Gluten free bread gave my toddler diarrhea?

[bluejaunte]

Made my first loaf of gluten-free bread from the Pamela's mix. My 2.5yo ate a few slices of it -- with healthy stuff on it even! -- and today he has massive diarrhea. Usually his poo is pretty solid, so he's definitely taking issue with something. He didn't have anything else new yesterday, and he's had most of the ingredients in the mix before, with the possible exceptions of sorghum flour and millet.

Anyone else seen this reaction before? He's not acting sick or anything, no other reactions, appetite & energy are great.

Confused!

[deditus]

Anyone can be sensitive to anything. My dd and I are gluten intolerant but my husband can't tolerate sorghum. Does it have a binder in it, guar or xanthum gum, that he hasn't had before? Those are often problematic.

[bluejaunte]

Hmm, yeah, it has xanthan gum in it, and I don't think he's had that before. Also he hasn't had sorghum before as far as I can tell. Actually he may well have had that in cereal or something.

First day of seeing if he does better on gluten-free and so far he seems to do better on gluten!

[kjbrown92]

Is gluten the only thing that's suspect for him?
Xanthan gum is corn-based, in case corn is a problem.

[bluejaunte]

He's never seemed to have trouble with corn before, and he eats corn on the cob, frozen corn, corn chips, corn cereal ..

[bluejaunte]

Ok, so an hour of research later, I think it's the stupid xanthan gum. He has actually had sorghum & millet before with no problems, but I don't think he's had the XG. It seems it's very possible to be reactive to XG with no corn problems. Urg. What does one use instead? It's in every GF bread recipe/mix I can lay my hands on, and Google isn't helping me out much with this one, alas.

[FireWithin]

Originally Posted by bluejaunte

Ok, so an hour of research later, I think it's the stupid xanthan gum. He has actually had sorghum & millet before with no problems, but I don't think he's had the XG. It seems it's very possible to be reactive to XG with no corn problems. Urg. What does one use instead? It's in every GF bread recipe/mix I can lay my hands on, and Google isn't helping me out much with this one, alas.

You are right it is possible to have a xanthan gum reaction without it being corn. That is an issue for my DH's cousin. The thing is though that XG is in a lot of prepared foods such as salad dressings. For many conventional people, they are exposed to XG on a regular basis

Guar gum is an option as a sub.
We can't have XG or guar gum, so we use karaya gum. It can be finding in the baking area of a Michael's craft shop.

[bluejaunte]

I've read that, about the salad dressings &c. Ick. We eat so few processed foods, though, that I'm pretty sure he's not been exposed to it. And if he has, maybe that explains some few episodes of mysterious gastrointestinal ick we've dealt with.

This is all right on the heels of him having probiotics for a week or so, which is making his guts much more tolerant of large quantities of fruit. Last night I open my mouth and say as much (re: "yay fruit!") and today after two thin slices of bread he's Mr. Explodybottom.

I should never voice progress aloud. I really should know that by now. *facepalm*

[deditus]

I have heard that chia seed flour really helps as a binder, too, although I haven't played around with it for that purpose. I have a bag from my local gf store that says to use 2 T. chia seed flour 1/4 c. tapioca starch, potato starch, cornstarch or arrowroot flour, and 1/2 c. plus 2 T. brown or white rice flour, amaranth, sorghum, or millet flour for an all purpose gf mix.

[bluejaunte]

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

[bluejaunte]

Ugh, his poop went back to normalish last night but today it's runny and mucusy again. Definitely SOMETHING in that bread he's still trying to get rid of. Ick.

[rootzdawta]

I suspect gluten free bread/flour is wreaking havoc on my system too.  It is awful.  So awful.  So it could be the xantham gum?  Okay, good to know that there are other possible binders.  

This gluten-free thing is getting harder and more unpleasant by the minute.

[HRJ]

A lot of the Pamela's stuff has dairy in it.  Not sure if that specific mix does.  But I think a lot of her cake mixes do.