Dairy-free, soy-free, and gluten-free snacks? (X-posted in allergies)

[Italiamom]

I am getting ready to embark on a month long elimination diet with my family to remove dairy, soy, gluten, and eggs from our family's diet.  My husband has suffered life long skin and joint issues.  My son suffers from similar skin issues, as well as sleep issues and some hyperactivity.  And now my newborn is showing signs of the same skin issues, as well as extreme gas and fussing.  Basically, everyone in the house could possibly benefit from identifying foods we shouldn't eat.  I've done a lot of reading, and have planned out a two week menu (that I can cycle again).  I'm the kind of person who needs a plan for this to be successfully done.  But my hitch is snacks.  I like to snack, and as a nursing mama, I need to have snacks around.

Do y'all have snack ideas?  Really, I'm stumped.  The cookbooks I've found mostly cover dinners, and meals.  I just need ideas of what I can grab when I'm hungry in the afternoon that goes beyond carrot sticks and peanut butter (which, btw, we buy just the freshly ground peanuts).  I know that soy and dairy are lurkers, but any ideas. be they off the shelf safe snacks and brands, or things I can make ahead of time to have on hand, would be most appreciated!!

[SundayCrepes]

Fruit

Lara Bars (you can get them as subscribe and save from amazon.com)

smoothies made with rice or almond milk (I throw in a bit of coconut milk and almond butter. Spinach, too.)

more fruit

homemade popsicles made out of pureed fruit and juice

frozen grapes

frozen banana slices (mash them up and you have ice cream)

popcorn

seaweed snack sheets

nuts. we eat cashews a lot

stuff dipped in hummus (if you buy prepared hummus, watch the ingredients)

Have you done allergy blood testing for everyone? We'd taken our daughter off gluten and it helped her speech a lot. But her toddler diarrhea (4 times a day since about 6 months) didn't get better. We did testing and it came back with several weird things including cane sugar and tomatoes. We eliminated all the sensitive foods and 6 weeks later the diarrhea persisted. Even though she didn't test sensitive to dairy, we stopped it. Three days later, just before her 3rd birthday, she had solid poops for the first time in her life. We tried reintroducing the sensitive foods. The less sensitive foods were fine. When we tried tomatoes and cane sugar the diarrhea came back until we stopped them. Had we just eliminated the major foods, we never would have considered cane sugar. Probably not even tomatoes. So, if you see no improvement with the diet you're trying, get blood tests done. We did a panel that tested for 96 different foods. So glad we did.

[Italiamom]

Oooh, thanks for the tip on the Larabars!  I sort of just assumed that bar = soy.  I have a 10% off coupon through vitacost, so I'll try a  box of them for sure.

We had both an IgE and an IgG panel done for my son.  Neither turned up anything.  I had heard that they can be woefully inaccurate for little babies, and with our DD being only 2 months old, I'm hesitant.

[SundayCrepes]

Yeah, I wouldn't do the baby.

You'll love larabars. I carry them in my purse for when the kids need something and it's all I have.

[rhianna813]

We have friends who all each have their own diet restrictions due to allergies or by choice. It's hard to think of snacks one parent can bring for the whole group. Popcorn, corn chips and salsa, good brand potato chips, veggies and hummus, apple sauce seem to be the staples.

One mom keep a large mason jar of dried fruit, nut and seed mix going, from the bulk isle. She adds different items everytime she visits the store so the mix keeps changing. The pineapple pieces? delish!

[sunnygir1]

I recommend you do some label reading and find some basics that are labeled free of those foods.  A rice cracker would be good, corn chips, and/or potato chips.

Perky's Crunchy Rice cereal with almond milk is a hit with my kids, also Erewhon crispy rice cereal.  Both those brands make great allergen-free foods.

Once you have a chip or cracker, you can top it  with different things:  peanut butter, almond butter, hummus, sunflower nut butter, apple butter or all-fruit jam, slices of apple, cucumber, avocado, guacamole, salsa (check the label), fish or chicken salad, meat, smoked fish (check the label).  A handful of nuts, raw almonds in particular, was one of my favorites while breastfeeding -- maybe a date or two to add a little sweet.  Applesauce, pear sauce, etc.  You can mix your own trail mix -- as a kid I loved salted peanuts with raisins for an after school snack.  Fruits (fresh, frozen, dried) and vegetables (fresh and frozen -- my kids love frozen green beans for a snack), and nuts and seeds are your friends because they are single-ingredient foods that are delicious on their own.

Tinkyada (Pasta Joy) gluten free pasta is wonderful, and has only rice as an ingredient.

Breads can be difficult because they often have eggs or dairy or soy or all three.  We have a local bakery that makes a gluten free, dairy free, egg free line of breads, which is wonderful.  I don't love Ener-g breads, but they are okay for toast and generally don't have that stuff.

Best of luck!