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Is Benadryl gluten-free? As a staple in many people’s medicine cabinets, many celiacs wonder if Benadryl is safe for them to take.
I combed through all of the ingredients in Benadryl products and I called Benadryl themselves to get the answer: is Benadryl gluten-free? And more importantly, can you take Benadryl with celiac?
I combed through the ingredients of all Benadryl adult formulation to see if they are gluten-free. I could not find gluten anywhere.
But so many people were saying only Benadryl’s Allergy Dye-Free Liquidgels were gluten-free. Why?
I called Benadryl to find out. As of 10/20/2021, here’s what they told me:
So Benadryl’s products are gluten-free but only Benadryl’s Allergy Dye-Free Liquidgels have been tested and confirmed gluten-free. Gluten-free off-brands of Benadryl include both CVS and Target brand versions. But as with everything, review the label and assess suitability for yourself.
So are Benadryl products safe for celiac disease? Based on this, I’d say it’s up to the individual and their comfort-level.
Some people will want everything they put in their body to have been tested for gluten, and for other people that’s unrealistic. For me, I would take Benadryl products confidently.
If you want to call and speak with a representative for yourself, the number I called was 1-877-717-2824.
With celiac disease, you have to worry about cross-contact. However, with medications, the cross-contact risk is generally very low because of the sanitation protocols involve to prevent the mixing of active ingredients that could be harmful.
In this way, as always gluten cross-contact is a risk with Benadryl, but it’s very unlikely with medications due to strict sanitation guidelines to prevent active ingredients from mixing and doing a lot of harm.
If you want to learn more about safety with gluten in medications, I talk about this more in-depth in the Celiac Crash Course. This course is a self-paced dietitian-led course designed to help make avoiding gluten and cross-contact in the USA feel routine.
The active ingredient in Benadryl is Diphenhydramine, which according to WebMd, can relieve symptoms related to allergies, hay fever, the common cold, and motion sickness.
There’s not been any research to prove that Benadryl specifically can help with gluten exposure. However in some studies, antihistamines have been shown to help.
Despite lack of research supporting the use of Benadryl, many anecdotal reports from celiacs say that taking it when glutened helps them. And unlike activated charcoal, benadryl is not as dangerous to take. So if it helps you, it may be helpful to keep in you gluten exposure recovery kit.
If you want more on how to help alleviate gluten exposure symptoms, check out my post “What to do When You’ve Been Glutened“.
And don’t forget, I teach you how to identify gluten-free prescription and over-the-counter medications, PLUS give you cheat sheets to share with your pharmacist to help them check your medications as well – all in the Celiac Crash Course! It’s a self-paced dietitian-led course designed to help make avoiding gluten and cross-contact in the USA feel routine.