Gluten!

This new gluten free lifestyle has been much harder than we thought. With Ducati being celiac we've had to read and research alot on this GF lifestyle. Besides her not being able to eat anything that has gluten in it. She's really sensitive to foods that are manufactured where wheat is processed. She gets reactions from products like lotions and shampoos that have gluten inside of them. And the tricky part is that just because the label doesn't say "Contains Wheat" doesn't mean that there isn't any in there. Wheat is called so many different names:

 rye, barley, malt, articial flavorings, flour,emolina, wheat alternative, spelt, frumento,durum, kamut, graham, einkorn, farina, couscous, seitan, matzoh, matzah, cake flour, and so many other names that I can't even find them all. 

So it's been a struggle getting our house gluten free. So we've taken it step by step- we've created a safe room. Our living room/kitchen/dining area have been deep cleaned. All our food is separated to reduce cross contamination. All lotions, soaps, medicines (yes even OTC medicine have gluten in it) have been put in our room.  We only ate at home now. We learned this one the hard way.....last week we went out to dinner at a rib spot. After ordering her a gluten free meal she still broke out due to some type of cross contaminate from either the kitchen, the table, the waiter, or some other factor that I'm not aware of yet. So we've crossed out eating out for now. It's not that bad only eating at home. We're eating healthier and I've lost a few pounds. But it's not necessarily cheaper since gluten free foods are so expensive.

 A box of waffles are around $4, a box of pasta $2.50, tomato sauce $1.50, 6 cookies around $6, bread mix is around $7 and to make a b-day cake $10 for mix only not including all the other ingredients that need to be gluten free. So with these crazy prices I've taking up homemade cooking. Homemade pasta sauce, pizzas, popsicles, etc. It takes more time but worth the money. But few of my cooking challenges- I have to cook her food and our food separately. No more 1 pot meals. So I either wash my hands like 10 times or I just cook her's first then just cover it until our meal is done. And my 2nd challenge has been to keep conscience while I cook to not just touch something else while I'm cooking her food. I have been a multi-taskers since a child so to not cook, wash, clean, etc at the same time has been super hard. But I'm working on it.

However since Cati's been on this diet for the past 3 weeks she's only gotten a few skin outbreaks. Mostly due to non-food items. She would get her rash from walking barefoot on the carpet and the little crumbs causing her feet to blister. When I dropped flour on my kitchen floor last week I swept, mopped, and Lysol the floor BUT I still contaminated it since my shoe soles had flour in the cracks which lead to her feet getting blisters again from walking on the kitchen floor. Insane I know but it's always something.

We've debated if the entire family should go gluten free. Mike has started the diet due to some health issues he wonders if this diet will help clear up. But with Lily, Mason and Hailey- I've read that it would be easier for  all of us, especially me, to cook and feed everyone the gluten free food. But once you start this lifestyle you shouldn't really go back. So with Mason and Hailey going to their other dad's every weekend this could hurt them more than benefit them. If I were to cleanse their bodies of gluten for 5 days to just have them eat gluten foods for 2 days their bodies would get sick. So this reason has been the main factor that has stopped us from going 100% gluten free. But I admit that it would be nice to not have to vacuum every day. But Mike and I will pray some more on this matter.

Mike and I use to joked  before we knew she had celiac that we had a child that was allergic to everything. Who knew we were right?