New to the world of Celiac Disease - Week 1 update on page 2

[snorris49]

I'm so glad to hear you are feeling better! Isn't it amazing what changing your diet will do to how you feel?! Glad to hear things are getting easier and it sounds like you have a wonderful husband who's very supportive of you and this change. That makes all the difference in the world.

I'm looking for forward to hearing about how things are going with you and your reviews after you go to WDW!

 

[dancer4life22]

hey! haha it might seem good now and i dont know how old you are but let me warn you.... there are days when its gonna suck. maybe its jsut because im 15 but it does for me a lot. lol. ive been on the diet since i was 4 not fun. i get wicked sick when i eat a crumb of anything. its bad.... anyway over the counter stuff and most medicines are always fine. i dont think ive ever had a problem. restaurants are normally good.... hmmm... applebees is awful dont go in there ever again. try outback. they have a gluten free menu with a brownie sundae called chocolate thunder from down under thats soooooooo good. disney is the best for celiac! the fiftys prime time cafe gave me and my mom who also has celiace fried chicken! i was in heaven it was my first one ever and i was 14!they also have gluten free desserts! ummm.... what else what else. try some of these products there good!

the sherris pre made frozen pizza crust (put on sauce cheese and whatever put in the oven and your done!)
CHEBE! ITS THE MOST AMAZING STUFF EVER OMGGGG MY SISTER AND DAD EVEN LOVE IT AND THEY CAN EAT WHATEVER THEY WANT BUT ITS SOOOO GOOD! my mom makes pizza and calzones and bread with it. use the kind in the red bag.
kinik kinik (spelling...?) has good breads. i like the hot dog rolls! (get ballpark hot dogs!)
tinkyada (i think thats how you spell it) has good pasta.
kettle chips (thats all it says on the bag) and utz are labeled gluten free. lays and stuff i wouldnt suggest even though there labeled because they have a high risk of cross contamination or something.
sodas are usually okay. always check root though... i know barqs and mug are fine...
always check online. a lot of companies have information.

instead of whole foods try a local health food store. they always have a lot and its cheaper. thats what my mom does.

when going out to restaurants check everything! i mean EVERTHING!! i know you may be saddened by this (i always am) but french fries are normally NOT ok unless your in disney. also always check potatoes (thickeners) soups, salad dressings, and seasonings. i usually get salads with bleu cheese dressing which is almost always gluten free or a steak or burger.

be careful of some stuff thats unexpected like shampoo and conditioner! i got a huge rash on my face and even got sick becuas emy shampoo had wheat strach in it. also toothpaste and lotion and stuff. always check! oo and lipgloss and chapstick!

i think thats it.... sorry this is so long. good luck! ask if you have any more questions!

 

[chell]

Thanks everyone!

My husband really is wonderful. I just can't say that enough. Poor guy is going through it right along with me.

 

[chell]

I can't comment on the irregularity part since I've been GF since before I can remember. The thing to remember is that not every time you get a stomachache means you ate something with gluten. People without Celiac get stomach pains too. You will feel A TON better (which clearly you already are - and that is amazing for just after a week) but stomachaches still occur sometimes. Just soooo much less frequently. Glad you are feeling better already!

Monday I had a stomach ache from a virus, but last night felt like from the Celiac. There is a definite difference. I have had this constant pain for 5 months until I went gluten free just over a week ago so the feeling of it was still pretty fresh in my mind. Thankfully this morning I woke up feeling better.

 

[chell]

Thank you for all the info dancer4life22. I'd love to be able to shop at local health food stores but we don't have them here. Well we do have one that just opened up. I just found out about it this week after we took the hour long drive to Whole Foods. It is a very small store though. Our town sucks when it comes to natural foods. We have 3 cities we can drive to that has good natural food stores, but they are all an hour away.

I've done a lot of reading on this and see that I have to check everything I use. It's annoying, but it will be worth it to be better.

Thanks for the heads up on Applebees! We wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse Friday night because we were told they had a gluten-free menu but when I called they said they didn't do it anymore because there was too much room for cross-contamination in the kitchen. Basically she made me feel like we were just too much trouble for them to deal with.

We went to Outback and we had the Chocolate Thunder From Down Under!!! Oh yeah! I know it wasn't egg-free but I had some anyway. It was good!!! I just needed something "normal" and gooey.

 

[pudge the fish]

I order stuff from amazon- my friend's son is doing a gf diet for autism and we spilt a lot of things as things normally come in packages of 6 or 8

they have Pamelas & Bobs red mill and ener-g stuff plus lots more
Just do a search on amazon for gluten free foods

we just ordered the Orgra-N cookies to try
outback animals cookies (chocolate flavored

another treat is walmart brand smilies- they are marked gluten free, can't eat too many as they raise my sugar but a nice treat now and then

 

[valree]

Chell, where in NC do you live? My folks live near Charlotte, and whenever I am in town, I go to the Home Economist in Davidson to stock up on a lot of GF stuff. They have a good selection of GF items. Trader Joe's is good too. Online shopping is great though especially Amazon.

I started keeping a journal of all the GF items and restaurants that I’ve tried and things I want to try. I’ve had some really bad stuff and some things that were great and I couldn’t even tell they were GF. My plan is to post my reviews online some day, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.

 

[chell]

Chell, where in NC do you live? My folks live near Charlotte, and whenever I am in town, I go to the Home Economist in Davidson to stock up on a lot of GF stuff. They have a good selection of GF items. Trader Joe's is good too. Online shopping is great though especially Amazon.

I started keeping a journal of all the GF items and restaurants that I’ve tried and things I want to try. I’ve had some really bad stuff and some things that were great and I couldn’t even tell they were GF. My plan is to post my reviews online some day, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.

I'm in Hickory so I'm about an hour from Charlotte. All of the good stores are at least an hour from us. We have some things here, but not a lot.

I've started a journal too. Feel free to share here if you want. I'd love to know what you have found that you like.

I tried brown rice pasta last week & hated it. YUCK!

I've tried some gluten-free cookies and didn't like them either. I'm too lazy to go get the package to tell you what brand they were.

But I do love the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under at Outback!!! I'm so glad they offer a GF dessert. They get major from me on that one.

The Van's waffles are really good.

 

[chell]

Thanks for the tips on Amazon. Next month is my first support group meeting. After trying stuff there I may look into it. I'd hate to order stuff before trying it. I'm so picky. Really.

My sister went yesterday & had the blood work done to see if she tests positive for Celiac Disease. The day before I talked to my cousin about her getting tested since my sister & I believe our grandmother had it. Her quality of life would have been so much better had we known about Celiac Disease several years ago, especially 10 years ago.

My cousin's mother-in-law also has this so I suggested she have her son tested. She was asking me if there is a ADHD connection. I pulled up some research I found online and she is very interested in having her son tested now. It seems like some children only have ADHD type symptoms when they have Celiac. It is worth her checking out.

And I've talked with two ladies at work about them getting tested. One swells when she eats wheat so she knows her body doesn't like it. I was telling her all the negative effects it can have on your body if you do have Celiac Disease & continue to consume gluten. The other has IBS & has issues frequently. It wouldn't hurt for them to get the blood test done if nothing else.

 

[dancer4life22]

Thank you for all the info dancer4life22. I'd love to be able to shop at local health food stores but we don't have them here. Well we do have one that just opened up. I just found out about it this week after we took the hour long drive to Whole Foods. It is a very small store though. Our town sucks when it comes to natural foods. We have 3 cities we can drive to that has good natural food stores, but they are all an hour away.

I've done a lot of reading on this and see that I have to check everything I use. It's annoying, but it will be worth it to be better.

Thanks for the heads up on Applebees! We wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse Friday night because we were told they had a gluten-free menu but when I called they said they didn't do it anymore because there was too much room for cross-contamination in the kitchen. Basically she made me feel like we were just too much trouble for them to deal with.

We went to Outback and we had the Chocolate Thunder From Down Under!!! Oh yeah! I know it wasn't egg-free but I had some anyway. It was good!!! I just needed something "normal" and gooey.

no problem! im happy 2 help!

 

[dancer4life22]

hey so i found out that you can order that chebe stuff i said was sooo good from the website!

 

[chell]

Cool! Thanks for letting me know.

 

[itradehilton]

The ADHD connection is how we found out our DS had celiac. The school wanted us to have him tested for ADHD and our doctor did a bunch of blood tests to rule out medical reasons and the Celiac test came back positive. He then had the biopsy to confirm the Celiac. For us it turned out no ADHD but Celiac.

For pasta we like the brand Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta. It is made from Quinoa and corn. It tastes the most like pasta but you have to be sure not to overcook it because it will fall apart.

 

[chell]

The ADHD connection is how we found out our DS had celiac. The school wanted us to have him tested for ADHD and our doctor did a bunch of blood tests to rule out medical reasons and the Celiac test came back positive. He then had the biopsy to confirm the Celiac. For us it turned out no ADHD but Celiac.

For pasta we like the brand Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta. It is made from Quinoa and corn. It tastes the most like pasta but you have to be sure not to overcook it because it will fall apart.

Thank you for the info! I'm going to pass that along to my cousin. It could make such a difference in their lives.

I'll have to look for that pasta. We had some penne the other day that wasn't too bad. I'm thinking the shapes might not be as bad as the spaghetti types.

 

[tscrapper]

Just a heads up blue cheese salad dressing is made using bread to start the mold in the cheese. My DH is celiac and never orders this dressing.

 

[chell]

Thanks. I can't eat blue cheese anyway because of my other allergies. Besides it smells horrible!

Yesterday I ate a small spoonful of dressing/stuffing and I am paying horribly for it. UGH! My sister makes the best and I just couldn't do Thanksgiving without it. Never again will I do that. I am in such pain. It wasn't even a tablespoon of it! Guess I'm super sensitive to the stuff. It wasn't like it was pure wheat or anything. It was full of celery, onion and cornbread too.

 

[snorris49]

Oh no! That's no fun. I did a trial run Thanksgiving 2 months ago and got sick after trying a spoon of dressing. It's amazing how just a little bit of something can affect you.

I ended up making my own homemade GF cornbread stuffing. I used Earth Balance vegan butter sticks and celery and onion. I then made cornbread and substituted 1/2 cup rice flour and bumped up the amount of cornmeal in it. I then crumbled that, mixed veggies, and GF broth (I used Kitchen Basics) and voila! I then did what Rachael Ray suggested on her show and made stuffin muffins! I made little muffin cups of stuffing and then froze the leftovers, since I had so many left.

We had 3 kinds of stuffing at my house! But at least I felt satisfied.

Sorry you don't feel feel good. It's a trial and error, even if you've been doing it for a while. But at least you are more prepared for the Christmas holiday and know what things may or may not set you off. I think you are doing great, considering you just found out not that long ago!

 

[chell]

Thanks for the encouragement! It means a lot. I've been frustrated. We went out to lunch today and I got frustrated seeing all of the foods I couldn't have. I didn't want any of them but seeing them and knowing I couldn't have them is depressing. I think because I've been sick for so long my emotional state is messed up. Well because of that and things are very stressful at work right now. I want to cry. It usually takes a lot to make me want to cry. I'm too emotional right now. My guess is because I've been through a lot in a short amount of time.

The pure cornbread stuffing is a good idea except I really can't stand cornbread. I know, I'm too picky. Texture is a HUGE issue for me in many foods. That is something I'm going to have to work on overcoming.

Today I'm starting to feel better. The cramping is still there sadly.

 

[itradehilton]

The overwhelming feeling is normal. When my DS started the GF diet it was kind of like grieving. He had to face not being able to eat like all of his classmates. It does get easier as you find alternatives that taste good to you. Also Disney is awesome how they accommodate GF dinners. My DS can't wait to go to Disneyworld so we can eat out every night and not worry about the food.

 

[snorris49]

The overwhelming feeling is normal.

Totally! I went through periods in the beginning where I would just bust in to tears and lose it because I just wanted to eat a big hunk of bread or I just wanted to eat "normal" like everyone else.

It does ease and you'll adjust, but I admit there are times (and the holidays are one of them) where I get sad because I can't eat something. However, it's true, when you find alternatives the feeling like you can't eat anything does dissapate. In fact, there are a lot of things that I prefer GF! I love giving things to people too, especially when they really like it and are in shock that it is GF/CF!

You have been through a lot Chell and you are doing great. It's OK to be frustrated and you know your Disboard friends are here to support you!