Having oatmeal for breakfast was a nearly daily occurrence in our household prior to K3’s diagnosis.  Since then, we have avoided oats in our house and I hear about it nearly every day… “Mommy, when can I try oatmeal?”… “Mommy, I miss oatmeal.”… “Mommy, I want oatmeal.”  While I am complaining about her constant nagging… I can’t help but feel bad for this little girl who has had to give up most of the diet she was used to.  She doesn’t understand the reasons behind it… we keep it simple for her and say it’s allergies.  K3 is amazing at monitoring her diet and avoiding foods she can’t have, like in Sunday school this week when there was a treat made with spelt flour (she is reactive to spelt as well as wheat, gluten, barley, rye) that one of the Mommies had made… she spoke right up and said “I can’t have that”… she was sad, but she did good.  When we got home, I gave her an Enjoy Life Snickerdoodle cookie.  K3 is really a little trooper about her diet.  I have been to www.glutenfreeoats.com several times and ALMOST purchased a bag to try… but we are still in a world of frequent reactions and it scares me to try it.  And at her age, if she doesn’t react with the typical facial swelling/redness we notice right away when she has a food containing an allergen for her, how will we know for sure if she is having a reaction?  At nearly 6 years of age, I don’t monitor her bathroom habits and she is in school several hours a day where I couldn’t even if I wanted to.  I have read lots of suggestions about using these oats… but I haven’t been able to discover if any gluten free peeps have had good and/or bad experiences with them.  I want to give my angel oatmeal, but I fear making her sick.  This is one of those troubling times when I will have to decide the timing for testing them out… I wonder, is there ever a good time?