]

A study last year showed that most oats in the US are gluten contaminated. Summary of Article on Oat Contamination

My daughter loved oatmeal, too, but I took her off of it to be safe. Still searching for a substitute she likes.

[VydorScope]

Maybe its wrong of me, but I just tell everyone that might feed my son at some point that oats have gluton in them. Its simpler to say "My son is a allergic to gluton which is found in Wheat, rye....blah blah... and oats. " It just seems to me, why risk it? Its not worth the results if your wrong thats for sure.

[Guest Eloisa]

Some Celiac that I know don't react to Oats in their symptoms as they do with Wheat or Rye or barley or whatever. I'd be careful with this one. Sometimes when you go to healthfood stores they sometimes don't know what gluten free means. My worse reaction is with barley which hits about right after I swollow. Its weird because I never really ate this grain.

[Guest Lucy]

Thanks for the advice.

My son has NOOOOO symptoms of celiac. He was screened for the disease at a diabetes appointment. He scored high and then we had a biopsy done, which came back positive for celiac. The GI specialist that did the colonoscopy saw no damage at all, but sent it to a lab for further evaluation, and they dectected VERY minor damage.

SOOO..... I really want him to be able to eat monster cookies, that's it. I researched this all day, and find all reports say it should be fine, but I just wanted to know what you all think before I do it.

[Eliza13]

Oats are really bad for me: I don't handle them well at all!!!!! Not sure how they affect others, but I can't eat them.

[Guest Viola]

I find that using crushed, sliced almonds instead of oat meal keeps the same texture and a similiar flavour. I use it all the time in date squares (matrimonial cake). That elliminates the worry of using oatmeal.

[celiac3270]

The study was conducted before McCanns had dealt with their contamination issues. Additionally, most celiacs will not react to oats because the structure isn't similar to that of glutens. I do agree that it's good to tell other people that your child can't have wheat, rye, barley, or OATS since you want to be very selective about which oats.

[Guest barbara3675]

At my health food store (where the owner has celiac) I bought organic rolled oats that are processed in a factory that does not produce anything but those oats and I eat oatmeal occasionally because I missed it SOOOO much. I haven't had a reaction and it tastes so good. They are coarser than the Quaker kind and you have to cook them longer, but with a little brown sugar and some rice milk (casein intolerance) it is heaven. Barbara

[Guest Lucy]

okay, thanks again, but now I'm more confused.

Is there anything you guys have found that is simalar to oatmeal for cookies like monstor cookies or just plain oatmeal cookies.

In case you don't know monstor cookies have m and m's , brown sugar, butter, peanuts corn syrup and oatmeal. That is it for ingrediants basically.

The oatmeal is the main ingrediant. So its not like I can keep it out. I thought these would be good because they have NO flour what so ever.

I am going to call our local food co-op and health markets and see what they say about their oatmeal.

My son doesn't have a reaction to anything. SO does that mean its safe for him to eat oatmeal?

[rmmadden]

Not having a reaction to eating oats or other gluten food does not indicate it's safe. Damage is being done on the inside regardless of symptoms and over time will get to the point where symptoms/reactions do occur. I had no symptoms at all for 36-years and then boom......I'm Celiac.

I used to make Monster Cookies and would love to eat them again but, it's a gamble and for me it's just not worth the chance.

Best of Luck!

Cleveland Bob

[Boojca]

Hi Lucy,

My son is 3 and is the only celiac disease in the family, just diagnosed last June. So, I know where you are coming from. It breaks my heart to think my son won't be able to have some of the things I desperately want him to as well. My son does no have symptoms either, which makes it that much harder to know if he's been contaminated or not. But the bottom line is that I will not compromise his health just bc he isn't having symptoms, the damage is still done even if he doesn't react and I will not let me be the cause for worse things down the line (ie, lymphoma) just for a cookie!! That said, I go back and forth on the oats thing myself, but what sealed it for me was seeing my parents neighbor, who is semi-sensitive celiac disease. He had some the other day and BAM! It was like a ton of bricks. Quaker is NOTORIOUS for cross-contaminiation, and that's what he used. I don't know how I feel about McCann's, so until I'm positive we just won't do it.

Are you sure you can't make these without the oats? I make an INCREDIBLE peanut butter cookie with only PB, sugar and eggs. In fact, everyone I know (who are all "normal") likes these BETTER than traditional peanut butter cookies. So, can you use everything else and not the oats? It's worth a shot, isn't it?

Bottom line is that it's your call, but I sure wouldn't do it. And definitely don't use Quaker if you do.

Oh, and don't depend on anyone at your health food store, or your dietition for that matter. I have found, and heard, that most of the time we (even at the beginning stages) know more than they do. I know I've had that experience for sure.

Bridget

[Guest gfinnebraska]

I make a wonderful ginger cookie with almond flour ~ I wonder if almond flour would work for monster cookies?? I use to make monster cookies all the time ~ love them!!! The best advice I can give is to try other things. Using oats is just too risky. Your son does not have any damage now... it would be great to keep it that way. Good luck... gluten-free is full of hard choices.

[Guest Lucy]

SO do you think if I added the same amount of almond flour instead of oatmeal? Like cup for cup?

[Guest gfinnebraska]

You might want to add a little less, and then work your way up until it is the right texture. It MAY be a total failure, but it may work!! The ginger cookies I made were YUMMY!!! I did have to refrig. for about 30 min. to make the dough easier to work with. Please let me know how it turns out!!! OH ~ plus, make sure you scoop the dough out and then smash down to about 1/2" for baking. I always use ice cream scoops when making cookies... and then smash the ball.

[Guest Lucy]

I will, I don't have almond flour on hand, but will go get some when hubby gets home.

I use bette hagemans subsitute for cream of mushroom and chicken, and that has worked great too. I am going to try her mock ghram crackers this week too. So my son may get to have a smore when we go camping next weekend.

[Boojca]

Could you use gluten-free corn flakes? Some also use Quinoa flakes. I've never tried them, so I have no idea how they taste or work, but it's a thought.

[Guest Lucy]

Great idea, kinda like "super K monstor cookies". I will try it and let you all know. I didn't buy almond flour....too expensive. I made the ghrahm crackers. They were good. More like a cookie than cracker, but good enough for smores.

[ianm]

I used to eat a lot of oats because it was supposed to be good for you. That was the first thing to go in my diet and I started feeling better. I ate more oats than I did wheat so for me there may have been something in the oats that was not good for me.

[Peaches503]

Hey all,

I just had some interesting information about oats that you might be interested in.

I recently joined my local celiac support group, which is associated with the National Celiac Disease Foundation. When I questioned the representative about oats, this is what she replied, keep in mind, she has had celiac disease since 1991 and is very educated about the disease. She stated that a couple of years ago (about 3 or 4) a few board members of the group had ordered what were supposed to be the "purest" oats in the world. They were supposedly straight from a field over in Ireland. She said that these few people ate the oats (after being gluten-free for years) and they indeed had a reaction. She said that while she cannot confirm or deny whether or not the oats contained gluten, all of the people who ate them had reactions. So, this particular chapter of the celiac disease foundation does not promote trying or eating oats if you have celiac disease.

Just thought this was interesting, considering the oats were supposed to be so "pure."

-Peaches