is this possible?

[MommaJayla]

Okay I know it's possible, but I'm looking for avdice as to how healthy/feasible it is. We are newly vegan - less than a year (but vegetarian 2ish years before that) - and we avoid soy. We'll do soy sauce or incidental soybean oil, etc., but no tofu, soy milk, soy "meats," etc. like that.

My dr. has suggested that we try our 3.5 yo ds off dairy and gluten to help with some issues that his ped. & ENT are pushing a tonsillectomy for.

Obviously I would rather do that than surgery and anesthesia, but really no meat, dairy, soy, or gluten? There's not much left for him to eat :(   I am thinking of possibly adding eggs back in for him? Anyone else btdt with similar extreme diet restrictions? The dairy is obviously a non-issue, but a good portion of his diet is ww breads, pastas, waffles, pancakes, etc.

[bodhitree]

Yep, it can be done, for a while at least. I did it for a few months. I did okay with it until I realized I also needed to cut out corn, then I couldn't seem to get all my nutrients and feel well nourished while maintaining all the restrictions and being veg. But you could certainly be vegan, gluten-free, and mostly soy-free for long enough to see if it helps, and if it does, you can decide from there whether you need to add some other foods back in.

As far as what your DS can eat, some subs are very easy. You can do brown rice pasta (we like Tinkyada), and you can buy or make GF bread (it is hard to find it without egg though). You can do corn or brown rice tortillas, and you can make GF pancakes. Here's my go-to pancake recipe.

BBB pancakes

Mix in a large bowl:

1 1/2 c buckwheat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix in a blender and blend until smooth:

3 bananas

1 1/2 c dairy-free "milk"

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just mixed. Cook the pancakes over medium heat, adding blueberries if desired.

Hope that helps!

[Ygle]

Yes, very possible!  While I don't specifically avoid those items we almost never eat them.  We do lots of rice bowls, bean pots, split pea & lentil soups or dals, potato dishes (including yams/sweet potatoes), veggie bowls and bakes, oatmeal (if we have any baked goods we usually use oatmeal.. I just grind up the oats in the blender for flour for pancakes, waffles, muffins, quick breads), quinoa salads... every once in awhile we will get on a bread/pasta kick and I notice our veggie consumption goes down, so if anything I've found doing without that stuff our diet just naturally gets healthier, especially with the little ones. 

[crunchy_mommy]

Yup!! We are vegan, gluten-free, mostly soy-free (tofu or tamari maybe twice a month)... For a while we were GF, completely SF, and corn-free as well (and vegan) -- that was a struggle, so only lasted a couple months, but I can maintain SF & GF without too much effort.

We use rice, corn, or quinoa pastas. We love Bob's Red Mill GF pancake mix as well as their GF Homemade Wonderful Bread and Chocolate Cake mixes. Trader Joe's, if you have one near you, has GF frozen waffles that are vegan IIRC (never bought them), as well as rice pastas, rice/corn tortillas, and GF crackers. I struggle with Whole Foods -- they do have some options, but the majority of their GF products contain eggs, and the majority of their vegan products contain gluten. We've started making our own tortillas (way easier than it sounds and very cheap!) and baked goods, and experimented some with homemade crackers...

One thing to consider is how picky your DS is... no one in my family is picky so it wasn't that big a deal to introduce lots of GF alternatives and naturally grain-free options etc. but if you have a kid that really isn't a fan of variety it will probably be way harder.

[MommaJayla]

Luckily he is not too picky with food & is already used to eating lots of fruits & veggies & nuts. But he almost always has pancakes/waffles/toast for breakfast and has a sandwich 3-4 days for lunch, plus we often have tortillas or noodles w/dinner. I looked at gf foods at our supermarket and oh. my. Honestly we just really can't afford to eat like that. 6 waffles were $4 an he can easily down 3 in one day and thats with 2 bananas and a huge smoothie at breakfast. I can buy ww flour for $.30/lb. So we basically have to just cut those foods out. Which isn't the worst thing I don't think, but it is a total shift in how we normally eat, I'm sort of at a loss.

[bodhitree]

I know what you mean. I'm not gonna lie, our grocery budget has gone up quite a bit since eliminating a bunch of stuff from our diet. But looking back on it, I think we used to rely way too much on cheap wheat as the foundation of our diet. It's not the worst thing in the world for you, but it's not very nutrient-dense either. Going through this transition has changed my family's diet for the better. We are eating a wider variety of foods and a lot fewer processed foods.

There are some things you can do to keep costs down. Corn tortillas are really inexpensive and can stand in for wheat tortillas and sometimes for bread. You could do wraps for lunch instead of sandwiches. You can also use lettuce leaves for wraps. For breakfast, GF oats are more expensive than regular but are still way cheaper than storebought waffles. DD and I also often have fried onions, potatoes, and red peppers for breakfast. We've done a lot of dinners that have baked potatoes (or some other form of potatoes) where we would have had bread before (e.g. soup and baked potatoes or stew and sweet potato fries). You can also base dinners on rice, quinoa, or other GF grains instead of noodles. And if you make extra of whatever you make for dinner, that takes care of lunch for the next day too so you don't have to worry about sandwiches.

IMO it works best if you don't rely too much on directly subbing special GF products for wheaty products. It's fine to do that some of the time, but it gets way too expensive and honestly I don't think it's that good for you anyway. If you need meal ideas or other forms of support, you can check out the Allergies forum. There are lots and lots of GF mamas on there and even some who are veg*n.

ETA: I have found the best prices on GF products at our local natural foods store--they seem to be way more expensive at the regular supermarket. And Costco has some GF stuff, including Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Flour blend.

[crunchy_mommy]

We actually get a lot of our gluten-free substitutes at this local chain that sells damaged & expired merchandise. It would be completely cost-prohibitive otherwise... so I get where you're coming from! And I do agree with the PP that it's not all that healthy to rely on them (but I do think they are useful at times, especially to satisfy certain cravings, so maybe see if you can find a cheap local source for things or order them online for when you really need them.)

Some options you could try incorporating if you don't already eat them:

Roasted veggies - we eat them leftover for breakfast
Coconut milk yogurt (still trying to get my homemade version to come out right!)
Homemade nut cheeses
Lasagna made with slices of squash/eggplant/zucchini/etc. instead of noodles (and use the nut cheese above)
Fruit crisp (I use almond butter, almond meal or walnuts, and a little cinnamon & sugar for the 'crisp' topping)
Naturally gluten-free cereals such as corn flakes, rice chex, etc. (watch out for ingredients like barley malt though!)
Polenta - slice it up and sautee with beans & veggies, or use as the base of mini pizzas
Veggies with hummus (our go-to snack!)
Rice bowls with cucumber, avocado, carrots, and seaweed
Homemade bean burgers

I'll try to come back and add more as I think of things (kind of in a food rut myself lately). I do find it takes more planning to eat this way ('cause you can't just grab a sandwich or throw something in the toaster oven) -- so we tend to make double batches of meals to eat for breakfast/lunch the next day. And it sounds like your DS is a big eater so keeping him fully satisfied might be hard at first. Are you all going to go GF or just him?

[MommaJayla]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

We actually get a lot of our gluten-free substitutes at this local chain that sells damaged & expired merchandise. It would be completely cost-prohibitive otherwise... so I get where you're coming from! And I do agree with the PP that it's not all that healthy to rely on them (but I do think they are useful at times, especially to satisfy certain cravings, so maybe see if you can find a cheap local source for things or order them online for when you really need them.)

Some options you could try incorporating if you don't already eat them:

Roasted veggies - we eat them leftover for breakfast
Coconut milk yogurt (still trying to get my homemade version to come out right!)
Homemade nut cheeses
Lasagna made with slices of squash/eggplant/zucchini/etc. instead of noodles (and use the nut cheese above)
Fruit crisp (I use almond butter, almond meal or walnuts, and a little cinnamon & sugar for the 'crisp' topping)
Naturally gluten-free cereals such as corn flakes, rice chex, etc. (watch out for ingredients like barley malt though!)
Polenta - slice it up and sautee with beans & veggies, or use as the base of mini pizzas
Veggies with hummus (our go-to snack!)
Rice bowls with cucumber, avocado, carrots, and seaweed
Homemade bean burgers

I'll try to come back and add more as I think of things (kind of in a food rut myself lately). I do find it takes more planning to eat this way ('cause you can't just grab a sandwich or throw something in the toaster oven) -- so we tend to make double batches of meals to eat for breakfast/lunch the next day. And it sounds like your DS is a big eater so keeping him fully satisfied might be hard at first. Are you all going to go GF or just him?

thank you for all the ideas, I am having such a tough time coming up with things! We're also having a hard time feeling full :( Like I roasted squash foor dinner and it's like okay, so what else? normally we would have bread or something and that would feel like enough of a meal. Same thing with soups. And breakfast actually. lol. I know it's psychological, but still a bummer.

To answer your question we're all going gf (mostly anyways). I have a 4.5 yo ds and a 1 yo ds, plus a 1 & 2 yo that I babysit throughout the week, so mealtimes are hectic enough without keeping track of which waffles are gf or something, not to mention all the sharing (and swiping) that goes on at the table with the kids, plus my sweet ds has been caught eating the babies leftovers off the floor more times than I care to admit, so I hate to be wondering if gf isn't helping him or if he's just getting to much gluten still, yk?