Updating Your Home
Basic day-to-day changes you will need to make in your kitchen as well as the rest of your home to make it safe for your family members with Celiac Disease.
The hardest part about Celiac Disease for me as a parent has been changing the small day-to-day habits. It’s fairly easy to buy gluten free food, to remove the obvious wheat products from your kitchen pantry/fridge and to look for restaurants that are able to provide gluten free options. The harder parts of having a home with celiacs are the small things you need to suddenly be more thoughtful about - especially if you have both celiacs and non-celiacs in the same house.
Now we keep a majority gluten free home, but there are 5 of us in our family and 3 of us are not celiacs, so we do occasionally get a glutinous muffin or some takeout that is not gluten free.
The biggest challenge to be aware of is the concept of cross contamination. So let’s first talk about what this means. Cross contamination is: the unintentional transfer of gluten from a gluten containing food or surface to a gluten-free food - this causes it to become unsafe for someone with celiac disease. Beyond Celiac describes this as being similar to how you would treat a surface that had raw meat touch it which really helped me to visualize how important the handling of foods that contain gluten is around people who suffer from celiac disease.
In your home this can show up in many different ways that may or may not influence your celiac family member (each person has different levels of sensitivity so reactions will differ). Here are a few examples:
🍞 Toasters
As a celiac you basically have to stop using all toasters. If there is gluten free bread or bagels available that is wonderful, but as soon as you put them into a toaster that has been used for gluten you now have a very contaminated food product.
♨️ Toaster Ovens
This may or may not work for you or your children depending on the level of sensitivity, but if you are celiac you can use a toaster oven, but you will need to cover the surface with aluminum foil to prevent any gluten crumbs from touching your bread items.
🍝 Pasta Strainers
If you are making both gluten free and normal pasta it’s probably best to get two different strainers. It is difficult to fully clean a standard strainer with soap & water fully.
🧈 Condiment Jars
Sticks of butter. Jam jars. Peanut butter. Mustard. If a spoon or a knife goes in and then touches anything that contains gluten (to say spread one of these on a roll or toast) you cannot put that knife or spoon back into the jar. If you do, the entire jar is compromised and is no longer able to be used.
🍳 Frying Pans & Griddles
If you are cooking on a cast iron pan or griddle beware- these are typically not cleaned with soap & water and will therefore not be good for celiacs unless they are solely used for gluten free cooking.
🧼 Washing Hands
If I eat a cracker or a muffin or a burrito - I cannot then touch my celiac daughters, or touch door handles or light switches in my house - I have to wash my hands. Even small amounts of gluten on shared surfaces can make some people feel sick.
🐕 Dog Treats
Yes we even buy gluten free dog treats! This is for the same cross contamination reasons - many dog treats are made with wheat, so not a good fit for celiacs to be handling.
🎨 Play-doh
If you have small children this is an important one! Play-doh contains wheat and is not safe for celiacs to play with!