Any suggestions for a vegan AND gluten free diet?

[CK'sMama]

Here is my situation:

DS is 8 months old, he has had dark under eye circles and a red ring around his anus that comes and goes, pretty much since birth. I only recently found out these are signs of a food allergy, and I feel awful for not addressing this sooner :( I have always had barely noticable dark circles under my eyes as well so I thought it was normal for our complexion but I guess I have allergies as well. And the ring goes away with rash cream so I never really thought twice about it.

Anyway… I don’t meat, and have recently cut most dairy out of my diet, I still cheat every now and then which I now plan on not doing. My plans are to eliminate all dairy for 2 weeks to see if that helps. If not I plan to eliminate all wheat/gluten products.

So here is my question: If cutting out dairy doesn’t help and gluten turns out to be the culprit what on earth can I eat? If I don’t have dairy, gluten, or meat what is left for me to eat and still get the nutrients that I need? :confused:

Thanks in advance.

[Aster]

Hi,

Just a couple of ideas to throw out there for you.

Could you see a naturopath and have a blood test done to see what it is that you're allergic to? Apparently they can do such a thing--my sis was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome by her doc, then went to see a naturopath and found out that she has gluten allergies. She cut gluten and the ibs went away.

Maybe a vegan rawfood diet (http://www.sunfood.net/recipes.html) would work for you? I"ve never tried it, but it sounds good. another link (http://www.rawvegan.com)

Other things to consider are environmental allergies-- like mites, dander from pets, mold spores. I get the dark under-eye circles from our cat dander.

[ladylee]

Aster has great suggestions. I was that way for a number of years (eating a raw foods diet.) And if you don't want to be that extreme there are more and more gluten-free products available in hf stores. The good thing is you will probably notice you feel great not eating gluten--I always had much more energy!

[CK'sMama]

Thanks for the input.

Just for anyone who may be in the same boat as me, I found a ton of vegan/gluten free foods from http://www.amys.com. I love Amy’s pizza’s so I am sure the rest of the stuff is good as well. My local health food store carries the whole line of Amy’s Foods, lucky for me. :)

I guess I won’t starve after all, and hopefully my little ones allergies will clear up :thumb

[ladylee]

Big fan of Amy's, too. Good luck to you!