acousticmom

You folks are awesome. Great ideas! Using long-handled serving utensils and different decorations around the gluten-free foods would help make the same-table-scenario work, as long as you don't mind sacrificing seconds and leftovers. (At our house, I mark all buffet leftovers with an "X" for possible cc, and the gluten-eaters eat them, so nothing goes...

I'm not sure where to post this, but I could use some advice from anyone who's helped organize buffets, etc. for public dining and have also managed to accomodate celiacs. Here's the situation: We now have 3 celiacs plus 1 gluten-intolerant person at our church. Given the increase in diagnoses lately (yay for the awareness efforts!!), I'm sure there will...

jerseyangel, Many thanks for posting the link. I haven't watched the show in a long time, but it seems to me this was quite a substantial segment, more in-depth than their format normally allows. Hooray! Carol

You might check with her doctor to see if there's anything that can help with the pain when she does get glutened. I know several prescription meds have been mentioned in past discussions; I don't know if any of them would be appropriate for an 11-month old, but her doctor might have suggestions if her pain is very bad. It's awfully hard to watch your kid...

Thanks, Richard. I didn't know that, so it helps with my decision. I should have known I was opening a can of worms (I know people on both sides of the fence myself). I agree that each individual ought to evaluate the pros and cons before deciding, and consider the sources of the information you use. Tiffany raised an important point: Anecdotal stories...

My 13-year old son had some mysterious stomach pain last month--3 episodes that were very painful, but different from how gluten feels. These he felt almost in his back. The doc gave him belladonna, which helped 2 of the three episodes. We never figured out what caused those episodes, but at the time almost every family around here had kids sick with...

RiceGuy, that's a good point. We're told that gluten has to contact the intestines to cause a reaction (i.e. we shouldn't have to worry about hair products), but there are so many unanswered questions about gluten intolerance, it wouldn't surprise me at all if we find other types of reactions at work as well. And yet, the logic I hear all the time from medical...

Wow--that's weird! I wish I could peek at the research findings 50 or 75 years in the future and see what they learn about gluten issues. In the meantime, I'm getting used to weirdness. What dog food do you use? Carol

When my 13-year old son gets glutened, he copes with the pain by pacing the circle route in our house. I can tell how bad it is by how fast he's walking. (Fortunately, NuLev usually helps with the pain, otherwise he'd wear ruts in the floor!) His pacing route takes him past the regular toaster (quarrantined on its own table) and the bathroom. This morning...

Since the new labeling laws took effect last January, companies are supposed to list if milk is in any obscure ingredients. Sometimes you'll see "Contains Milk" at the bottom of the ingredients list, but not always. Unfortunately, there are lots more names than just casein. Jenvan posted a helpful list on this board a while ago. Here's the address: Open Original...

Intolerances can be quantity-related. If you think yours are, I'd suggest being really systematic--cut them all out, then add one in a very small quantity, then try a little more of the same thing, and then a little more. Find out how much is okay. Then take it back out until you're done going through all of the suspect foods the same way. I've read that...

I've done both types of elimination diet--the kinder version, where you cut out one suspect food group at a time, and the brutal version of cutting out all but a handful of foods. The kinder version is a bit of a gamble, because if the kids have multiple sensitivities, you may or may not see much of a difference. The brutal version at least gets you back...

For a couple of years before going gluten-free I slept every afternoon, was chilled to the bone (especially when I was most tired), weak, and always felt like I was coming down with the flu. Naps helped, but nothing really made it go away. When I went gluten-free it helped my other symptoms, but I still got that extreme tiredness many days and couldn't work...

Sorry, queenofhearts, I missed your question earlier. She used to have scary dreams and occasional night terrors, but not so much now. The good thing is, she's a problem-solver, even at 10. So if she knows that being overtired can make it worse, she tries to get to bed earlier. I think anxiety is connected somehow. Even though she's generally bright, outgoing...

I like the approach outlined in Food Allergies and Food Intolerances by Jonathan Brostoff, MD. He recommends doing your detective work in stages, to avoid being over-strict with your diet unless you really need to do that. The first stage is what he calls a healthy-eating diet, which eliminates the common foods and beverages that can have drug-like effects...