AIBU to not feed baby gluten?

[CanaBanana]

I have coeliac disease so I can't eat gluten. Cross contamination is a big problem. If DH puts normal bread in the toaster I can't use it for gluten free bread because of cross contamination from crumbs. If he butters his normal bread then dips the knife back in the butter, I can't eat it because of cross contamination from gluten on his knife. Any plates or pans etc that he uses for gluten have to be thoroughly scrubbed in separate washing up water. And if I touch gluten I have to scrub my hands. Then I can't eat the meal so have to cook something separate. It's a huge hassle so we made the decision to just not have gluten in the house. DH eats gluten when he's out but we don't have it at home.

DS is due to be weaned in a few weeks and the HV is insisting he has to eat gluten as normal. This would be a huge hassle for me in terms of avoiding cross contamination. I'd need a separate toaster, would have to cook and wash up separately, scrub the pans, scrub my hands after touching his food, etc.

AIBU to just not give him gluten at home? Is there any reason he couldn't have a slice of gluten free toast? Obviously he will still eat some gluten at gran's house or in a cafe etc.

Oh! And get differently coloured chopping boards and knifes. They sell them anywhere nowadays. That's how restaurants deal with cross contamination. Colour coded untensils.

I would feed baby gluten when DH is feeding the baby, but not otherwise.
What is the chance of baby also being coeliac? Does it only manifest in later life?

I wouldn't worry too much about what the HV says tbh, I wouldn't even discuss it any further with her. I highly doubt she has extensive knowledge in this area. I would agree with a pp that contacting the coeliac society for advice would be a good start. I really cannot see the drama if she is having gluten in other places, so long as you are cooking everything from scratch. As other posters have said, gluten free versions are often unhealthier, so you would need to be very careful with that.

I don't see that there would be any harm though in using gluten free flour for sauces etc. I probably wouldn't want to regularly give gluten free bread and cereal products though, unless you are baking your own?

I'm coeliac but fed all my babies gluten , it was a pain cos I couldn't test some of their food by tasting it but I did it anyway just make sure that you clean up well after it's mainly bread and cereals so it's not that hard . Could your dh prepare them if you don't feel good about it. Cross contamination is a huge issue that a lot of people don't understand .

It is not at all unreasonable to not give your baby gluten - loads of foods in the world are gluten free, or can be made gluten free with very little effort. Also, life is complicated enough without having to do all the cross-contamination things. It is not at all a problem to do this and your child will not be missing out if they don’t have gluten in your house.

I’m Ceoliac and my daughter is too. If I had a baby that needed weaning I would feed them GF as I don’t prepare any gluten containing food.

We are not a fully GF house, but it’s so easy to get sick with baby’s fingers, wiping down high chairs etc and generally you are so busy looking after baby that you don’t get that chance to double check you have wiped everything properly.

I would however encourage my DH to feed the baby gluten containing foods, and then do the necessary wipe down.

Cross contamination is fine for intolerances. Very very painful and risky for coeliacs. It's an autoimmune disease.

Although I would say (we cook both as it seems DH is intolerant but not coeliac) the 'substitute' breads have all sorts of strange things in them, I'd probably avoid 'bread' completely when I was feeding baby and leave that for DH / visits out. Rice cakes (no salt) are good for 'carriers' of spreads / nut butters / soups etc instead of bread if you need something. Or proper corn-based tortillas although those are hard to find

The other food that is great is the Shar crisp breads, my add never liked any GF bread but loves those, they would make an ideal finger food.

At start you would be weaning with fruit and veg anyway then some meat/fish. Then u could always buy preprepped meals that u just microwave to minimise contamination

I'm coeliac too. I'm very sorry as I haven't time to rtft but I was advised to feed my children gluten, as if they are coeliac, they'd need to develop symptoms to be diagnosed (obvious really). We do get round the cross contamination by being really careful and even the kids know how to make sure they don't contaminate me.

We rarely have anything with gluten in the house, but particularly not things that tend to make crumbs. We only buy gluten free bread. It’s too much faff to ensure no cross contamination otherwise.

Young dc, as a result of this, is what I’d call “low gluten”, rather than no gluten... he will eat some gluten containing stuff when eating out or at other people’s houses.
However we do try to avoid the rubbishy fake gluten free stuff at home (lots of it is very high sugar and full off additives). Gf cornflakes for example - much less rubbish in them than the “normal” ones!

HV May be concerned that not exposing DC to any gluten at all when weaning will cause an allergy (not Coeliac)- I read into this when weaning DS and there does seem to be a risk of that. I made sure DS had small amounts of gluten regularly from 5 1/5 months (3 or 4 times a week). He has no obvious issues with gluten now (age 7).
A friend in the same situation weaned her dc onto completely GF diet, and accidental exposures at school led to a pronounced reaction to it - it’s hard to tell if that would have been avoided if the dc had some exposure to gluten at a younger age, but there are studies that suggest that, as with peanuts, delaying exposure may cause sensitivity/allergy.

Do you have some sort of plan in place with your GP to get your DC tested (gene test, blood screening) when he’s a little older? Important to realise (and not all GP do!) Coeliac May have no symptoms, at least initially, and a negative test just means “negative now”, those at high risk should ideally be tested every couple of years, but especially if any symptoms develop (gut, skin, headaches etc).

Also porridge ready pots where you just add milk so contamination would just be the spoon

The problem with excluding gluten from weaning age without a reason to is that it can cause later intolerances when the child eats gluten food out and about, at nursery, school, friends houses etc. Intolerances can develop even without coeliacs being involved. However as I'm sure you know, coeliac disease can be genetic however without gluten in the diet no diagnosis can be made meaning other related illnesses can be missed.

My husband is coeliac, we have a mostly gluten free household but we do have 2 toasters, 2 butters and a lot of gluten containing items (biscuits etc) for both me and DD. We are incredibly careful about cross contamination. We have one work surface in our kitchen dedicated to being gluten free especially for DH to limit any contamination.

If I were you, I'd go down the route of gluten in prepacked items/ foods that limit cross contamination rather than toast etc for your own sake if you are concerned about the crumbs, but weaning is messy and you probably won't be able to avoid them, you just need to be meticulous about cleaning for a few months.

Whether or not you raise your baby GF is your business but we are also a partially coeliac household and frankly cross contamination is very easy to deal with as has been outlined by other posters . Do you seriously never eat out apart from in completely GF restaurants ?

I have coeliac disease and weaned both of mine normally. We have a separate toaster anyway for DH, but you could just do them gf toast but if not toasting give them normal bread. Eg when I am cooking pasta just for the kids I do normal pasta, if I’m having with them we all have gluten free. All their snacks etc have always been normal. I’m just scrupulously careful with washing my hands and wiping crumbs, and have taught them from very early that they don’t touch my food unless I give it to them. I have been glutened once, when DS1 went through a particularly agressive phase of trying to feed me at around 18 months - he shoved pre-chewed handful of digestive biscuit in my mouth when I wasn’t concentrating (

forgive me if I've misunderstood something but....... You can't absorb gluten through your skin....

I don’t think anyone has said you can, Brutus
It’s the same reason you wash your hands after using the toilet. You then prepare food, what was on your hand goes in the food etc.

Another coeliac here who feeds her family gluten. I just have "gluten" bit of the kitchen where their bread/flour is kept and gluteny food is prepared. It's not hard.

It's a huge hassle to have two toasters taking up cupboard space, two jars of every condiment and butter taking up fridge space, twice as much washing up because you've had to cook two separate meals, etc. Plus it's expensive to buy two of everything then waste half, and it's a right faff to keep having to shop for two different meals and label things.

We find it much easier and cheaper to just not have gluten in the house. In most cases this simply means eating fresh food or choosing one brand instead of another (e.g. Seabrooks crisps are gluten free but Walkers aren't, Knorr stock cubes are gluten free but Oxo aren't). The only special gluten free items I buy regularly are bread and pasta.

I had planned to continue shopping like this and let DS eat gluten in cafes or at granny's house etc. But my HV insists that DS needs a "normal" diet or he'll suffer. She's referred the query to a hospital dietician who agrees with her. But I fail to see how sausages made with wheat are any better than a different brand of sausages that happen to be made with potato, for example. Or why he needs wheat pasta instead of corn pasta. Presumably she is fine with parents who choose to feed vegetarian, kosher, halal etc but she is seriously concerned about me feeding gluten free. I was just wondering if these concerns have any actual basis?

If you cook all healthy meals from scratch, and the baby has gluten on the side, it's probably ok. If you buy gluten free ready meals, biscuits and bread, they are more expensive anyway and very unhealthy! No choice for a coeliac but the wrong one for anyone who is not.

I wouldn't use stock cubes for a baby anyway, far too much salt, just make your own.

What is not pleasant in your posts is the way you describe everything as being hassle. You don't serve food to your kids because it makes your life easier, you give them what is best for them. If you disregard medical advice because it's inconvenient, you are completely BU.

As many posters said, it's very easy to avoid cross-contamination at home and you get used to it very quickly.

She's probably got one of two concerns

• one is that you shouldn't exclude anything from a diet unnecessarily (I've seen this mentioned about soya - my baby is intolerant to cow's milk protein and I suspect soya, so I've chosen non-soya-dairy-substitiutes; my 'normal' diet includes around zero soya aside from soya sauce so I can't see an issue, but apparently it is...). If the baby's getting a balanced diet otherwise I really can't see the issue - it's not like you're avoiding all starch or all fat or something.

• the other is that by delaying gluten introduction you could be causing an intolerance later on. Evidence on this one in particular is tricky as I think it's been 'proven' both ways depending on the study. But if your baby is getting gluten when out or with DH there's no issue here IMO

I normally take HV advice with a pinch of salt but I feel she may have something this time. If he is fed fully GF won't the first time he has gluten cause him issues? What's the likelihood being GF in your household will make his life more difficult and he'll end up having to act as though he is Coeliac with regards to food when he's not?

I can see no reason why a naturally GF diet would cause any health concerns.

When I saw the dietitian with my DD her concerns were more about iron and folic acid as most gluten containing flours and cereals are fortified, not about the gluten. A lot of GF foods are now fortified and things like gofree cereals and GF porridge are not full of sugar or rubbish.

My youngest is pretty much low gluten, is very healthy, eats Gluten a few times a week and has no reaction. I can’t see what basis your HV has, ( most higher meat content sausages and burgers are now GF anyway).

It would really only be bread, pasta, biscuits and cakes, all of which you could easily recreate healthy GF versions.

I think gf at home and gluten out and about is reasonable.

My babies rarely ate more than one meal at home per day between nursery, visits to friends, toddler groups etc.

At home things like convenience foods that you won’t eat, the occasional ready meal or biscuit for example, needn’t be gluten free.