Staying In Hotels

[123glldd]

Curious how you all handle staying in hotels. We're thinking of the fact that we dunno what kind of laundry detergents and cleaners the hotels are using...how does anyone feel safe from cross contamination in a hotel?

[mushroom]

I'm afraid when it comes to hotels, I'm more worried about how hard the beds are and how unyielding the pillows and how many of them, than I am about the detergents and the cleaners. I am happy if I can just lie in the bed

[GottaSki]

I've never had a problem in a hotel -- I love to travel -- except I do bring a ziplock bag for the remote -- hubby thinks it silly -- yet ewwww -- can't get past one of those blue light images I saw on a news program years ago.

[Celiac Mindwarp]

I would only be concerned about any area I was preparing food. Then kitchen towels for wiping and my own nifty folding chopping board are my friends

Have a good trip, wherever you decide to go.

[IrishHeart]

No problems whatsoever for me in hotels. You will not be glutened by sheets and towels and cleaning agents.

Like Shroom, I have a hard time sleeping through the night on an uncomfortable bed but lately, I've had great luck. I can't wait to go to Florida in 14 days, 11 hours and 5 minutes....but who's counting.

[bartfull]

I'd be more worried about bedbugs. There is an epidemic of them in this country. If you google "bedbug motel", there are a couple of websites that will tell you which motels have had bedbugs reported in them.

[mushroom]

Bedbugs!!! Hahahaha That was my introduction by fire to the United States (or one of them) on the cross-country journey from New Joisey to California. Salt Lake City, 1:00 a.m., looking for a motel. Somehow missed motel row. Ended up at a fleabag (or so we thought). Ended up being chewed out of bed by 3:00 a.m by bedbugs. And those bedbugs hadn't had fresh blood in a while!!! Hit the road again.....

[1desperateladysaved]

I guess I think, and hope the hotel does a really good job of cleaning and rinsing. I haven't had a problem, that I know of from the detergents. That is even though walking down the detergent isle at the store is not a good experience for me.

I do bring my own home made soap and shampoo. I bring my own cooking equipment. I always try to get a kitchen. I always try to wipe my working area down before I start. I make sure not to touch my food to any surface.

I cook in my room. None of the hotels which I have stayed in ever had a written rule against it. I try to be very careful not to burn the place down, or leave much evidence.

One hotel once did take issue when they found my crock pot cooking in my room. They asked me to bring it to the lobby for the day. So, I did. I would be leary of cross contamination in such a case. Someone might open the lid.

I have a list of things to bring along. I print out this list each time. I can later add anything I had forgotten, so the next trip I am more prepared. When I am packing I keep looking around the kitchen for things I can't do without on the trip.

I hope you will have a relaxing, healing time.

Diana

[123glldd]

Thanks for your replies...it still worries me because me and my husband..before diagnosis stayed at a hotel and sometimes i found i wound up with a tummy ache middle of the night. Bu not always. was wondering if it was gluten related.

[Lisa]

Breakfast can be pretty easy too. Most hotels offer a breakfast bar and you can always find Yoplait Yogurt and fresh fruit. I, personally have never had a problem with the scrambled eggs, bacon and hashbrowns, or juices. Or you could bring your own baggie of cereal of your choice.

[123glldd]

These tummy aches weren't related to food gluten that's why i was wondering if something i was inhaling something in the hotel room or cross contaminated sheets from detergent?

[Jestgar]

Shouldn't be, but you could always bring your own pillowcase in case you chew on the pillows while you sleep.

My SIL brings her own pillow, because she likes it best.

[123glldd]

What about sheets and it being on ur hands?

[Lisa]

What about sheets and it being on ur hands?

Gluten is not a bacteria or a fungus or other creepy things. No need to worrry Wendy.

[123glldd]

Lisa- if there is gluten from laundry detergent....just as people worry about at home...and they touch it with their hands and put their hands to their mouth...even if accidentally during the night...could they not be glutened? I have no idea why it would have to be bacteria or fungus etc in your opinion....we're told to not use gluteny products all the time. I just think this is a valid worry. I'm not overly worried but curious what people think and why.

[mushroom]

After all the rinsing cycles that a washer goes through, I do not believe there is any potential gluten powder residue on the bed linen to worry about. Remember that hotels have to wash their sheets to a standard that even those who have allergic skin reactions to various products will not react to their bed linen. I have always luxuriated in hotel bed linens because everthing is so beautifully cleaned and pressed and presented. And I do not stuff pillowcases or sheets into my mouth or chew on them, so even if there were something left in the sheets, merely touching them would not be a problem for me. And we are not even sure that their detergent contains gluten in the first place. If I may speak candidly, there is a difference between taking sensible precautions to avoid gluten, and letting it dominate one's life. We can all dream up scenarios where gluten might potentially jump out at us, but these chances are highly unlikely -- in fact, I have to wrack my brains to come up with things that might potentially get me that I am not anticipating. I certainly do not go looking in crevices to see if gluten might be lurking there. And I am very careful what I put in my mouth. And I am very careful about what I inhale because I have very bad lungs and breathing problems. But having never been glutened by a hotel bed before, but having been bedbugged twice by accommodations, I personally would be much more concerned about bedbugs than gluten.

[Lisa]

Lisa- if there is gluten from laundry detergent....just as people worry about at home...and they touch it with their hands and put their hands to their mouth...even if accidentally during the night...could they not be glutened? I have no idea why it would have to be bacteria or fungus etc in your opinion....we're told to not use gluteny products all the time. I just think this is a valid worry. I'm not overly worried but curious what people think and why.

Wendy, I have not found, in eight years, a laundry detergent that is NOT gluten free. Sheets and Towels should not be a worry for you.

We recommended not to use shampoos ( that list gluten) that can drip into our mouths, or facial lotions or lipsticks. AND....

I worry that YOU worry too much. :)

Feel free to PM me, whenever you choose. xxoo

[123glldd]

Thank you this is all i'm saying....I wanted to know why it was considered to not be a worry. I am asking this stuff because I use to get something at the holiday inn that i thought might potentially have been gluten. I think it's different to have a valid question than being told you're a worrier by everyone. I'm an analytical person and it's my nature to ask questions about such things. LIke wise my husband is having a much much harder time with this than I am and wanted me to ask about it. He's also asked me to ask about cleaning out the car. And now he's trying to find out just how big gluten molecules are because he wants to get a new vacuum with a hepa filter but he needs to know the size of it to know what to get to ensure it filters gluten. But no one on here (we did a search and can't seem to find it) seems to know the SIZE of the gluten molecule. I've seen the weight and that is all. It's precautionary when it comes to the vacuum but he wants to know and can't find this anywhere he's looked. He is way more paranoid than me about this stuff. However, inquiring minds want to know. So I ask.

[Jestgar]

I think a HEPA filter would get rid of anything that might cause you problems. They're designed to filter out molecules down to 0.3 microns, and, for a reference, in life sciences we filter things with a 0.25 micron filter when we want it REALLY clean.

Wonder what got you at the HI. Cleaning service didn't clean the crumbs from the previous tenant?

[mushroom]

If you do some reading here: Open Original Shared Link - you will find that gluten molecules vary greatly in size, but are some of the largest molecules there are. So the zonulin in our guts must open the gates pretty wide to let them through into the bloodstream. This must be why they do not pass through the epidermis; i.e., you can only get a skin reaction from contact, not a systemic reaction.

I stay at the Holiday Inn Express at SFO every year on our way through and have never had a problem with them, bed or breakfast.

[123glldd]

That did happen once somewhere else....a hotel gave us a room that hadn't been cleaned yet but we complained and got a new room. Not that time though and not the holiday inn.

I was just told by my husband I should add this.....chances are we know many of the things we ask about are not a problem but this disclaimer has to be made. Perhaps some of you have experienced this at different times in your life and maybe not. I don't talk to many people about it except my mother and my husbands parents because most would have a hard time believing it. Our sheer bad luck in various things the past few months...has been unbelievable. To the point we feel like Bruce in Bruce Almighty when he gets angry with god. Eventually SO much happens bad in a short period...sicknesses and various other things out of our control...that you really do begin to feel like someone upstairs is bullying you. For real. We are, the past couple months, the most depressed we've been in ages now. So if we seem a little overly worried...I just want to say it's with good reason. A meteor hit russia yesterday....can we say we can go outside and reasonably say we won't be hit by one? Of course. Here's the thing..gluten and problems that you may have coinciding with it are much more likely...and luck....we have practically zero right now. So for our own sanity we ask about things. My husband has become more OCD than i've ever been washing his hands....they are very dried out and red. He just got back from the grocery store. He picked up jugs of water...the conveyer belt almost always has white specks all over it that he worries are flour. So then he comes home and feels the need to wash off the bottoms of the jugs so as to not cross contaminate anything. He never USE to be like this but he's worried sick now because our luck has been horrible.

[1desperateladysaved]

I have trouble with laundry detergents (Perfume) at the store. I have never smelled anything like that on hotel sheets.

I have had problems with motels when they are musty or water damaged.

Diana

[mushroom]

I am sorry you have been having a run of bad luck. Sometimes in life $*[t happens. But it is not normal for it to happen constantly. I remember when I was in driver's ed and they showed a video of what could happen while you were driving - dogs running out, kids chasing tennis balls, redlight runners, pedestrians not looking where they were going, blind little old ladies in walking frames popping up from nowhere. I said to the instructor, Boy, I hope driving really isn't like this or no one would do it. He reassured me that no, this was a lifetime's experiences all thrown together in one video, and that most days none of these things would happen while you were driving.

This is what is bothering me - that you are worrying about a lifetime's gluten horror stories happening on your trip through the supermarket, or your stay at a hotel. Ninety-nine point nine things that you are talking about will probably not happen to you. Not to say that they all can't, but most of them if they do there is precious little you can do about them, and worrying about them is going to drive you both crazy in the meantime. You must do what a normally prudent person with your level of sensitivity would do, which is what I do. The rest is up to chance and God or whatever higher power you respect. There is life to be lived, even for those who must avoid gluten, and so long as you follow normal precautions you should be just fine.

[123glldd]

I've tried telling my husband that but it just seems like luck is not on our side..in every part of life right now. To tell you the truth i've been gluten free since may...but about once a month was still getting stomach pain. Upper middle stomach. The past month and a half I have not had this happen since eating low salicylates. I'm hoping if they have been part of my health issues that it's only temporary because some of the horror stories i've heard from people on THAT forum I really didn't need. That being said a lot of bad stuff has gone down the last..oh i dunno 4 months or so. The past 2 health-wise. My husband has no faith in luck/higher power because we basically feel like fate's punching bag at the moment so he's driving himself crazy with this.

[mushroom]

Yes, many of us do find we have other food issues to deal with after we cut out gluten; goodness only knows, I found enough of my own. If you are not yet one year in on this journey then you could still continue to have the occasional stomach ache, upset, for no known reason. If you see a particularl pattern, as you obviously did with the salicylates, then you take appropriate action and move on. You keep a food and symptom journal if you can't figure out what it is. You are still healing. I continued healing for three years or more.

Fate picks on all of us at one point or another; my last three summer vacations have resulted in hospitalizations. Last August they did not think I was going to make it. But here I am!!! One saying I heard that stuck with me through life -- survival does not depend on how hard you fall, but on how high you bounce!! Think of yourself as a rubber ball, and keep bouncing back