BlessedMommy

I'm actually planning on making my home entirely gluten free, but wanted to have something washable, just in case. 

Right. I was hoping for something that wouldn't scratch the pans, though.

The main thing that scares me about deviled eggs is the fact that someone may have made them with a CC'ed jar of mayo. If you can verify that the mayo is gluten free and that the person making them didn't CC them, probably no reason to stay away.

Are there any good alternatives to wooden spoons that are easily washable? What about silicone? Can it be easily washed and cleaned if it comes into contact with gluten?

Yeah, knowing what I know now, I would've never dropped gluten before getting lab tests. Maybe someday they will come up with diagnostic methods that don't require gluten ingestion to work.

Just curious if anyone who tried gluten-free before testing actually made it through a gluten trial. I was hospitalized after just 10 days of gluten trial and I had to stop for sheer survival. (had a TIA which affected my speech and made my right side numb, I really didn't want to go on to have a full blown stroke!)

It seems that my experience may not be that unusual, though many people last longer than 10 days!

Did anyone actually do a gluten trial and go on to get properly diagnosed? I was reading a blog post about someone who did a 2 month gluten challenge, suffered through really bad symptoms and went on to get blood tests--which were negative anyway.

Can genetic testing rule out celiac?

If your one teen was unable to tolerate any gluten after elimination, then how did they get diagnosed? Did the doctor diagnose based on symptoms and genetic tests?

How could it help the other family members?

Nope! It's a little late for that....I already have 3 kids. LOL!

Yes, please make sure that you get your doc to run the celiac panel before going gluten-free. Otherwise you may lose your opportunity to get a diagnosis, forever. In my case, gluten-free helped me and when I went back to eating gluten, the symptoms were very dangerous and severe so I couldn't finish the gluten trial and will never get a diagnosis.

I don't necessarily want to order "fringe tests" but I don't necessarily want to order through my doctor either. 

I suppose that a normal private lab (not an internet lab) would have the basic tests that I need.

Where could I get those tests?

I've been gluten-free for 4 years. My story is below in my signature. I've never had a celiac blood panel.

Would there be any point to genetic testing?

I don't have an actual celiac disease diagnosis, because my symptoms resolved when gluten-free and then when I resumed eating gluten, I had a TIA caused by chronic headaches on the gluten trial. That happened only 10 days in. Doing a 3 month gluten challenge would be a disaster!

So while I would've loved a real diagnosis, I don't have the inclination to risk death, hospitalization, or permanent disability to get one.

However, that means that I don't have any doctor's guidance and I sometimes wonder if I'm doing things right or if I'm truly healing. My regular family doctor doesn't know much about things, he just told me to stay away from gluten, but that "a little bit probably wouldn't bother me."   

I also don't know whether I have celiac or NCGI either. 

After 4 years gluten-free, would celiac tests do me any good? In other words, if I took a celiac blood panel would it tell me if I'm being successful enough at following the gluten-free diet? Or are the tests not sensitive enough to detect minute levels of gluten in the blood?

Also, what about tests to check my nutrient levels? Are there any ones in particular that are recommended for celiacs/NCGI?

I just had to share a positive story of supportive people, since it seems that many of us have to deal with people who aren't very helpful or supportive in our gluten-free diet.

I'm on vacation. At our prior place to stay, our friends were very supportive about avoiding glutening. They even made a separate jar of mayo for us and labeled it "gluten-free." 

At our current place to stay, I went to a potluck. My SIL's mother-in-law (so my sister-in-law's husband's mother) had made a dish of vegetarian oat burgers. She had gone out and bought some Bob's Red Mill certified gluten-free oats to make them with, and then she went so far as to make them FIRST, before making the regular ones with bread crumbs. At the potluck, she told me to go dish up some of my salad and set it aside before anyone had a chance to drop crouton crumbs in it. 

My SIL made me some vegetarian loaf with tofu and gluten free bread crumbs and she pulled out a portion for me before adding the topping, because as she said, "I'm not sure if the jelly in the topping had crumbs in the jar or not."

It's so great to have people around who do their best to understand and accommodate the celiac diet and don't make fun of me for taking precautions against CC.

Yay!   

I think that I'm going to keep my metal colander too and just make sure that it's cleaned well. I don't even remember the last time that I ever made normal pasta in our kitchen. Hubby always eats the gluten-free stuff.

Thanks! I'm relieved that I don't have to get rid of it. I'll give it a good scrub down with some vinegar.

Oh, one other question, does anybody know what I should do to sterilize an enamel coated stock pot? The style is similar to this one. Open Original Shared Link

With a mixed kitchen, that is! LOL!

I'm so tired of worrying about getting cross contaminated at home. I just want one safe haven in the universe where I don't have to worry and can be safe and comfortable. I want some time in my life where I don't have to think about gluten so much!

Any tips for making my kitchen exclusively gluten-free? We didn't use a lot of gluten in my kitchen to begin with as most of our family meals are gluten-free.

My toaster & waffle iron have never made any gluten containing food, so they're good. I put my cast iron pan in the oven for the self clean cycle and then reseasoned it, so that should be good now. I don't think that I've ever blended anything with gluten in my blender. I'm thinking that maybe I should dispense with my non stick pot, since that's a porous surface and replace it with a stainless steel pot.

I'm thinking that I'll talk to hubby about replacing wooden spoons and plastic spatulas with metal stuff. Then giving everything a thorough scrub down! I've trained my husband not to double dip in condiments, so all condiments should be safe.

The main area where I was using gluten was to make hubby's lunches. (regular bread for sandwiches) I think that I'm going to try alternatives like sending him hot meals in a crockpot, or sending a rice cooker to work with him to plug in and make spanish rice.

Any other recommendations of good spouse lunches?

I would like to find a good pediatrician for my kids that is knowledgeable in celiac disease and is also respectable of alternate decisions regarding vaccinations. Where would I go to find that info?

I believe that you can get the celiac blood panel through a private lab.

I ran across this. What do you all think?

Open Original Shared Link

Not an option for me, as I would never risk eating gluten for 3 days but something like that could be very useful for my kids. 

I'm not vegan either, I'm an ovo vegetarian. Love my fresh eggs from my neighbor's chickens!

Jam & soymilk were a couple that surprised me.

There was a brand of jelly that had wheat glucose syrup in it. Some soymilk is barley malt sweetened.