Coeliac newbie questions

[afternoonbiscuit]

New coeliac here! I was diagnosed a few days ago and am feeling pretty glum and confused. I’m trying to read up on it, but chasing a toddler around all day means I haven’t gotten far yet. I have lots of questions and wonder whether there are any MN coeliacs who could help me with them?

1. When ordering food in a restaurant, do I always have to check that the dish is definitely GF? So not just assume that, say, a green salad doesn’t have any gluten-containing ingredients.
2. If a food label doesn’t list any gluten ingredients and doesn’t say “may contain gluten”, yet still isn’t specifically stating that the product is GF, can I buy it? Ben & Jerry’s phish food comes to mind, and a pack of pre-cooked quinoa I bought.
3. What’s the deal with oats? Can I eat them?
4. How strict should I be with cross-contamination? I’ve seen advice to have my own bread cutting board, toaster/toaster bags, to not kiss my husband if he’s had gluten… is it so severe? And what about when you eat at someone’s house? You can’t prevent contamination there.
5. Can I still cook with gluten-containing products for my son and husband?
6. I do most of the cooking in my home. How do you manage this shift when you’re the only coeliac in the family? Do you tend to mainly cook GF for everyone?
7. Should I have any more tests down the line? My GP just informed me of the diagnosis and sent me on my merry way. Is it worth checking my transglutaminase iga ab and iron levels again in 6-12 months to see if all is back to normal after cutting out gluten?
8. Are there any good online shops for GF in the UK that you can recommend?
9. Do you have any sense of how long you had CD before you were diagnosed? My only symptoms are low iron and rapid weight loss (potentially also tiredness, weakness and brain fog, but that’s also motherhood!). The weight loss happened as soon as I’d lost my baby weight - I just kept going down and down on the scales. I wonder whether pregnancy could have set it off, but then I wonder whether I could have had it longer as I have had issues with iron for at least ten years, as well as reoccurring problems with depression, anxiety, restless leg syndrome, headaches, poor sleep. These may not be related, but this diagnosis is making me wonder.

That’s it for now! I would love any advice you have🙏🏻

You can buy them. https://glutenfreeglobetrotter.com/resources/glutenfreetranslations/

or ask someone on mn (I’m sure someone on mn will speak Thai if you ask) for the phrase and make your own.

Hi, sorry if this isn’t the correct place to post. So a little bit of history. I’ve been feeling pretty grim for some time now (about 5 years to be precise) I used to have breast implants and thought they may have set off an autoimmune reaction in my body so ended up getting these removed around 2 years ago.my Symtoms did not improve and if anything I feel like they got worse. I’ve been back and forth to the doctors for the following symptoms. Extream fatigue, brain fog, a number of gut issues such as constipation, diarrhoea, early satiety I eat 3 mouth fulls of food and I feel nauseas and completely full. I put my fatigue down to eating very minimal. I’ve always been on the very slim side I’m 5ft 6 and weigh 7st 9 but over the last year I just keep losing more and more weight. I had a test for CD 2 years ago for SERUM IGA ( I believe this is the test for CD) I could be wrong. I have only recently come across my results on my NHS app which states the results were abnormal and raised the results were showing at 4.80 I’ve tried to look online to see the meaning of these results but I can’t seem to find anything. Looking at the notes the advice was for the DR to contact an immunologist but nothing ever came from this I wasn’t even aware my results were abnormal till I came across it last week. Has anyone else who has CD have these symptoms and does anyone know if those results indicate CD. I have chased this with the DR and asked for some further blood test but just wondering on the interim if it’s worth cutting out gluten or if I’m clutching at straws. Again sorry if this isn’t the correct place to post

@Laurayellow Poor you, this sounds so tough! Just a quick note to say that you should definitely get checked again and don’t cut out gluten just yet, as otherwise you won’t get accurate results. Wait for a firm diagnosis before going gluten-free. Even if you don’t get a diagnosis, you can always try going GF to see if it helps. My sister (a GP) has had patients who don’t test positive for coeliac and yet have all the signs of it and so she treats them as coeliacs.