Gluten-Free Update Potpourri

We’re in the process of updating the blog site a bit and wanted to share some details quickly this Spring:

1. A Gluten-Free Play Dough (aka play doh) recipe is available at the Celiac Kids Recipes website (courtesy of the Celiac Sprue Association) as of the date of this blog post. Please consider that if a child (or an adult who plays with a child!) in your circle either is sensitive to gluten or has gluten enteropathy, or plays with another child (or adult!) who might need to remain gluten-free, this could be a worthwhile consideration.

(Graphic courtesy of  Alexbruda over at rgbstock.com)

2. A   Celiac Disease Screening Tool is being offered by the joint efforts of The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, along with The General Mills “Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition” and General Mills brand of Chex cereals (gluten free), that is available to the public through the Gluten Freely site. Diagnosis of any medical condition goes beyond initial screening, of course, but awareness can sometimes be the first step to obtaining a full screening and eventually an applicable diagnosis. It can be beneficial to focus on known factual information, not rumor or pop culture fiction.

There is also a review piece published in 2012: Advances in Coeliac Disease by Matthew J, Armstrong; Vinod S. Hegade; and Gerry Robins in Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2012;28(2):104-112. © 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, available for those who can access Medscape. The authors note that the review “critically summarizes the key clinical and scientific advances in coeliac disease between July 2010 and 2011.”

3. A listing of potentially Gluten-Free candies for Easter time from 2009 (with some updates in 2010), including chocolate products, is listed at Heather’s “Celiac Family” site.  Although we don’t promote willy nilly candy consumption, the reality of life is that children of all ages may be drawn to Easter candy and it is better to be as informed as possible about options. As always, PLEASE check labels carefully, since manufacturers can change formulations and processing without prior notice in many instances, as that way you can avoid anything that might potentially contain gluten in it or have been potentially subject to cross-contamination with gluten.

4. After Passover, sometimes there are sales on “Kosher for Passover” items which might happen to be gluten-free. NOTE: “Kosher for Passover” is different than standard Kosher designation so do NOT confuse the two designations! Purim cleansing of any residence of anything Chavetz means all leavened products are removed from the residence for that time. “Kosher for Passover” items are unleavened and thus typically Gluten-Free, however, again, PLEASE check labels carefully, as always, so that you avoid anything that might potentially contain gluten in it or have been potentially subject to cross-contamination with gluten. Our thanks to Cheryl Harris for mentioning this.

5. An informal gluten-free menu swap is hosted on the www and over time has moved around a bit in terms of where you can find the archived information through the most current listings. Years back it started with Natalie’s Gluten Free Mommy site; and then moved over to Cheryl’s site of Gluten Free Goodness; and since Oct 17, 2011 is now housed at Heather’s Celiac Family site with some previous weekly schedules also available there.

Enjoy Spring!