I FINALLY got my husband to let us go Gluten Free for Patryk! YAY! Big victoryfor us! Can you believe he has never heard of Gluten Free? Oh well... We have decided to put Paddy on Gluten free and I have been researching his favorite foods to see of they are gluten free or gluten free versions of the foods. This isn't seeming too bad, but really expensive. For those of you that have gone gluten free, how do you do it??!! Do you make your meal first and then clean up and wash everything and THEN make your kids meal so as to not contaminate the child's food with gluten? We definately don't have the money for the whole family to go gluten free (and our walmart has a very small section of specific gluten free foods everyone would eat, and I LOVE to bake things!!!) What do you do about eating out??!! Paddy's routine is to go to MCDonald's when we go out, but that's out of the question now! He just doesn't understand what's going on even when we've tried to explain it to him. I am worried for him. I can sense the trouble we are going to have...the force is strong with this boy. My ancestors will feel his wrath if he doesn't get to eat poptarts, frozen waffles, and fruit loops again (main diet staples for him, for sure)!!! I don't want to over analyze and be too controlliong and picky, but I don't want to be lax with this either and not have it work. UGH! I'm a mess. Can anyone help me??
I would suggest doing a lot more "from scratch" meals. Clean out all the flour and other things in your house that are NOT gluten free, and start fresh. Clean everything really well. There are lots of great gluten free recipes out there for yummy favorites. Buying processed foods will make it much more expensive. What are some of his favorites? Sticking to potatoes/rice/rice pasta and a good protein source and salad/veggies should make things pretty inexpensive and healthy. Snack on fruits & veggies. Learn to bake a few yummy treats.
This takes a small amount of space: Frozen waffles, poptarts, fruit loops (which are a great snack for him and I haven't found it's equivalent in a gluten free), flour tortillas, chicken nuggets, shells and cheese, Cheese plain, juices (that's all he drinks), tater tots and fries and when we make grilled cheese he has it on bread slics, but other than that he stays away from bread. Our problem comes with his "super smell", and "super taste". These are both magnified and my attempts at sneaking in veggies are ALWAYS shot down. Example: We had some left over Pizza Hut pizza and we warmed it up for him and he had a raging fit because it SMELLED like "fridge pizza" (as in DiGiornio or something) rather than "Box Pizza" (Pizza Hut only). We had to really try and calm him down, show him the box, and reassure him major before he even took a bite. We can do anything, go anywhere, change a little routine and he's fine...but mess with this boy's food choices and he is MeltDown city. This is our problem.
I have a gluten free blog from when I was GF. Www.goinglutenfree.blogspot.com .... Check out www.celiac.com, great community there, not to mention information. Gluten free flours can be not bad if you can find them. I used to have my own things...I had a pan, a colander, a toaster ($6 at Walmart)...I had my own jar of PB to avoid contamination. It's best to prepare the GF meal THEN the gluten containing meal. there are some things that are not outrageous, pasta being one of them. Tinkyada being the best. Do you have a Trader Joes anywhere near you? They have great GF items. EnviroKidz has a lot of GF kid type items, i was addicted to their cereals. Do you have an indian or Asian grocer near you? We have both, the GF flours (specifically white rice, brown rice, chick pea and sorghum flour) are wayyyyy cheaper there. Do some digging, most have at least one or the other near them and just don't know it. The Indian ladies in their beautiful saris would laugh mercilessly at me...but they also were very helpful and got used to me coming in....they even started meeting me at the door and bringing me to the right places....so funny!!!! Hope this helps!!!
Yikes, that doesn't sound very easy I would really encourage you to give it a try though, to cut out a lot of that stuff. A lot of that stuff is sweets, and sugar is highly addictive. It will take him a while to wean off of it all. Would he eat potato wedges that are seasoned with salt & pepper and paprika? Just toss them in some olive oil, add the seasoning, and bake them. Would he eat something more like corn pops? I know I did eat gluten free for a while, and found a brand of organic corn pop type cereal that only had like three ingredients. That was a good treat
Krista- Thanks for the website and blog! I'll look them up in awhile! We have a little store in town that has a room devoted to gluten free, but alot of it is expired things (they don't do alot of maintenance), and it's finding things he will eat. Poor guy, he keeps coming down stairs telling us his tummy hurts. Stacey- Yes, it seems super difficult right now, but hopefully when we get into the swing of things it will get to be second nature. He does like hidden sugar, but he wont drink milk mainly because it's so thick, and coats his tounge. A sensory thing. But we got an idea to buy water flavorings and use just a couple drops of those in his drink. If the color is off in his drink then he wont touch it.
My dd4 has 7 known food allrrgies, one of them being wheat. It's definitely different from gluten intolerance, but she has an immediate reaction when she ingests wheat. I've never had an issue cooking the rest of the family's food at the same time. I obviously use separate pans, spoons, etc. And I'm just careful about not dropping things in it. My thought is that testing gf, you will notice a significant difference, if that is the problem, simply by removing things with known gluten without worrying about contamination. You may notice even more change after that if you're vigilant about contamination, but in simply experimenting you will be able to tell without being so careful. As far as foods go, good luck! It's a difficult transition! We used the "this could make you sick, while this could make you better" technique. And once she got hungry enough she ate. EnjoyLife brand sells the best treats IMO, albeit expensive. And beyond that we just cook from scratch as much as possible. Although I've never found a lot of time for making her a lot of baked goods. It just takes so much experimenting and money to find out she hates it. I don't worry so much about trying to make the same food for her as we're having. I just feed her what we have of what works. Although, spaghetti is a simple one that we can all eat. I just make her her own pan of pasta and then use the leftovers for lunches. Lots of pure meats, fruits, rice, and as many veggies as I can force down her little veggie-hating mouth. (not many-for now only green beans & roasted cauliflower.) I don't know the brand off the top of my head, but there is one that makes bread loafs. They're vacuum sealed. We didn't like the rice loaf, but the tapioca loaf, she does well with. We'll make her little pizzas and such on them. We always freeze the rest of the loaf in sets of 2 pieces Bc it molds quickly after opening. I hope any of this helps.
I know that on www.tasteofhome.com under the forums or groups, there is a whole section for gluton free recipes........ and guess what...... STARBURST candy is gluton free, I just noticed yesterday when I read the label...... (I know most people don't want to give thier kid candy....... )
Oh, reminded today of Glutino, KinnickKinnick and Lundberg products today. Our Walmart has a huge gluten frr section, but were outside a major city...so that might be why. Also, there's a company called Ian's who makes things like nuggets, etc. And Van's who makes waffles. I love the Van's GF Waffles - I even bought them when I didn't need to be gluten free. I will say, some of my favs that I didn't mind spending a little bit on them, and I tried to portion them out and not just mindlessly eat out of the bag. Glutino mini-pretzels, Kinnick Kinnick Pizza Crusts, KinnickKinnick Hamburger Rolls, Lundberg Rice Chips. There's a newer bread company out there called "Rudi's" who sent me a sample once, and it was really good for GF bread. I echo the freezing it in two slice portions, pulling out in the morning it would always be defrosted by lunch. In general, gluten-free bread, no matter the brand, is better toasted. It loses that gummy quality that it has untoasted. Also, shop the outside of the store! For the most part all fruits/veggies/dairy & meat are gluten free! I'll shut up now!
Lol! You're so on the ball! We never think to do that! With the pizzas we spread the sauce and add toppings to the bread frozen, then toss it in the toaster oven for 5 mins. For anything else we just stick it in the microwave for 15 secs. and tell her to blow on it til it's cool enough. We could really save her some breathing issues by thinking ahead.
Thanks guys for your help!!!! I feel better knowing I have experianced support here! He ate a gluten free supper last night and a Gluten Free breakfast this morning. I say "ate" loosely because he mostly sat there, rolled his head around and told me it was different like a broken record. I just told him to try it and he'll like it. He didn't seem convinced. lol :/ DH says he'll get used to it in the long run, and he'll get hungry enough and not care that it's different or not. The other 2 boys got GF this morning too with Paddy, and Marion LOVED the GF pancakes I fixed. lol I bought GF bread mix last night at WalMart sos I'm going to make that in a minute for lunch to go with his grilled cheese. The cashier was a GEM last night too. She said, "Oh I see you have a Gluten free Baby too!" I told her it was our first GF buy, and we were a bit confounded by the slim selection. She told us that HyVee has 2 aisles of GF things. So...I guess we'll go there next time!! I've never been into a HyVee before...ever. So it will be an experience. So far it seems like things are going to be ok. His food selection will be a little stretched and he'll have to try things he normally wouldn't, but he can do it!! All in all, I've found quite a bit of GF things that he eats.
We were all GF for about 3 years, while my youngest out grew his reactions to the gluten. I would try to cook everything GF with the least number of meals where you had to cook anybody something separate. Start with about 10 dinners and just rotate those for a while. I would do about 3-5 breakfast and lunch ideas, and about 10 snacks. Try hard to use regular food items and not the GF substitutes. Then you can just rotate and not have to think so much about it. We did all dinners as GF ( we might use regular pasta for the nongf's in the house) We ate lots of cereal, like Chex. It was more expensive. But we lost weight without trying too. We also didn't have any bread because we didn't find anything we really liked. After you find something you like ( I love Pamela's flour mix it was the best tasting) You can order most things off Amazon for cheaper. But you have to buy in bulk so make sure you like it first. There are huge swings in flavor for different brands. Like the Kink brand oreo's I think taste like dirt, and the Glutino ones are very similar to regular Oreos. Here is a great blog by a friend of my husband. I loved her blog while I was GF for my family. http://www.thegfcflady.com/about/
My DS loves "berry blast bars" (at walmart!) Corn tortilla chips are a great snack. He also loves most of the Glutino brand items. I echo aggie01 - Pamela's flour mix is the BEST! It's the one you can most easily substitute for your regular flour. I have an awesome pancake receipe (made with oatmeal). If you make cookies - ginger snaps are a great place to start. All the spices in them cover up any weird taste from the different flour. For my DS, it helped to avoid trying to makeover his current favourite foods. We did better finding new foods he liked, then after a few months I tried some 'GF makeovers' and he really enjoyed them. Once they're used to the GF diet, it's easier to make GF versions of their favourites and have it work. My DS had tummy aches all the time until he was almost 6. The GF diet has changed our lives!! Hope it works for you.
So far, things seem to be working. It's kinda a pain in the butt sometimes (like yesterday when he had a complete meltdown in the car because he couldn't go to McDonald's and we had to hear about it the rest of the night). On the other hand he is eating alot more fruit!
Eating Gluten Free at McDonalds With or without french fries, there are a number of menu options available to eat gluten free at McDonald's. As of 2010, this includes: Premium Southwest Salad Premium Bacon Ranch Salad Premium Caesar Salad Scrambled eggs Bacon Breakfast steak Sausage Patty Fruit 'n' Yogurt Parfait Apples with Caramel dip Sundaes McFlurries Triple Thick Shakes Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream Most Beverages Order salads without croutons or chicken, and discard the granola that comes with the yogurt parfait. When ordering, do not be shy about stating your concerns. Staff are trained to accommodate dietary needs and answer questions about food preparation and ingredients.
here are some other ideas for eating out, wendy's has a pretty good list: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/e...nt-Chains-Offering-Gluten-Free-Menu-Items.htm
I know next to nothing about gluten free but a blog I love is the mom of a child with celiacs disease so she does blog about some gluten free stuff, it's a great blog http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.com/ Do you have a Kroger or Trader Joe's near by? Both have lots of gluten free options and Kroger has some awesome sales/deals sometimes.
Our whole family has now gone dairy, gluten, wheat and egg free due to a plethora of allergies (praise the LORD it has reduced symptoms of my spondylolesthesis incredibly). It's WAY easier to go gluten free as a family. I agree with pp - make your meals from scratch! Don't buy prepared foods from the gluten free section unless it's pasta. I'm shocked how easy it has been. Now I must say, I did stock up on flours - quinoa, brown rice, tapioca and teff - that was a heftier bill in the beginning - but now I can make biscuits, cookies, breads, muffins - all good snack foods - and put them in the freezer! If you're ONLY gluten free (not egg and dairy like us) you have even MORE options! The internet is at your fingertips. Your whole family will be healthier for this decision. YOU CAN DO IT!
