Cross Containimation

[Chris Anne]

I am still having problems while eating gluten-free. Do I really need to go out and buy my own plates, utensils etc. And I am having a problem with family members understanding about this disease.

[Raining Skittles]

I wish I had an answer for you. All I can give you right now is the comfort that you are not alone. People are not understanding of why I'm doing this either. They keep asking "isn't gluten free that new fad diet?" And I got into an argument about grocery shopping last night.

I don't know about separate utensils and dishes as I'm just learning all this myself. Hopefully we can learn together.

[bartfull]

Sorry you are both having problems with family members. From what I have read here, that happens a lot. They need to be educated. If you can get them to read some of the info here it would help, but if not, just compare it to peanut allergies. Everyone knows by now that the tiniest exposure to peanuts can kill a person with a peanut allergy.

Or compare it to poison. Even a microscopic bit of cyanide is deadly. For you, gluten is the poison, and though it won't kill you instantly, over time it CAN. And every time you get cross contaminated it sets you back.

So, yes, you really DO have to be vigilant about CC. Seperate dishes, toaster, condiments, sponges and dish towels, and all of the other things you have read about here. And if you can get your family to read here they will see that celiac runs in families. Chances are some of THEM have it and don't know it. Symptoms vary so much and many of us don't have digestive issues. But you know what? So-called silent celiacs are still at risk for all of the nasty things like cancer, neurological problems, lupus, thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies, and a host of other things they DON'T want.

Get them educated, and then get them tested. If they still refuse, you need to do everything in your power to at least make sure YOU are safe.

[dani nero]

My family did not take me seriously, until I told them the following:

For a food to be labeled gluten-free legally, it's gluten content must be less than 20ppm (parts per million). So a single breadcrumb of gluten in a loaf of bread will cause a reaction.

I actually want to make an informative illustration to help people visualize this.

[irish daveyboy]

  On 8/29/2012 at 8:28 AM, dani nero said:

My family did not take me seriously, until I told them the following:

For a food to be labeled gluten-free legally, it's gluten content must be less than 20ppm (parts per million). So a single breadcrumb of gluten in a loaf of bread will cause a reaction.

I actually want to make an informative illustration to help people visualize this.

This may help, there are 1 Million dots in the following and each small square contains 100 dots.

Open Original Shared Link

[kareng]

I don't have separate dishes, plates, spoons, forks, etc. I do have separate pans because we wanted new ones anyway. We have separate colander for gluten pasta. A separate cutting board for gluten bread. A separate toaster. I have new gluten-free cooking utensils like stirring spoons. I have new "Tupperware" stuff for gluten-free. We have 2 dish sponges that we dish washer every day. ONe is blue and the gluten-free one is pink.

Basically, if its easy to clean, you can use it. For example - Colanders have lots of little holes and its hard to get the pasta out, so you need a gluten one & a gluten-free one for everything else. My stuff is usually red or I put red tape on it - Red cooking utensils, plasticware with a red lid or red piece of tape, red toaster, red colander, red tape on my butter tub, etc.

We keep the gluten bread, pretzels, etc to one separate counter in our kitchen.

What makes this work at our house is:

-people are willing to follow the rules

-my kids were teens when I was diagnosed.

- We have an excellant dishwasher.

-We can afford new kitchen things (we don't eat out twice a week like we used to so we saved money there)

- Red kitchen utensils are in style and available at Walmart and Target

If you can't trust the people you live with, it may be best to have some of your own stuff & keep it safe or re-wash everthing before using. You could switch to paper plates and disposable silverware for a few months, until everyone gets the hang of it.

[Adalaide]

  On 8/29/2012 at 1:11 PM, kareng said:

If you can't trust the people you live with, it may be best to have some of your own stuff & keep it safe or re-wash everthing before using. You could switch to paper plates and disposable silverware for a few months, until everyone gets the hang of it.

I can't trust the people (or person now) I live with. My husband I trust 100%, my MIL I can't trust at all. For this reason I share literally nothing in the house. She will get out a spoon or fork and leave the silverware drawer just a little bit open which then leads to a drawer full of crumbs. I was still getting sick all the time and couldn't figure out why and just said I'm done. I got my own silverware, plates, cups, everything. (I already had all my own cooking stuff, hers was all scratched up teflon junk and melted plastic spoons.) I went from still having GI symptoms nearly all the time to several months without a hitch.

Know what made me sick? Frozen chicken soup I had made with veggies I cut up the week after my MIL had set a pizza stone on top of my cutting board. That is all it takes. A pizza stone on a cutting board, I washed that cutting board but the veggies I cut on it still made me sick. Think of how little gluten that is. Maybe your family will say I'm a nutjob, but maybe they'll take it to heart and realize that they need to be on your side.