My 6 year old son has been hospitalized twice since birth because of the severe reaction he has to milk products. Both times we couldnt understand how he got so sick, because everyone knows not to give him milk products. (Thinking back over the past 6 yrs i dont recall an allergy test being done.)
I have recently noticed that he seems to get extreme bloating, diarrhea, and (last nite, vomiting) after eating wheat products, and i am thinking that maybe it is a gluten allergy not a milk allergy(or maybe both). I wonder if the two allergies are similar and if they are often mistaken for one another. If anyone knows anything about this topic, i’d love some insight. My baby is miserable, its killing me!

He could be INTOLERANT of gluten. This means he is unable to DIGEST the gluten—similar to what someone with LACTOSE INTOLERANCE has—they are not ALLERGIC to milk, they just can’t DIGEST IT.
He COULD be allergic to WHEAT ALSO, or INSTEAD of INTOLERANT of gluten.
I myself, have food allergies (beef, oats, and some preservatives to name a few). I ALSO have GLUTEN INTOLERANCE…I get BLOATED—EXTREMELY, cramping, lose stools, but, haven’t vomited from that. Not to say one couldn’t….but, haven’t heard of that.

Food allergies are funny—I had the skin testing done a while ago, and they caught SOME of my allergies, but, the control didn’t even register properly. (but, then again, I WAS on allergy medicine, and they told me to only NOT TAKE IT THAT DAY, and alot of them take more than 12 hours to completely clear out of the system). Since then, I have developed the beef and oat food allergy. I also have asthma, so even though the test did or didn’t say I was allergic to something, I judged by how my asthma did on how I was going to deal with certain situations….if I KNEW that cut grass bothers me, I make sure to try to avoid it when I can, OR take my medicine BEFORE HAND.
Unfortunately, gluten intolerance/allergies aren’t so easy. Neither is MILK allergies. Milk is HIDDEN in SO MANY products….and, sometimes, not clearly labeled. Sometimes, for the milk, you HAVE to look for LACTOSE as well as milk (someone told me once that perhaps WHEY as well…although, not sure on that–I think that would be more if they were allergic to ALL dairy, like cheese).

There isn’t any magic pill for Gluten intolerance or allergy—avoidance is the only thing that usually works (although some health food stores may sell herbal or other pills for this….don’t know how they are). I stick to rice, potatoes, and corn….and mix it up a bit….tortilla chips or rice cakes, the McCain SMILES are gluten free last I checked (but, ALWAYS read the package EVERY TIME as they DO CHANGE ingrediants and processing methods).

Good luck to you….see if your doc can refer you to a nutritionist or someone you can talk to to better learn about this and how to work around this for preparing meals safely and easily.

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Tomorrow is bosses day, and my boss is allergic to wheat. All of the girls in my office are baking something for their department head and we are going to do a little surprise party thing.
I was going to make an upside down pineapple cake that’s bases off of corn meal – thinking that would be safe for my boss. But the recipe I found also calls for 1 cup of flour.
Does anyone know a substitute for those Gluten Free ppl? Thanks!

I would most likely go for either rice flour or almond flour/ground almonds. The almonds will change the taste a lot, but if he likes almonds/marzipan he will love it.
You can use a gluten free mixture made to behave as much as possible like ordinary flour, but these come in big bags, and are not cheap, so not really worth buying if you’re not going to be using it again.
Other things that can be used to substitute for flour in various different ways are potato flour, soy flour, gram flour (besan/chick pea flour), but none of these seem suitable for the recipe you are talking about.

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I had problems with constipation and alternating constipation and diarrhea.
I haven’t had any wheat products for a week and I haven’t had any gas of IBS problems since then. Could this mean I may be allergic to wheat or gluten?

OK – first of all, go straight back to eating gluten – eat plenty – at least 5 slices of bread a day or the equivalent.
Then go to see your doctor and ask to be tested for Coeliac Disease (or Celiac Sprue – it’s the same thing). The tests are fairly straightforward (a blood test in the first instance), but the results will come through as negative if you are not eating plenty of gluten as your gut will heal fairly quickly.
If you get a positive diagnosis you will need a gluten-free diet. This is a pain, but it is perfectly manageable, and needn’t be a burden – all fresh fruit, veg, meat etc are naturally gluten-free. There are also a lot more gluten-free products available commercially than there used to be – awareness is increasing all the time.
If you get a negative diagnosis then you can still see whether or not avoiding wheat and/or gluten helps, although it is still best to do this with medical supervision. (Being completely gluten-free isn’t easy to start with as gluten is a hidden ingredient in all sorts of things.)
Good luck.

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