There are people allergic to gluten. There are those with a gluten sensitivity or intolerance. Others, like my friend and her daughters, have Celiac Disease, something altogether different. And then there are those who choose to go gluten free for other health reasons, ranging from a desire to lose weight to gaining more energy. What are all these different gluten reactions? Are they connected; are they manageable? Can you have any gluten?  Here’s some help in deciphering it all:

Gluten Allergy
Just like any allergy, this is the body’s reaction to something it thinks is harmful and antibodies build up to defend it. Symptoms can range from hives to anaphylaxis to nausea.  A tiny bit can cause the reaction so avoidance is usually necessary.

Gluten Intolerance
This is when the body reacts to gluten in a negative way, but it is not an allergy. It is not life threatening, but an adverse reaction can manifest. Often it is seen in digestive issues. Many people with a food intolerance, gluten or other, can have small amounts of the food. In fact, a friend of mine knows that she has intolerance to dairy, so she weighs the risks of eating it. If she’s home alone, she may have that bowl of ice cream, but not in a crowd of people or if she has something to do. They can often tolerate small amounts, like the traces found in foods or croutons on a salad, just not sandwiches or a plate of pasta. Some people also refer to gluten intolerance as gluten sensitivity (or any other intolerance, like dairy).

Celiac Disease
This is what my friend and her family are dealing with, and is very different from the other gluten conditions. In Celiac Disease, the body cannot digest and process the gluten, so damage is done to the intestines and the body manifests symptoms in a myriad of ways. Not only is wheat a culprit, but also barley, rye and often oats. Because the body cannot process the gluten, the villi in the intestines can become damaged causing long term problems. With an allergy, once the reaction subsides, it’s over, not with Celiacs.

Those with this condition need to avoid altogether, like an allergy. It’s recommended households have two toasters if anyone else will be eating gluten, though a gluten free house is the best bet. Just like with an allergy, traces of gluten can lead to damage.

Here is a good article on gluten and Celiac Disease with a history of the condition, diagnosing, symptoms and complications. It does explain what my friend told me about not cutting out glutens even after being diagnosed if you are going to have an intestinal biopsy.

Optional Gluten Free Diets
Many people opt to go gluten free for different reasons, whether to lose weight or just cleanse. They may have no adverse reactions, but want to change their diets for benefits.

What happens sometimes, though, is restaurants may claim to have gluten free menu items, but they still bake their items in ovens used to bake gluten products or can have traces in other ways. That’s fine for people with gluten sensitivities or voluntary gluten free diets, but not for those with allergies or Celiacs.

This month, a comprehensive study was published online by the journal, Pediatrics. The  objective of this study, was to better estimate the prevalence and severity of childhood food allergy in the United States. “What I don’t think people understand is that (food allergies) can be life-threatening. You can have a severe reaction and end up in the hospital and even die of food allergy,” said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and lead author of the study.

This recent study shows that where it once thought that about 4% of kids have some sort of food allergy, in actuality it is closer to 8% being allergic to at least one type of food. One reason this study may have higher statistics is that it is a larger study that evaluated many different foods. According to a piece on Web Md, it also states that the study holds importance because it not only covered the basic statistics, but also hints at some of the misery that is visited on children with food allergies.

Emotional Toll
It is hard for people without food allergies to understand what those with them have to go through. My friend who I have mentioned recently who just had two of her children diagnosed with Celiac Disease finally got in touch with a leader of a support group. The support group leader asked her where she was in the first stages of the diagnosis. She said, “Have you been to the grocery store, freaked out and cried yet?”

I remember doing that when my daughter was diagnosed with her food allergy. I still remember walking through the store wanting to cry at all the things she couldn’t have anymore. There certainly is a lot of emotional toll on a family with food allergies, and it is important that others realize we are not trying to control or baby or alienate our children; we just want them to safe. I was glad to see that this study tackled this aspect.

Dangers Continue, Especially for Teenage Boys
The study also showed that almost 40% of kids with a food allergy exhibit some form of a severe reaction such as wheezing or anaphylaxis, and that allergies tend to peak in preschoolers, those kids around 3 – 5 years old. However, another maybe the most dangerous time, according to the study, is the teenage years, especially for boys. They tend to exhibit more reckless behavior and that even encompasses not wanting to ask questions regarding food allergies in restaurants and with friends.

Maybe what we can take from this is that we still need to coach our kids. It’s not enough to teach them how to act and eat when they set off for kindergarten or their first sleepover. We need to remind them when they go out with friends or on a date. We need to get it in their heads when they go off to college and maybe even a bit more reckless. It is way cooler to ask if there are any peanut products in the kitchen than pass out with anaphylactic shock, and as they get older, they need to know this. They need to stay careful and keep their Epipens with them, even if it’s not cool.

Now we have a study to support all of this.

Sources:
http://children.webmd.com/news/20110620/food-allergies-in-kids-more-common-than-thought

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/20/food.allergies.pediatrics/index.html

Wow – this is some life changing material, with a mix of emotions, too. Though Celiac Disease is not an allergy, all the allergy precautions need to be taken. Here is the definition from Celiac Central:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. What does this mean? Essentially the body is attacking itself every time a person with celiac consumes gluten.

So no more gluten and add to that all the allergies, and her food is really limited. Many of the gluten substitutions have soy or corn in them as a replacement. My friend was even stumped looking for jams and jellies because the ones without high fructose corn syrup often have apple pectin in them.

Diagnosis
I think the big kicker is all the work it took to get this diagnosis. There weren’t the digestive problems often associated with Celiac’s and there weren’t any anaphylactic type symptoms associated with allergies. My friend took her daughter to doctors ranging from the pediatrician to an ENT to allergists, and no one ever mentioned Celiac’s until she demanded a full blood work up. Her daughter had terribly sensitive skin and was constantly itching with eczema and other rashes. She had strep throat and ear infections one after the other. And the doctors simply wrote it off as a peanut allergy and a weaker immune system. No, her mom said, I want more!

One thing she couldn’t get over is how she had expressed her concern over the skin issues to all of the doctors and no one made any connections. Even the allergist said it was not related to anything; it was something all on its own! Not only is irritable, rashy skin a sign of Celiac Diesease, but also a sign of food allergies. He never mentioned the soy or corn or any other foods, he solely focused on peanuts.

I think what we can take from this is that we must use our instincts. Whether it is a condition regarding allergies or something beyond allergies, go with your gut. Get the answers you need and don’t settle for the standard answers if you don’t feel it’s applicable to you or your family.

Diet Changes
So now my friend is busy reading, researching and discovering all she can to manage Celiac’s and the allergies. One or the other is difficult enough, but combine them and the food choices become very limited. She has to read labels and become versed in all the ingredient speak and different names for gluten, soy and corn.

One thing we did talk about is how clean the family’s diet will become. Once you start reading labels you learn how many foods have way more processing then then need and way more additives than necessary. She has looked into phone apps, cookbooks and blogs to find the best recipes and diets for her daughter and family.

From this, we need to take in that there is a way to cope. Whether it is Celiac’s or a food allergy, you cope and adjust and you move along. It is a challenge life gives us, but there is only one alternative and that is to empower ourselves and children and go from there.

No matter how scary a diagnosis of Celiac’s or a food allergy may be, it is better to know than wonder what is making you or your child sick. Once the diagnosis is there, the diet can be adjusted and modified. It takes a lot of learning and managing and dictating, but it can be done.

Upon entering, we go towards the produce, this one is pretty safe. But wait, if it’s autumn there is probably a big display of mixed nuts that look so tempting (just not to us). Who knows how many little hands have run through that and then touched other things in the store. But let’s move on with our safe fruits and vegetables. Mmmm, something smells good – it’s the chef cooking a demo meal of yummy things for dinner. She’s got it all spread out and what could it be? It’s almond crusted tilapia…

Skip to the bakery section and the big sign that states everything made in the bakery may have been processed on equipment that also processes tree nuts among other allergens. Oh, the brownies and cinnamon rolls smell so good, but are covered in pecans and walnuts. Let’s move on.

The rest of the outskirts of the store is pretty safe to us, but not those with dairy allergies, that’s where all the milk, ice cream and other dairy is. They sometimes have to search for the right refrigerated sections because though sometimes stores stock alternatives next to the traditional product, others stock them all in their own cozy corner. But back to us, now we have to make it through the inner aisles, the cereals, breads, crackers…

As we are trying to eat healthier and snack healthier, trail mix is a good alternative. It’s filling and healthy. But it seems it’s always full of nuts. Cashews are big in trail mix, and that’s my daughter’s biggest nut enemy. So we can make our own with different dried fruits and cereals. Let’s visit the cereal aisle. It’s not terribly hard to find cereal without nuts, plus just plain old oatmeal is popular in our house. And I’m very impressed to see all of the gluten free alternatives here, many of them are even marked not only on the box but by the store themselves. As I look more carefully, I see that on the store labels on the shelves is a big G for Gluten Free, right there with the price. Good for the store!

The frozen aisle to me is a mini store in itself. You’ve got your dairy products, produce, baked goods and proteins, along with ethnic and ready made foods. Again, produce is fairly easy to stay nut free in, unless of course, you accidently grab the green beans in an almond sauce or pecan rice pilaf. I also notice much more gluten free and sprouted grains which is nice (in their own section, of course). I think where you have to be extra careful is the ice cream and the ready made meals. Because so many ice cream manufacturers use all kinds of nuts in ice cream, we have to read the labels really carefully. It’s here we often read of recalls on food due to undeclared nuts. As for frozen entrees, nuts aren’t necessarily snuck in, but with so many ingredients, sometimes it’s hard to spot them – read carefully if buying, especially ethnic!

Well, now that we have our cart sort of full, it’s time to check out. For as difficult as it sounds, shopping for a food allergy has improved even in the years my daughter has been diagnosed. Though there are still lots of kinks and inconveniences we have to deal with it, it’s comforting to know it is getting easier!

• Compassion. You never know what someone else is dealing with. Just as I have had struggles dealing with a food allergy in my family, other people are always dealing with something, too. And it may be a lot worse than what I have on my plate.
• People want to help. People will go out of their way to help whether it’s providing special snacks or reading labels over the phone. Take the kindness and if you still need to adapt, do so, but be appreciative nonetheless.
• Ignore a lot of it. Just as people want to help, they’ll try to hard or make bad suggestions. Ignore it, they mean well.
• Advocate when you can. Often people need to learn about food allergies, be it teachers, other parents or your child’s grandparents. Do it as a teacher would, with patience but assertiveness. I learned I am my child’s best advocate, be it allergies or anything else.
• Don’t talk about it all of the time. No one wants to hear about someone else’s problems all of the time. Talk about it when it’s appropriate, but know that is always isn’t so.
• Teach your child empowerment. You can’t be with your child all the time. Even if you can now, he will grow up. Teach him how to be safe on his own.
• Have a sense of humor. If nothing else, I know this! Everything is easy if you can laugh about it. No, allergies are not always funny, but learn to laugh. Often the alternative is crying, so make the choice that will keep you happier.
• There are yummy alternatives. With so many allergies prevalent now, there are usually some pretty good alternatives out there.
• There are worse things than allergies. Yes, allergies are tough, be it food, hay fever, bee stings, penicillin, whatever it may be. My child could have been diagnosed with things much worse than a tree nut allergy, some I can’t even think about. If this is the worse thing we have to deal with, we are blessed.

• Very low calories – a serving of almond milk has between 40 and 60 calories. Great for maintaining or losing weight.
• High calcium content – Almond milk contains about 30% of the RDA of calcium, just about what cow’s milk has (not all soy milks have calcium). Along with the calcium, it has 25% of RDA of Vitamin D to help absorb that calcium.
• No cholesterol and very low sodium – good for the heart.
• High in Potassium and Magnesium – good for lots of things, including healthy blood pressure and avoiding cramps.

Other benefits:
• Different taste than milk – if she ever does try almond milk, I’m hoping she’ll go for it as it doesn’t have that creamy taste of milk. It tastes like…almonds.
• Almond milk can be used the same way as milk whether drinking it in a glass, in your coffee or over your cereal. It does have a different taste so may not complement that piece of chocolate cake the same way, but still is pretty yummy.
• It does not have the hormones that soy milk does. Soy has health benefits, too, but also has a lot of estrogen so needs to be limited.

You can actually make your own almond milk pretty easily. This ensures that there are actually plenty of almonds in the milk. Check when you buy almond milk because often there is less almonds and more sugar than is good.

For your homemade almond milk you need almonds and water.
Grind the 1/4 cup of almonds in a coffee grinder or spice grinder. Combine the almonds with a cup of water and blend together in a blender. It’s ready, but you can strain it through a sieve if you want to get out all the ground bits. It’s not hard to understand that this is all it takes as my first sip of almond milk tasted just like this, almonds and water.

Give it a few tries, it actually is quite good. Tomorrow it’s going in my coffee!

This from the site www.cakemixdoctor.com –

“Now comes sweet news for people on gluten-free diets. They can bake their cake and eat it, too. Anne Byrn shows how to transform gluten-free cake mixes into rich, decadent, easy-to-make, impossible-to-resist desserts. Performing the magic that’s made her a best-selling baking author with more than 3.3 million copies of her books in print, she doctors mixes with additions like almond extract, fresh berries, cocoa powder, grated coconut, cinnamon, lime zest, and more – naturally, all gluten-free ingredients. Dessert is back on the menu!”

I’m even more excited to see that there is a recipe for my favorite of all of her cakes, the darn good chocolate cake, gluten free. This is one of those cakes that if you take it somewhere, everyone want the recipe, I mean everywhere. Now there is a place to find easy, and yummy, gluten free cakes and cookies.

Some of the other recipes in the book are german chocolate cake, easy orange layer cake, and a gluten free wedding cake. There are over 90 recipes for cakes, cupcakes, bars, brownies and cookies using gluten free cake mixes, both vanilla and chocolate. She wrote this book due to reader request. I think it will be a big success.

I took a look around and see that Betty Crocker makes a gluten free cake mix in both yellow and devil’s food, made in a gluten free processing facility. Looking at the ingredients, they are made with white rice flour. If your market does not carry a gluten free baking mix, ask the manager and the store should be able to get some sort of mix for you. If you have a specific brand you want, ask for it. There are a whole lot of cakes out there waiting to be made!

On another note, but not a gluten free one, the cake doctor has created a cake mix with only five or six ingredients in them. There are no additives, preservatives or trans fats. However, these do contain bleached flour so they are NOT gluten free. But for those looking for a more natural alternative to the other cake mixes, these may be good to use.

Your PTA may have good information, too, as previously mentioned. Your school library probably has some resources, too. Sometimes all the information is already there, it just needs someone to get it out.

Another good place to find information is FAAN at www.foodallergy.org. They have a lot of information for teaching and support, including lesson plans and presentations. They sponsor awareness weeks and it may be a good way to tie it into a school calendar. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America is another good place to find information, www. aafa.org. They have programs and online resources to help out in spreading awareness and information.

I also find one of the best ways to learn is to talk with people experiencing the same thing. Find out what they found that worked for them, how people reacted to their needs. What was instigated that did not work? This is where your support group will come in handy. Sometimes older kids who are willing to present and talk are great role models for younger children.

The bottom line is look to your community, it will be full of help. It is a big step to start an awareness program and something that any school could benefit from. The community has the resources, it may be up to you to find and use them. Use them as your allies. Remember, the schools want to keep all of the children safe, but with lack of time and people, they may just need your help. Once you’ve begun this program, you will see all the difference it will make. Best of luck!

I remember when a student was harassing another student with a food allergy to seafood. Maybe the little fried shrimps were served that day, and there was some taunting and getting the food to close for comfort. Another story at our own school had to do with peanut allergies and the same thing. I think some sort of dare was involved, too. These things should not happen. That’s the bottom line. Just with any kind of bullying, it should not happen.

Many schools have anti bullying platforms in place, often run by the counselors. It is important for food allergy advocates to get in on this. Even if it’s just a matter of constantly questioning food restrictions, and pointing out differences, it should stop. Some kids want to know more about it and will ask questions, but that’s different than picking on someone because of a medical condition. If kids are aware of the dangers of food allergies and they are aware that it is dangerous and a form of bullying to put a peanut butter cracker on a kid’s try who is allergic, maybe it will stop. And if it continues, consequences need to be enforced.

Working with the counselors on this matter is a smart place to begin. Perhaps you can get handouts and information out to the teachers so they can discuss it with their students. They need to know consequences, too. Not only the danger it can bring to their fellow students, but what can happen to them. School suspension, even assault charges can result. It is no laughing matter.

In a study done last year, results showed that in grades 6 to 10, as many as 50% of kids with allergies had been bullied in some way, from teasing and taunting to intentional contaminating of the food. This can bring about sadness, embarrassment and depression.

If you are considering starting a program in your school, make sure that bullying prevention is an aspect of it.

For more on the above mentioned survey, go to
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39389689/ns/health-allergies_and_asthma/

I am a mother of a 3yr old boy who is allergic to wheat, milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts. I am realizing that some of my local schools here in Philadelphia do not accommodate those with allergies. This scares me as my son’s allergies are severe. Clearly, children, as well as, adults in schools need to be educated on this topic. I am willing to start an educational crusade by doing asssemblies. Despite being a former teacher (I am currently a stay at home mom), I feel I would need some help or advice from you to get the ball rolling. I am not sure where to start. Could you help me?

She definitely has an advantage as being a stay at home affords her more time and her educational background is helpful in knowing the ins and outs of the school system. However, anyone can take this challenge on.

To begin with, I would advise a meeting before the child enters school; the preceding spring would be a great time (I’m assuming she is referring to the public school he will begin in a couple of years. A lot of this can be done in preschool, too). It’s best to meet with administrators and the school nurse if there is one for a preliminary meeting. At this meeting, present your child’s medical needs and allergy specifics, obviously in this case, there is more than one allergy to deal with. Often people unfamiliar with allergies don’t know differences even between tree nuts and peanuts, so a little education is necessary. A school nurse should know these things, as should administrators these days, though.

As you meet with them, find out what they have in place to accommodate allergies already and let them know your expectations. This is where you can be a big help. If they do not have the knowledge, means or whatever to implement what you need, here is where you can step in. Perhaps you could start a PTA committee or chair it if there is one already (often this falls under Health and Wellness). You can offer to hold informational workshops to teachers and parents. You could speak at a staff meeting, preferably during the pre-planning days before school and/or conduct a talk for parents in the evening or a lunch and learn style talk. I think it you tie it into a PTA group, you can have greater success as they can back you. If not, you can still work on this all important facet of education.

Finding an ally within the school is also helpful, maybe a teacher with a child with an allergy or just one who is interested in helping you. The school nurse would probably love your help. Remember, too, your demeanor is all important. While you want to be assertive, you don’t want to come across as difficult.

I love this topic as it is so important for students (and parents) to be safe within our schools. Look for more on this in the coming weeks and include important information to get out, forming support groups within a school, and covering bullying and allergies information. Thanks you for your comment!