My son can’t catch a break. Just found out he has Celiac disease so no more gluten

[cantdrv55]

His doc caught it early before much damage was done. Going gluten free for him means all of us must do the same to prevent cross contamination. It’s going to be a pain in the a55 but necessary. Anyone else here go gluten free?

[gchappel]

I developed gluten sensitivity at about 60yo. Medically diagnosed with biopsies and all the blood work.
I am lucky in that I am not as sensitive as some. I have no problems with minimal cross contamination, only if I actually consume obvious gluten.
Cooking from home, no one notices.
All the chain restaurants have "gluten free" choices. The meal is gluten free, preparation may not be perfectly clean. Depends on how sensitive he is.
The only thing I really miss is dough. I liked thick pizza crusts and soft bread. None of the gluten free breads actually rise- they are more like crackers.
Its a lot easier now that what I call the "social gluten free" mob has more gluten free items on the shelves.
Good luck. At least for me, it really has not been to bad for me or the family.
gary

[Seahawk]

My wife does the gluten free menu, her issues, not mine…very similar to Gary.

Her favorite site is Zest for Baking

https://zestforbaking.com/

Best.

[fanaudical]

My wife and niece have gluten sensitivities but not full blown celiac. Both suffered from various health issues that cleared up once the docs finally identified the problem. It was life changing positive for both of them.

We cook gluten free at home best we can, and it's not that difficult.

Cauliflower based pizza dough is pretty good.

Barilla gluten free pasta is good.

We find we now eat a lot more veggies and and rice, more Mexican dishes with corn tortillas, etc.

[LWJ]

My daughter is celiac. She doesn’t live with us. We are very careful. It is just a habit. A small zig-zag in life. Great that the docs caught this.

[cantdrv55]

You guys are making me feel hopeful. Thank you.

[NYNick]

Wife has been celiac and gluten free for 10 years. She's militant about it and has zero tolerance to any contamination. Most restaurants have gluten free options but you have to be careful. Cross contamination happens all the time. She's been "glutinated" many times when we've gone out and it's no fun for her that night or the next day.

I went gluten free to make life easier around the house for about 5 years but it got uncomfortable for me and the food generally sucks. Now I'm a part timer. We work around the food in the kitchen and dinner etc. The whole house doesn't need to go gluten free for one person, you just need to pay close attention in the kitchen.

Good luck. It's not easy but certainly doable.

[gsxrken]

I’ve eaten gluten free for over 15 years now but it was an accident of sorts. When we first started giving my second son certain solid foods, he would get immediate hives and start wheezing if we gave him any bread or bananas. Got him tested, and he didn’t have celiac, but he was anaphylactic to those foods. So for his entire life, we’ve had EpiPen‘s all over the house and in cars and anywhere we go.

Anyway, one time when he was about four years old, he asked me pathetically why he couldn’t eat everybody else’s food, and had to have his own stuff on the side. (My wife was amazing with all this.) So I said “I will eat your food too and then me and you will be the same.” I started doing that and lo and behold, my routine bloated feeling and more than occasional diarrhea basically cleared up. The few times that I fell off the wagon and had bowl of spaghetti or some buttered bread I paid for it. So ever since then, even since he’s moved out of the house recently, I eat gluten-free for myself. I’ve even gotten tested at the doctors and nothing came up, but I don’t need a diagnosis to know that to know that I’m better off not eating it.
The “social gluten free” thing Gary mentioned is real, lol. It’s trendy for some reason. Sometimes when I’m traveling and I have to ask if they have anything that’s gluten-free or can they substitute/prepare the food gluten-free, I’ll get an “Oh God” eye roll. Oh well.

[jyl]

It is definitely very feasible to be gluten free nowadays. If eating at home there are gluten free beers, breads, pastas, bagels, etc. Usually more expensive than conventional, but not greatly. Eating out is harder. Most restaurants will have some gluten free choices; even if there aren’t menu items specifically called out as “gluten free” you can eat stuff that doesn’t have gluten normally anyway (salads ex-croutons, steaks, etc). But he’ll have to exercise some restraint - no more blithely ordering beer, hamburgers, sandwiches, spaghetti, bagels, muffins, etc without thinking about it.

[wilnj]

With restaurants, I would just reinforce the fact that it is an allergy, not a dietary choice. I’ve seen wait staff be very casual about questions about their menu options.


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[unclebilly]

My son is being tested for this right now. About 3 months ago, he started to have issues.

[masraum]

My wife is gluten sensitive (not celiac). So she/we often eat gluten free. Years ago, it was tough because it was new and not common anywhere and many most folks didn't have a clue. Now it's maybe not quite everywhere, but much more common so it's much easier. Not only that, but a lot of the commercially available gluten free stuff is actually very good. We go to a little place where the small (thin crust) pizzas are gluten free. I've tried their medium thin crust pizza, and actually prefer the small because the gluten free is better. Also Dominos has a small gluten free pizza (thin crust) that I think is pretty darn tasty. There are breads and pastas that are not good, but there are some that are actually really good too.

So when/if you start trying things like bread and pasta, try lots, because you're likely to eventually find one or two that you like.

We even had really great cake style donut holes in a shop in New Orleans once. And a local place has a keylime pie that's got a crust that's like a graham cracker crust that's excellent.

Often, gluten free items may have a lot more sugar than gluten-ful items, so that's something that you may want to watch out for.

[Jeff Hail]

Glad you caught this early.

A high percentage of the US population has gluten sensitivity and does not even know it. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder affecting 1% of the population. I believe sensitivity is much greater and people just dont know what they have.

Testing for the celiac disease may make patients go gluten-free, thus reducing the damage to the intestine.

An aquaintance friend of mine that is a Dermatologist claims its easy to identify as a correlative factor for celiac disease in skin issues if no other outside cause exists. For example a skin condition called lichen planus has a direct connection to gluten sensitivity and Celiac disease. Lichen planus has a unique texture, a lacy pattern of distribution called Wickham's striae.

Several other immunological mechanisms believed to coexist with celiac disease such as diabetes mellitus, autoimmune thyroid disease, and diagnostic cutaneous manifestation dermatitis herpetiformis. Lichen planus is also associated with a few autoimmune disorders and infectious diseases such as hepatitis C.

I have cut down tremendously on gluten and generally feel better. A lot of friends have gone sans gluten and a bunch of mystery ailments have cleared up. Gluten-free diet trend is really not a trend anymore. Its a fact.