for some people not all the gluten grains are created equal. I am deathly allergic to barley & to oats (no debating the oats issue for me).

So maybe you are having a worse problem with a wheat food item that also contains barley. I think when you mix two gluten grains that it is a lot worse on your insides. Just my opinion.

I've been eating no Whole Wheat products and I'm so far fine, just pregnant tired on occassion. My tired feeling was not just pregnancy tired, it was knocked out, drugged, can not for the life of me hold my eys open and must lie down tired no matter what I was doing. My arms and legs felt heavy, I could barely make it to the couch or bed and forget even flipping the off switch on the remote of the tv.

I can eat breakfast sandwich (frozen deal, refined wheat flour) and I'm fine. But that single peanut butter and jelly at lunch on whole wheat (the real deal) will knock me out. It's like the opiate effect described in Dangerous Grains. Whole wheat pasta does this too from one of those Lean Cuisine meals with the whole wheat pasta. These are meals with protein and whole wheat supposedly digest more slowly than refined products, so a sugar issue just makes ZERO sense to me. Although I am prone to low blood sugar which feels similar.

I'm not a DQ2 or DQ8 carrier, my dh is DQ2, so I'm not at risk for CD according to the medical community. I've never been tested through Entrolabs to see if I have the other gene or if I have gluten sensitivity.

Given the statistical odds, at least 2 of our 4 children will be Celiac. It is possible that the baby I'm carrying now is a Celiac like our 2nd child. Our ds2 was reactive at birth and continued with breastfeeding (no debating it here please, I have seen with my own eyes for 14 1/2 months of his little painful life what gluten in my breastmilk did to him and I was dairy free hoping it would help, no one told me gluten could pass into milk and the medical community is split on the issue, but lets just say if I had a leaky gut, gluten probably was in my breastmilk. Having had a c/s a leaky gut is very possible).

I posted about going GF during my pregnancy early on over on OBT. I was thinking I could wait until the 3rd trimester, but the more I react to food, the more I realized I need to make the move NOW. Breakfast and snacks are all that's left with gluten in them for me, it should not be hard, but breakfast for a person who is not a morning person and needs to eat ASAP -- I'm having issues letting go of my microwave, ready in 2 minutes sandwich. I know I just need a new routine and it will work.

This is really unstudied territory, the medical community would see no need for a non-Celiac to go GF during pregnancy, even if my baby is a Celiac. And they are split on the non-CD mom eating GF to breastfeeding a Celiac baby - given many just claim it's colick. Trust me green, frothy, acid burning poos many, many times a day in cloth diapers are not what I want for any baby and I was just ignored for years, it continued after bfing. I cry to think I could have prevented him pain by not eating gluten, I just didn't know. I know now and I don't want to have another sick baby.

I honestly feel my body is screaming at me - NO MORE GLUTEN. I need to go clean up my kitchen and bake GF stuff for all of us. It's just past due time to go GF every one of us. My dd seems to react, but it's hard to tell since she eats mostly GF and has not been tested yet. I get the oats issue, all of my kids have oats come out the way they go in and my dh has eluded to using oat meal to poo! There was an article in GF Living that stated some Celiacs actually have a reaction to the oat protein like they do to the gluten protein -- it made perfect sense to me given what I've seen in my DQ2 gene carrying family.

Electra, I'm glad to hear you're planning to take the whole family gf (at least for now!) Remember we can only do what we know to do (i.e. you didn't know before now). I went dairy-free when breastfed ds was 6 weeks old and the doctors said it looked like he had a dairy allergy. Being df didn't stop the runny poo or the growly tummy. Finally when he was 5 YEARS old with chronic tummy aches and the doctors ran tests and said he was fine, did we try gf. Ds doesn't have dq2 or dq8, but he definitely reacts to gluten.

You mentioned needing quick breakfast ideas - how about:
1.nut butter on rice cake
2.rice cooked (2.5 cups rice with 11 cups water) in crock pot all night, then add nuts, dried fruit, cinnamon, top with soy, rice or almond milk and some maple syrup
3.toast 1/2 cup buckwheat groats in dry skillet, add 1 cup water, bring to a boil and cook covered for 10 minutes. Top with milk-of-choice and blackstrap molasses
4.leftovers from dinner!
5.last night I cooked extra rice at dinner. This morning I tossed some walnuts, apples and cinnamon in the food processor to chop. I added that along with raisins to the cold rice and stirred well. Dished up and topped with milk-of-choice and maple syrup.

Electra:

I too, am starving when I wake up.

I try an make sure that my breakfast is in the fridge the night before. Usually I have leftovers from dinner, warmed up fast in a pot or the microwave.

Some things that are my favourites and also double as snacks/meals... about 5 days worth:

stewed apples w/ cinnamon
pumpkin pudding
meat sauce or taco meat
leftover ham (that's what I had yesterday
pancakes with peanut butter and honey (that's what I had today )

One day I had both apples and pumpkin pudding in the fridge... so I mixed them together and it was 'YUM'.

Of course, I'm currently nursing so I'm pretty much famished every 2 hours and will devour almost anything edible that I can get my hands on.

BTW, I'm just figuring out that whole grain brown rice seems to give me a migraine. I seem quite fine with basmati or sweet rice though. Colour me puzzled!

I ate a rice w/ popcorn cake (organic Lud... some thing brand, I don't trust Quaker) with organic peanut butter. I got tired again -- maybe it is the peanut butter. Actually, it might also be the carb to protein ratio b/c it was not the fall out of your seat tired, just a little bit. I was too "full" from that 1 rice cake to try and eat some more protein. I also didn't see anything in my kitchen that appealed to me.

I need to find the energy to clean off the counter in my kitchen so I can bake some sorghum bread for us. My ds2 also wants more chocolate muffins (well it's a cake recipe, but I make muffins with it).

Right now I feel like taking a nap, but I can't with 2 little ones underfoot (and they get into everything). I just feel aweful, I'm cooking dinner for a large family tonight in addition to my own. I've got to get some energy -- I forgot my vitamins this morning too.

Electra, try to find someone to help you out a little bit, you need time to rest etc. Taking care of a family and cooking and being pregnant is not easy. Remember in the old days we all had extented family that stayed with us and helped out etc. Please think of someone to ask or ask your friends if they know anyone. You just need some help...

Electra, I don't know the situation, but please know that my comments are intended to be positive! For me, when I am feeling fatigued, its all I can do to make meals for my own family. My former LLL group and current homeschool group are so good about organizing meals for others in need, but I finally had to learn when to say no. I have to put my family first, then if I have leftover energy, I will give to others...