Druide's Citronella Insect Repellent Lotion (spray)

I contacted Druide this week, a company who makes an all-natural, biodegradable insect repellent, to find out if their product is gluten free. Here is my inquiry:

I'm very interested in purchasing Druide's Citronella Insect-Repellent Lotion (spray) and have a question regarding it's composition. I would like to use this product on my son, who has celiac disease. He is extremely sensitive to trace amounts of gluten (wheat, rye, oats and barley) and while this product shouldn't enter his mouth I just want to find out if it would be safe (from a celiac perspective) for him just incase. Are there any gluten-containing ingredients or could any of the ingredients be cross-contaminated with gluten?

Your response to this inquiry would be greatly appreciated. Your product looks wonderful and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to use it!

Their response:

Thanks for your great care in The DRUIDE's Ecological Line.

The Citronella Insect Repellent lotion is a gluten free product.

Succinct response, but provided the information I needed! This product seems to be sold in quite a few locations in Canada (not sure about the US). You can check their store locator to be sure, though all locations are not listed. I found the product on the Mountain Equipment Coop website (I believe they ship outside of Canada) as well as locally in a grocery store and a couple of natural foods stores. The reviews of it on Mountain Equipment Coop are great. Sounds very effective. I'll be picking some up for sure!

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Easter Candy

The Gluten Free Easter Candy Lists from MyGlutenFacts.com are out. You can check them out here:

There are separate lists for Canada and the US, as well as separate lists for Jelly Beans!

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Gluten Free Children's Summer Camp

Wow, I just found out about this Gluten Free Children's Summer Camp in Alberta! I am so excited!!! BoyBee still has quite a few years to go before he's old enough for summer camp, but I am just so happy that things like this are starting to pop up. What a great time to be gluten free! There are so many great products on the market, awareness is increasing very quickly, and gluten free summer camps are being organized. The things that I thought would be huge challenges for my gluten free child are becoming so much easier. I am grateful that he is going to be able to experience all the normal childhood experiences that other kids get to experience :)

If you have a child aged 7 - 17 registration begins this month!

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UHU stic

I'm mostly concerned about gluten in craft materials because BoyBee is still quite young (not yet 3) and random things end up in his mouth. But even when he's older I don't want him to be paranoid about anything we have in our house. This will be his safe place where he can be confident that slip ups aren't going to happen.

I recently inquired about UHU stics - those standard yellow tube glue sticks I always remember having in my house growing up. Although they're made by a German company they were very quick to respond...Here is my inquiry:

Hello, my son has celiac disease and cannot consume anything that contains gluten (wheat, rye, oats or barley) or anything that has come into contact with gluten. Since he is very young we also have to check for the presence of gluten in his craft supplies, including glue. Could you please tell me whether the UHU stic (glue stick) contains any gluten ingredients or could be cross contaminated with gluten? This information would be very helpful to me.

And their response:

thank you for your request. We can confirm, that none of our products contains gluten. We hope that we could help you with this answer. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to contact us again.

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A List of Favorites

I am so happy with the progress that we've made in the past two years in taste and quality of the gluten free specialty foods that are available. I have tasted a lot of terrible products but have found wonderful gluten free substitutions for pretty much everything that we used to eat. I don't feel like I am missing a thing anymore, and wanted to share with you a list of my family's favorite gluten free products. Hopefully this saves you some money on experimenting with bad products, and inspires you to try something new!

Favorite Gluten Free Specialty Foods (and more)

Cereal - Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise, Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise, Whole O's, and Corn Flakes, Chex Cinnamon, Corn, and Rice Cereals, Kellogg's Gluten Free Rice Krispies, EnviroKidz Peanut Butter Panda Puffs Cereal

Bagels - Udi's Cinnamon Raisin

Bread - Udi's Whole Grain, Udi's Cinnamon Raisin, Glutino Genius Bread

Bread Mixes - Pamela's Bread Mix, King Arthur Bread Mix, Judy's Magic Mixes Multi-mix

Snack Bars - Cashew Larabar, Chocolate Coconut Larabar

Protein Bar - Chocolate Peanut Butter Luna Bar

Kids Treats - Mi-del Gluten-Free Arrowroot Cookies, Annie's Homegrown Cocoa & Vanilla Bunny Cookies, Kinni-TOOS Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Cookie - GogoQuinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies (individually wrapped)

Cookie Mixes - King Arthur Cookie Mix, Judy's Magic Mixes Ultimate Cookie Mix (add chocolate chips)

Crackers - Crunch Master, Edward and Sons Purple Rice and Black Sesame, Glutino Original Crackers, Glutino Table Crackers

Pizza Crusts - Udi's, Kinnickinnick, O'Doughs

Snacks - Glutino Pretzels, Barkat Pretzels, Schar Cheese Bites

Pancake & Waffle Mix - Kinnikinnick

Frozen convenience items - Ian's Fish Sticks, Ian's Chicken Nuggets, Conte's Potato/Cheese/Onion Pierogis

Pasta - GogoQuinoa Spaghetti, Le Veneziane Pasta, Jovial, Tinkyada Brown Rice Macaroni and Lasagna Noodles

Mac n Cheese - Pastariso Instant Brown Rice

Sauces - Organicville Sesame Teriyaki Sauce, Organicville BBQ Sauce

Salad Dressing - Renée's Gourmet Creamy Asiago

Dip - Fontaine Santé Hummus

Cookbook - Cooking for Isaiah (we're reviewing a lot more cookbooks right now but this has provided us with an incredible base)

Do you have a favorite that's not listed here? I'd love to hear what products you enjoy. Post a comment below!

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Tazo Tea

Here's a little more tea information for you...almost all of the Tazo Teas are gluten free. Here's what their website says:

All our teas are gluten-free, except for the following: Green Ginger, Tazo Honeybush, Lemon Ginger and Tea Lemonade.

As for the rest, enjoy!

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Stash Tea

Yes, we even need to check to make sure the tea we're drinking is gluten free. I checked into Stash Tea and found the following statement on their website:

Do your teas contain gluten?

All of the flavors used in our blends are gluten-free. We do not use barley malt in any of our blends.

What I found very interesting is that quite a number of their teas contain soy. Take a look for yourself if you're interested! Search for the word "allergen" on their FAQ page to find it.

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