What Lois says is very true.

Our first year gf (because of my son who never grew properly - we did an elim. diet to figure out if food was the culprit and found that he was reacting to multiple foods), we eliminated all gluten from our house.

Turned out that the fatigue my daughter was suffering (which we put down to our busy life), was due to a gluten reaction. It was amazing to see her energy just ZOOM! I now firmly believe that a four year old who complains of being too tired to do anything at 10 a.m., is not 'just trying to get some attention' like many people say... They are eating a food that they're reacting to!

EVERYONE, including our dogs and cat were SO much healthier. The added expense of the special flours was worth it.

My son, who was often sick, was not sick AT ALL anymore. He used to visit the hospital or dr.'s office for viral illnesses about every six weeks. Suddenly, he just wasn't reacting to these viruses the same way anymore. Also, his joints, which were extremely stiff (diaper changes were AWFUL because he did not like his legs to be spread apart AT ALL) loosened up and he was happy/outgoing all the time instead of being tired and clingy.

Then spring came and we got some new chicks. Of course with chicks comes medicated chick feed. Well, both my kids got sick - really sick... and that was just handling chicks that ate the chickfeed (which has gluten in it).

Now, I did not get sick (migraines are my 'telling sign')... but I probably washed more careful than the children, even though I had them washing all the time.

So, you need to be a lot more careful! Packaged foods are a big 'no-no' unless you have called the company and know what's in them. Celiac.com has really good articles about what you need to do to prevent yourself from getting sick.

It seems like a lot at first, but we've been doing this for five years and it's really second nature. The first year was the hardest for us because we kept trying to go to restaurants and eating packaged foods. That made for a lot of mistakes - and we knew it, every time. Finally we just 'let all that go' - and BOY - has it paid off!!!