Help me GF my already limited kid.

[scsigrl]

So we have Celiacs. I am pissed off. I am sad. I am unsure what to get and where to start.

I would LOVE organic/GF substitutions for the following (must also be dairy, egg, corn, soy, all nut, all seafood, citrus, banana free as well):

Chicken nuggets
Hard pretzels
Oatmeal
Cereal
Crackers
Waffels/pancakes
sweets (cakes and the like)
Sandwich bread

I think those are the big ones. Also, I have heard that I may be better off getting a grain mill and grinding my own flours. Any advice on that or recs?


TIA!

[Abvnx]

Hi, my hubby and I are both gluten free too. Not Celiac, just gluten intolerant. I know it sucks, and at first you don't know what to eat. But I swear it gets easier!
Here is an excellent magazine/site, they cover all sorts of food allergies-
http://www.livingwithout.com/

Avoid Snyder's Pretzels, the package says "gluten free" but they really aren't.
http://glutenfreemom.typepad.com/glu...to-action.html

Question- Are you vegetarian/vegan?

I wish I could be of more help. I'm sorry you have to go through this.

*Edit- Regarding dairy, is it all dairy or just cow's milk? Would goat's milk be an option?

[deditus]

Originally Posted by scsigrl

So we have Celiacs. I am pissed off. I am sad. I am unsure what to get and where to start.

I would LOVE organic/GF substitutions for the following (must also be dairy, egg, corn, soy, all nut, all seafood, citrus, banana free as well):

Chicken nuggets
Hard pretzels
Oatmeal
Cereal
Crackers
Waffels/pancakes
sweets (cakes and the like)
Sandwich bread

I think those are the big ones. Also, I have heard that I may be better off getting a grain mill and grinding my own flours. Any advice on that or recs?


TIA!

I can't help you much in the way of substitutions, but I wanted to mention that many people with celiac lose food intolerances once their gut is healed. Are the other foods you avoid allergies or intolerances?

We use almond flour as our main flour, which doesn't help you, but before we went mostly grain free we used buckwheat a lot. I found it easier to go "paleo" - meat, veggies, fruit, fats, than to deal with subs for grain products but it is nice to have a few things for convenience. I eat sardines with rice crackers about once a week on playgroup days.

[scsigrl]

Paleo and toddler don't really mix well. Believe me, we have tried and he is not interested. He has true allergies, not intolerances. I know they can outgrow them and hope he will with gut healing but for now it is what it is.

Abvnx, he can not do any dairy.

[changingseasons]

My favorite GF grain is buckwheat. I used to use it for everything, until DD became sensitized (she's now allergic to it after using it for a year and a half.)

Buckwheat waffles were my fav. I pretty much used buckwheat flour (I bought groats and ground them fresh in an old coffee grinder), sea salt, oil of some kind, water. Pretty boring, but somehow as a waffle they're pretty good. Especially if you can put some syrup or honey on top. You can do the same for pancakes, but I would add something for more flavor- blueberries, applesauce, bananas, something.

The thing about GF flours (and even whole groats) is that they are REALLY hard to find completely GF, because most are processed on shared equipment with other grains. Bob's Red Mill has a gluten-free line, but they process on shared equipment with tree nuts. We've done ok with just buying whole groats from Azure or a local health food store, but we're not dealing with celiac- just a gluten intolerance for me, and IgE wheat/rye/barley allergy for DD. You'll probably have to do a lot of calling around to find grains that don't have any xcon.

Anyway... rambling. My point is that buckwheat is awesome, and you can use it for anything- muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc. because it's the gummiest GF grain that you'll find. Sandwich bread I never tried, but Kathy (kjbrown) has a recipe that everyone swears by on her blog- http://www.kathysrecipebox.com/

eta: Cereals are really hard. Envikidz has a bunch of GF ones, but they all have at least tree nut xcon or contain nuts. Erewhon crispy rice cereal is the only one I'm familiar with that is everything free (and it's pretty good too!)- but they make a regular and a GF version, so you have to watch which one you get.

[Abvnx]

I have a cookbook(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free). It does have recipes with things on you NO-list, but they are not rampant through the cookbook. I'm thinking you could substitute some things, like when a granola recipe calls for nuts you could put in dried fruits instead. We found that the safest thing to do is, if one person in the house needs to be gluten-free, then everyone should. Just to make sure of no cross contamination.

Is you little boy a picky eater? Would he go for granola with dried blueberries?

Oh yeah, here is the GF cookbook:
http://www.wholelifenutrition.net/index.html

[Abvnx]

I just remembered the is a GF company Namaste. They are gluten, nut, soy, corn and dairy free. I haven't tried any of their products so I don't know if it tastes like sand, but it's worth a shot.

https://www.namastefoods.com/shoppin...?Category=Home

[Pookietooth]

There is also The Cravings Place and one other company that does allergen free mixes.
Chebe bread mix is free of all those things, although the recipes on it do call for egg so I don't know how well it would work with something else.
When you say paleo and toddler don't mix is that because he doesn't like veggies? Meats? I would imagine he would like fruits anyway. My ds is pretty picky yet even at that age would eat meats and fruit and even a few veggies. Most of the things you listed will have to be made from scratch to avoid everything on your list, and I would imagine even that may be hard.
Would your ds drink smoothies?

[deminc]

hi, sounds like it's snack food that's the challenge. I sympathise, we hve the same no-go list, except for the bananas. Fruits are limited as we are also kinda keeping an eye on salicylates. My kid is coming to 3. He is not a fussy eater and in fact, I always say the irony is that he loves to eat but he can't eat so many things.

For now, this is what we do for snacks:
- mini chicken drumsticks
- meatballs
- roasted potatos
- rice cakes (plain or with honey)
- home-cooked chickpeas (put in a paper cone)
- occasional fruits
- occasional sorbet treats
- roasted gram (only gram and salt)
- carrot/celery sticks

I use potato starch as a binder and it also gives a light translucent crust. Our main seasoning is himalayan salt (keeping off everything marine-related on advice of a doc and mother who btdt), spring onions, some garlic and onions. Check your cooking oil to make sure it's on the ok list. I was a dodo and did my GF/Corn-free/seed-free cooking in a corn oil, and then later in a canola/sunflower oil the first few weeks we started on this.

I am currently experimenting with making rice burger, japanese inspired. First attempt kinda fell apart (literally, hahaha), but still edible. There's hope yet...

Basically use the freshest ingredients you can find. I cook everyday now (watching amines too, just in case) but keep things simple.

And I second everyone who says GF flour mixes sometimes just get too complicated. I really stocked up on the GF pre-mixes, thinking I'm just gonna take it by the horns and bake every week, but the kid's symptons got worse - and really, do I have to go through all that exotica ingredients to see if he's also reacting to those?? Fava bean flour? Xanthan gum? Tapioca starch?Teff flour? In the end it's really just easier to go back to basics.

(btw, you can make chicken nugget-like nuggets *hahahaa* either by pounding chicken fillet to tenderise, coating with potato starch and frying, or by running pre-cooked chicken through the blender with some cooked potato, potato starch, salt, herbs and a bit of stock. Coat with potato starch and rice flour and fry.)

(and, another challenge is sauces. No ketchup/mayo what do we do?? We've settled for soups, stews, flavoured oils and a big cup of water/rice milk at the side.)

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by scsigrl

gluten, dairy, egg, corn, soy, all nut, all seafood, citrus, banana free:
Chicken nuggets
Hard pretzels
Oatmeal
Cereal
Crackers
Waffels/pancakes
sweets (cakes and the like)
Sandwich bread

My bread recipe does fit the bill, also my chicken nuggets (which I'm addicted to; I'm triple dipping them now; I think I was double breading them when I first wrote the recipe). I'm still working on the pretzel recipe. We use puffed millet and Rice Chex (I don't know about nut cross contamination on those though). I make buckwheat waffles/pancakes (even chocolate version).

We use a combination of flours... sorghum, light buckwheat, tapioca starch, sweet potato flour (I don't use rice flour alot because DS just got rice back after 2 years, and he still can't do potatoes).

Instead of oatmeal, we either make millet porridge or Bob's Red Mill hot buckwheat cereal (sbgrace would know about nut cross contamination on that one). Or you could do Cream of Rice.

It'll be an adjustment for sure, but there are resources out there!

[changingseasons]

Quinoa flakes is another hot cereal idea. It's got a Cream of Wheat type of consistency.

[painefaria]

Originally Posted by Abvnx

I just remembered the is a GF company Namaste. They are gluten, nut, soy, corn and dairy free. I haven't tried any of their products so I don't know if it tastes like sand, but it's worth a shot.

https://www.namastefoods.com/shoppin...?Category=Home

I Love the namaste brand!! It is by far my favorite brand of GF products. It blows Bob's Redmill out of the water

[Abvnx]

Originally Posted by painefaria

I Love the namaste brand!! It is by far my favorite brand of GF products. It blows Bob's Redmill out of the water

I'll have to check it out. Too many of the gluten-free products have a sandy texture.

Although it's not an option for the OP, I must recommend Udi's bread. It is by far the best GF bread Iv'e come across. I don't taste a difference between the Udi's and regular bread and it's soft!

[me+littleladysadie]

my daughter loves these gluten free oats!

http://www.glutenfreeoats.com/default.aspx