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For those of you with experience this is what I'm dealing with and I apologize for the length I'm just ugh about this whole thing right now. I just figured out the other day that the increase in itching (becoming uncontrollable) was due to the amount of oats I was eating.

I had gradually increased my oat intake as it got colder (one of my favorite meals) to this past Tuesday when I had it like 3 times in one day (I was busy trying to get McD cooking done and ate what I had one hand) By that night, I had itching starting in my feet and working its way up my legs that I couldn't stop. Since 1997, this has been my pattern, don't know why it starts in my feet. I was diagnosed with urticaria of an unknown origin. If I don't stop itching I eventually bruise myself and have also developed hives. No other real symptoms hit me - just the skin issues for the most part. Heat has also been in a trigger in the past as well.

I have been off oats for over 24 hours and have no lingering issues with itching. I discovered this same reaction to wheat products, but not sprouted wheat such as Ezekiel bread. Barley was a new grain to me due to McDougalling and the one time I cooked with it I didn't notice any reaction, but I didn't eat a lot of it all at once.

I also dealt with chronic runny nose as well as sinusitus year around since I was a child before I figured out the connection to dairy. As long as I stay off it I'm fine. Milk, cheese and ice cream seem to set me off immediately. I have never noticed a product containing milk that bothered me. Luckily, cheese, is my last hurdle and it is so much easier to pass on now. I'm looking forward to cheese beginning to stink.

I've been researching gluten intolerance and it seems there isn't always a consensus on this problem. It doesn't sound worth it to go through medical testing either. I'm not sure if I'm just on the low end of the gluten intolerance range or developing an allergy.

What I have found interesting though is the mention of thyroid issues. I had all the classic symptoms of hypothyroid for years and fought with Dr.'s on this and due to blood test results they said I didn't have it and tons of other medical reasons. It turns out I had something wrong, because I ended up developing a large goiter that was treated with a low dose of thyroid medication. Currently, I've been watching my thyroid levels drop during my pregnancy- I'm no longer on thyroid meds.

By 1999 they thought I had thyroid cancer rather than a goiter and did some test using I think radioactive iodine or something to have it picked up on a scan. It was iodine, well that turned me into one giant hive for over 4 days-at least it was Halloween. I was told that I'm allergic to iodine and to avoid both topical iodine as well as taking it for any medical tests. Iodine was mentioned in connection with that dermatius herp (can't remember the name)....illness although I don't break out in blisters. Just found that interesting.

I also remember a huge decrease in both migraines and mouth canker sores once I cut out wheat products. Those are about the only other symptoms that I can see fitting into what I ate in the past. Mentally, I feel so much better just eating McDougall rather than SAD so I don't know if that really was a symptom for me.

My concern right now is just what I should do with my eating. I'm still figuring out regular McD meals and thought of going gluten free doesn't thrill me in the least, especially on the bread issue. But seeing as I'm due to have a little one any day I'm concerned about breastfeeding and things I'm noticing in my family history. I have an autistic nephew, another niece with severe eczema and other allergies that showed up when she got dairy. My sister won't even try to take her off dairy for a short time. My mom has several medical problems that fit right into the CD list I discovered as well.

I'm not sure where to draw the line. It sounds like from the article that was posted in this forum that even if I don't have obvious symptoms that avoiding gluten is the best thing to do. It also sounded like the jury was still out on oats, but I seem to have had the reaction to the oats and can trace the increase to when I started eating them again.

I guess I just feel overwhelmed at this point. I guess the easiest starting point would be to figure out how many of my current McD meals are already gluten free (probably much more than I think) and then get serious about avoiding gluten.

Any ideas or advice?

Well from my readings on gluten, no two people are alike, and that just makes it that much more confusing to try to compare notes with each other.

I know oats are supposedly okay for lots of people who can't tolerate gluten, but it seems they've made me sick whenever I've tried, so I just gave up and don't want to mess around with them anymore, myself.

With the autism and other issues you mentioned...it sounds reasonable to at least entertain the notion that it is possible there might be gluten issues going on in the genes.

Testing isn't accurate at this point...standard tests used in the U.S. can rule celiac in, but not rule it out...and as a result, many people with this array of confusing symptoms are just given bandaid approaches to various things and not getting really well.

Dr. Kenneth Fine, the gastroenterologist I have linked to elsewhere on this forum, has a lab that tests for gluten antibodies (and other food intolerances/allergies) by testing samples of poop sent by people to his lab...I've heard a lot about this idea. There are some European countries switching to this type testing for gluten too, because supposedly even if you stop eating all gluten, your intestines will carry the antigens for up to two full years. Typical, and not so reliable, blood tests can test only what's currently inside the blood...and so if you stopped eating gluten and then went to get tested, you would have to eat a certain amount of gluten for a certain period of time for that test to even be anywhere near accurate.

Dr. Fine's lab is called Enterolab. I haven't done that, myself, though. I stopped gluten the first week of February, 2006, and kept notes to see what would happen. My symptoms were slow to recover (this is different with everybody too...some people notice improvement right away, but others need months--depends on what symptom is improving, how long they had trouble, how old they are, and who knows what else), but I did notice in my notes a stepwise, on and off thing happening...there were visible changes on paper, although I couldn't say I felt good until after 6 months' gluten free had gone by. Now it's been 9 months for me.

I have read of the connection of iodine in the body and herpetiformis dermititis too, as you mentioned. I've seen on message boards where people with these blisters might not get improvement for several months after going gluten free...I realize you were saying you didn't have blisters, but just some itching. I don't know what you should expect.

I'm not crazy about gluten free either...there are packaged products becoming easier to find all the time, but most of them are not vegan, and the ones that are usually have quite a bit of oil in them.

I've noticed a big difference, though in my health and well-being (I think I get a hopeless feeling when I've accidentally exposed myself to gluten, and feel generally happier when i'm away from it) and so for me I think it's gotta be gluten free.

I have found that I can either go to the healthfood store and buy really expensive pastas and flours and stuff...or I can buy Asian noodles and even a macaroni from China that are either all rice or tapioca...much cheaper. We eat spaghetti now from Asian vermicelli rice noodles...very cheap. I go to the international market and stock up on these things every two or three months now. I also buy rice flour there, in the Indian section. It's really cheap. It is white rice flour, but I can't afford the brown rice flour from health food stores. I buy some other flours from the indian section too.

Most of my baking is now done with sorghum flour, which is whole grain and so if perfectly McDougall. I buy that online at www.twinvalleymills.com from 25 lb. buckets and always keep that on hand for pancakes, muffins, cakes, veggie pot pie, cobblers, etc. I use that stuff just about everyday. It's a little different to cook with, but once you gradually get to know the stuff, it's not bad, really. It's just that I HAVE to make all that stuff homemade now...but many McDougallers have to do most of it from scratch anyhow, so I guess we're all in the same boat on that.

As far as breastfeeding goes, it is supposed to make the child less likely to become celiac or react to other foods allergically, but I was never clear if that meant it only worked if you ATE those foods while nursing...so...I don't know how that works, really.

When I breastfed my daughter, she had diarrhea so bad that I eventually found Similac formula to be better for her than my own milk...but also, I was drinking lots of milk and eating wheat all the time...so...if I could go back in time now I would've been dairy/gluten free while nursing my child, because I think those things in my diet were making her sick.

Anyway, that's all I know. It is very confusing. It's not easy to live in a Western culture and be gluten free...if we were in parts of Africa or Asia it would be easy. I try to keep my thinking outside of this culture when it comes to food...there are a lot of non-gluten, healthy whole recipes around the world...we just have to find them and make them work out for us.

Groundhogg,

Thanks for your reply and all the info. I'll start looking into alternatives for myself. I'm not feeling as overwhelmed today, but it is definitely an adjustment. I don't want my little one to have issues while breastfeeding so I do plan on avoiding those foods.

I'll take the rest one day at a time for now.