I Glutened My Son

[crimsonviolet]

I picked up some treats for myself at the store the other day, including a package of Whoppers. I read the label and didn't see anything that would cause concern so I figured it would be safe. Saturday morning I was really craving chocolate so I got them out for myself and gave the kids a few (okay we all had more than a few lol.)

Within an hour I could feel the effects on myself. My main symptom was an overwhelming depression that I've noticed occurs when I've been hit with a bit of gluten. I googled and sure enough Whoppers do contain gluten. I guess they're cross contaminated? Or maybe there was an ingredient I missed.

I also noticed that DS was getting a little out of control. Before we cut gluten, he was very aggressive, had a hard time controlling his behavior, and so very hyper, among other things. Surprisingly, he did ok throughout the rest of the day, and my symptoms passed, so I thought we dodged a bullet.

Sunday we went to the museum and he was his usual hyper self - he looked just like Tigger hopping around but that's actually pretty normal for him.

Then yesterday - OMG! He was in RARE form. He didn't get much sleep the night before, then woke up super early and was insanely cranky, plus VERY aggressive, I was genuinely fearing for his little brother's safety. He was exploding into a rage of screaming and punching or kicking over every little disagreement (my boys are almost 3 and 5 so they disagree frequently!) He would walk up to me and punch me, scream in my ear, jump on everything, kick and throw things at the walls. He was out of control and hubby and I were just totally lost.

He finally calmed down a bit after dinner and managed to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. He slept through for a solid almost 12 hours and woke up a new kid. Today he was back to my sweet, loving, active little boy, with none of the rage or aggression of the previous day.

Reflecting on the weekend, I have no doubt that yesterday's insanity was a direct result of the gluten he had on Saturday, and this has increased my resolve to be extra strict with all of our diets. This was DS's first glutening since we went gluten-free and neither he nor I want that to EVER happen again.

[Frances03]

Whoppers are malted milk balls. Malt is definitely NOT on the gluten free list since it's made with barley. So that means no Whoppers or any other malted milk balls, no chocolate malts, no Ovaltine chocolate malt mix, etc. Malt is an ingredient used in a lot of products so you have to watch for it. Like a lot of breakfast cereals have malt in them, ie Rice Krispies (unless something has changed there recently).

[crimsonviolet]

OMG malt! Serious duh moment happening here. I've been SO careful until this point and I've even avoided Rice Krispies and whatnot because I knew they had malt. What was I thinking???