Training Older Dogs

We are switching to gluten free dog food-can we sanitize the food container or do we need a new one?

We have a plastic food storage container to keep the food fresh that we paid quite a bit for and also a “self-feeder” for her (the dog) to use, but we don’t want to contaminate the new food with gluten as we are dealing with the switch for a child who has celiac disease and the contamination can be deadly.

Hi. I would just clean the feeder in the dishwasher if possible with hot water and dishwashing soap (then run a rinse cycle with vinegar in the empty dishwasher after wards.)

If for some reason your child does touch the pet food or anything with gluten in it (which will happen at some point.) all the child needs to do is to wash their hands. The gluten molecule is too big to pass through the skin (UNLESS the child has an outbreak of a DH rash and the gluten gets int he open sore. That is the only exception.) Yes children an accidentally eat (or purposely!) try to eat pet food, but one accidnetal ingestion is not deadly to a person with Celiac. It is horribly uncomfortable and depending on your symptoms, it can be painful, but one accidental ingestion does not kill (unless your child also has an allergy). Trust me, life with Celiac involves lots of accidental ingestions of gluten because the restaruant industry hasn’t caught up. Even places like Outback that have GF menus will screw up!

Lotions, creams, etc, all with gluten are ok! The only non food products necessary to change are toothpaste (bc it goes in the moutn) mouthwash, lipsticks, chapsticks, etc, anything that the child can put in their mouth. Many parents of very young Celiacs stick to GF bath products bc of young children’s love of eating bubbles!

If u are new to Celiac, I suggest these sites and books:
“Celiac Disease A Hidden Epidemic” By dr Peter Greene
“Living Wheat and Gluten Free for Dummies” by Danna Korn (Korn also wrote other books for parents of children with CD and started a support group for them called R.O.C.K.- raising our celiac kids.)

www.csaceliacs.org
www.celiac.com
www.celiac.org
www.celiaccentral.org

Best of luck and feel free to email me with any other CD related questions.

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