Glutened. Most Likely Culprit?

[domesticactivist]

My son is showing symptoms we associate with being glutened again. I'm feeling it very mildly, too. We'd like tonknow what you think the cause was.

Here is what we ate before it set in:

About 9:30 am

Scrambled eggs with bell peppers, spinach, and tillamook cheddar cheese

Snack

Apples

About 2 pm

(locally sourced yadda yadda) Pork chops stuffed with dried (our own) apricots, almonds, and parsley, cooked in olive oil and homemade (from our own) chicken stock, salt and pepper

Quinoa with Brussels sprouts, fresh lemon rind and juice, olive oil, salt and pepper

Carrot soup made with the same chicken stock, carrots, leek, salt, corriander, cumin and olive oil

Apple crisp made with fresh apples, pecans, brown sugar, arrowroot powder, cinnamon, cloves, mother's choice salted butter

Homemade ice cream with organic cream, sugar, and vanilla bean

I'm thinking the culprit is the quinoa or the spices (washed the jars by hand and refilled when deglutening kitchen). What do you think is most likely?

He started feeling a stomach ache about 30 minutes after eating the 2 pm meal then got fatigue and brain fog which might be lifting now, about 8 pm.

Ok scratch that - he had more apple crisp about a half hour ago when he was feeling better and now is feeling bad again. So spices? Sugar? Pecans?

I got the ache behind my eyes and soft palate but not severely.

[starrytrekchic]

Nothing stands out for me. You might go back to yesterday's meals too. Sometimes these things can take a day or two to surface.

Could any of the things you used be cross-contaminated? The butter at your house? The spices wherever you get those (assuming they are the sort you refill at a store). Pure spices are usually fine (mixed sometimes aren't), but I'd be wary about ones purchased with those dispensers at the store.

What about drinks?

I wouldn't necessarily blame the crisp. I feel sick after every meal after being glutened, for at least several days. Stomach just doesn't want anything.

Could be the various flours/powders. Those can be contaminated in harvesting/factory. Or your son might not be healed enough to digest flours--ditto the ice cream.

[domesticactivist]

Thanks for your ideas.

I'd be shocked if the butter was contaminated. It was from a new pack and only have one loaf of bread in the house which is specifically for dosing our daughter with gluten pre-testing, and which we are very careful with (she has dedicated honey and peanutbutter jars and utensil and eats it on a paper towel on our dirty dish counter).

The spices are suspicious - they were from sealed containers not bulk bins, but we've had them since before getting the house gluten free. I had dumped out all our old spices from the small jars and refilled from our big jars.

The arrowroot powder was from a sealed container but had been in a sealed jar since before getting rid of all our gluten products. I'd washed off the outside of the jar in case dust had settled on it.

The only drinks we've had are water.

We haven't noticed a problem with dairy and he does eat it regularly, but I suppose that could be it. He didn't have ice cream the second time he had the apple crisp though.

The day before I don't remember everything, but for dinner he had lasagna with "gluten-free" tinkyada pasta, mozzerella, a roux using pamela's baking mix, spinach, and tomato sauce. He didn't seem to have any problem last night, actually was doing better than usual. I had a different lasagna with squash instead of the noodles and none of the roux since I don't tolerate rice flours and felt fine yesterday, too.

I had more of the crisp and now I have a stomach ache and the achey eyes. I think I might be moody, too, as I just royally pissed off my partner and it was probably all my fault. ds came down from bed saying he thinks he might puke

[domesticactivist]

Oh, and the lasagna had ground beef from a pastured cow we split with friends. (1/8th in the freezer)

[starrytrekchic]

Maybe something when you baked the crisp? Gluten residue in the oven? On the baking mitts? Maybe stuck to the pans or the utensils you used to get the crisp out of the pan?

You might try using the arrowroot powder to bake something else, to see if it's the culprit. See this article here about gluten-free grains being cc'd: Open Original Shared Link

[Skylark]

It seems like I react mysteriously to nuts sometimes.

[domesticactivist]

I doubt it was the oven or pan since it was scrubbed Pyrex and we've been ok with things baked in it before. We've replaced all our potholders and utensils that weren't stainless steel, cleaned out drawers, etc. I think testing the nuts, arrowroot, and spices makes sense but I don't want to subject the kid to that! Maybe I should order those test strips. Have you guys tried them and felt they were accurate?

[starrytrekchic]

Afraid I've never tried them.

[StephanieGF]

Hmm... I react to Quinoa quickly with a tummy ache, not the same a gluten for me, but very painful. Do you eat Quinoa regularly? Many people here react to Quinoa, especially if it was not rinsed enough.

Old spices that might have been used when you where cooking with wheat flour could also be the source... maybe?

I also react to nuts occasionally too, so maybe the almonds or pecans? Where any of these from bulk bins?

Did you make the chicken stock yourself?