Confused About Reaction To Oats

[Raywuwei]

I am extremely happy to say that I have been gluten-free for a little over 4 months and I've reduced my tTG levels from >200 to 22. Twenty-two!! I also got my vitamins and minerals tested and the only thing I was deficient in was vitamin D (I live in Oregon, so no surprise there).

I've been very strict with my diet for the last two months and cut out oats completely (though I ate A LOT of gluten-free oats for the first two months of my diagnosis.) Since my test results looked so spectacular, I thought it would be ok to reintroduce oats a little ahead of schedule. So, I are a large bowl of gluten-free oatmeal for breakfast yesterday at 9:30am.

Result: I have had no pain in my lower left abdominal, which is my #1 sign for having been glutened. I did notice that I became gassy around 6pm last night, and at 10am today I had a very loose bm. This is what worries me, since there was no other chance of cross contamination in my day, and my stools have been very consistent for the last two months.

I don't have health insurance right now, so I am bouncing ideas off of you intelligent folks. Thanks for bearing with me!

[SMDBill]

To be honest, I just avoid oats. It strikes a few more foods from the menu, but yours is not the first post I've seen about supposedly gluten-free oats. Could they be grown in a field that also grows wheat in opposite seasons? Something absorbed through the soil? I have no idea, but oats are always discussed cautiously in regards to celiac so I don't risk it. You may be more sensitive to gluten than the allowable amount to still claim gluten-free so it could be there is less than the limit but enough to spur a reaction within you.

Either way, getting diarrhea is still tough on an already challenged intestine so it's probably worth changing brands or eliminating them altogether. Only you can know for sure what is best, but it sounds like you eliminated and then reintroduced, only to find you have a slight reaction to it.

[shadowicewolf]

I cant handle oats without getting a stomach ache

[my3monkees]

When my dd was first diagnosed, a friend warned me to be careful when reintroducing oats. Remember gluten free diets can often be lacking in fiber. Unless you make sure to get enough from fruits and veggies. So a large bowl of oatmeal on an unsuspecting intestines, can make you a tad uncomfortable! LOL As long as your are not having a true reaction, just some bloating and gas. You should be fine, just go for smaller portions at first.

[Takala]

I avoided them (gluten free oats) for years, because I just didn't feel like finding out, I assumed that I would be okay, since I ate them before going gluten free. Then, one New Year's Eve, years later, I got accidentally oated by eating part of a bag of supposedly "gluten free" chips that used oat fiber, but did not disclose on the label. I reacted. And it was the chips because all I had was chips and club soda for my "big splurge." This wiped out my planned New Year's day trip up into the mountains. Boy, was I really just ticked about this, and that led to my New Rule, which is, don't eat anything new before a holiday, and don't eat out on the eve of one, either. (the year adjacent to that was my one infamous, really bad New Years Eve restaurant glutening, which also wiped out my New Years day. That was 2 years in a row of missing skiing on a day where the slopes are not that busy in the am because everyone else is hung-over. ) The only good thing that came out of that restaurant trip was that on the way home on the back roads, we came across a truck overturned in the ditch with people still in it, and called 911. But the lady was quite, quite drunk and screamed at me for doing that, as if nobody was going to notice that her big pickup truck was sitting there on its side. I sort of assessed them, and figured that they hadn't broken anything and weren't going to bleed to death and thought I'd just watch to make sure the vehicle didn't catch on fire, or something, while waiting. So the fire dept shows up just as these drunk people are taking off with somebody else who stopped, (it was really foggy, that freezing fog) and they abandon the truck, so now the fire dept wants to know where they went because the truck's still sitting there warm, with its lights on, on its side, turned the wrong way for what side of the road it's on, in the fog on the curve in the road. The whole thing looks like a scene out of a Stephen King novel. And now the fire dept wants us to wait for the sheriff dept, so we can tell them what vehicle left the scene with the 2 missing drunks. And then the cops are like, where do you live, did you see what happened, what was the license plate number, what do these people look like who just disappeared. This trip home was getting really complicated.

Next day, after the night I went thru the mud and the water, climbed that truck side and pried the door open expecting to see bodies, and instead get this pair of loony- tune drunks mad at me when I tell them we're calling the rescue for them , I can't even hardly make it out of bed. I am so sick. Off that gluten free menu. This was back when I was starting to experiment with eating out, and I have to have a big adventure.

As I have aged and progressed into this gluten free thing, I become more sensitive, so last year I had to give up things processed in a facility with gluten free oats, because I was having reactions to that, too. Who would have thunk it with the part Irish in me, which has at least been able to keep dairy.

[dilettantesteph]

supposedly "gluten free" chips that used oat fiber, but did not disclose on the label.

I hadn't really thought about oat use not being disclosed on the label. Maybe that could explain some of my reactions to processed foods. I react to oats too. Do you remember what brand that was?

[Takala]

It was the "Food Should Taste Good" brand. I do not see the flavor that I had on their current website, it was a cinnamon flavor with corn, and it tasted like a graham cracker. They may have changed their formulations, because I see now that some of the flavors contain corn bran, but I remember at the time researching, and it was on this site that someone else mentioned some of the other flavors had the oat bran. At the time I then went back to the store and went down the aisle, reading each bag, trying to find the culprit, as in did that flavor/brand mention this, but I did not have success. I did find another flavor at that time (this was years ago) that did have oat bran, but I can't remember what flavor it was.

So I chalked it up to cross contamination. Live and learn. It would be great if they've gotten rid of it.

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[dreacakes]

I can't do oats at all! They make me crazy gassy. Listen to your body, it knows the way.

[BabsV]

My nutritionist told me that she recommends being symptom free for at least 6 months before reintroducing gluten-free oats...and no more than a 1/2 cup serving a day. I'm still dealing with issues so haven't touched them since diagnosis 14 months ago...

[Roda]

I react to pure gluten free oats. I have to check with companies because I react to CC from them too.

[Darn210]

My daughter's doc said to wait at least 6 months and then start with something like a quarter of a cup. I am of the opinion that it was too much, too soon. I'd wait a few more months and try them again in a small amount. I will add that you probably shouldn't have them more than once or twice a week in the beginning.