Oats - Do You Have To Limit Amounts

[Alex J]

My son wants to try oats, and was given the go ahead by his gi who said that according to the science, they are safe. I got some Cream Hill Estates rolled oats to try.

But looking at the research it seems that if you do tolerate them, you can eat only limited amounts - 1/4 cup for a child, which isn't even a serving.

Is there any more recent research than that? Is that just the amount they studied - so that's the only amount they can say is OK - or did they see problems with greater amounts?

Those of you who tolerate them, do you limit the amount? Those who don't tolerate them, was it obvious right away?

He was diagnosed through testing (he was tested because he has diabetes) and his symptoms were not that obvious. But at diagnosis his tTg was >250 and he had a lot of damage. Now his tTg is down to 0.7 at the last test. I'm wondering how reliable a repeat tTg would be to tell if the oats are causing damage, in the absence of symptoms. The GI doesn't think a repeat endoscopy would be necessary.

He also has hypothyroidism, and all these conditions together have been affecting his growth pretty badly over the past few years. However lately he has started climbing back up on the charts. I don't want to mess with the progress we've made, but on the other hand I want to establish a very certain, very safe diet for him before he starts heading into the teenage years (he's 10). I'd rather establish now for sure whether oats are ok than have him try them in a less controlled way later.

[tarnalberry]

There are two problems with oats:

1) cross contamination - all major brands are contaminated far beyond acceptable limits. the brand you bought is grown and processed to not be contaminated with wheat, however, so you've chosen well so far.

2) approximately 10% of celiacs react to the protein in wheat. so, contamination or not, pure oats will cause a celiac autoimmune reaction. the only way to know if your son is in that 10% is to try the oats, and see if there is a reaction.

BTW, that 1/4cup, as far as I know, is 1/4cup UNCOOKED oats, which is a larger amount (not quite a cup, iirc) once cooked. Mostly, it allows for some baking with oats...

[Ahorsesoul]

Even with being gluten free as long as I have been I can not tolerate oats. Not even the extremely expensive gluten free ones.

[Roda]

I was 7 months gluten free when I tried Bobs Red Mill gluten free oats. I made cookies with them and I reacted after 30 minutes of eating them. I was not sure (highly suspicious though) so I ate some more cookies the next day, and bam it happened again. I have not tried them again since.

[runningcrazy]

We buy gluten free oats from Bobs Red Mill. I eat them atleast twice a week(weekends) because I dont have time to cook them before school. I eat a full serving (1/2 cup) and have no problem. Keep in mind some people do react to the protein in oats. So I would just introduce it slowly until you are sure its okay with him.

[Alex J]

So, we tried the oatmeal.

Two things - I made oatmeal from 1 1/2 cups of oats and divided it amongst 4 children, and they would have eaten more. So he will probably be eating more than 1/4 cup a day, if we continue.

And my undiagnosed (but gluten free) kid woke up in the middle of the night with very bad abdominal pain. I gave him ibuprofen in desperation and in the end he went back to sleep. He had one IgG gliadin test come up positive once, and had very bad constipation that resolved on a gluten free diet (that's when I first learned that ibuprofen/acetaminophen can help temporarily with abdominal pain - if the miralax wasn't working, we used to have to dose him with painkillers at night so he could sleep). He woke up fine with no other signs of illness.

I'll give it another try because it could have been a coincidence. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that one of the other kids might react. I have one diagnosed celiac, two who eat gluten free (one was symptomatic, the other is only three and our house is gluten free so he is), one who eats gluten at school.

Alex

[modiddly16]

I'm almost 7 years gluten free and I react very strongly to oats...whether its one oatmeal cookie or an entire bowl of oats. I'm not really that sensitive anymore either (to cross contamination and things). I've given it several test runs to rule out coincidences and just figured its not worth it any more!

[lpellegr]

Same here - I bought gluten-free oats to test it out, and I reacted. So now I avoid oats, which irritates me when I read some label that says their product is gluten-free, but turns out to be oat based. I guess that's Karma for eating 3 bowls of Cheerios a day for 30 years.