Gluten Free Diet - Mokena,IL

Try looking on the internet at Elana's Panty, she has some great gluten free recipes, you can find her through facebook. T.

Please talk to a nutritionist or a doctor. There is a lot of misinformation about going gluten free. Just having not-normal stools isn't necessarily a reason to try it.

There are tests to confirm if your son has a gluten allergy.
That would take the wondering out of it.
My 23 year old daughter decided to go gluten free because someone told her it wasn't healthy. Not a doctor, a friend....
She has nasal allergies and going gluten free didn't make any difference so that only lasted a few weeks. She said she felt like she was starving and came to my house and had a garden burger on onion rolls and wanted another one!
Gluten allergies are legitimate, but like I said, you can have your son tested for that. My daughter winged it and found out after depriving herself she doesn't have gluten allergies.

I think you should talk to the pediatrician further about it. A referral to a dietician might help.

I hope you get some great responses, but I would hate withholding juice and fruit. Kids need that. Perhaps more fiber with bran, beans and legumes.

Best wishes!

Best wishes!

I know you are looking for simple foods. Easy ones would be food that doesn't have it anyway fresh fruit, veggies, potatoes, plain meat and rice. Cheap easy and gf. I would however let you know that seeing a peds GI before changing anything might be worth your time and money as if you do find you need a diagnosis later, like for schools to follow he will need an official diagnosis to uphold a 504 plan for his safety and for the IRS to allow expenses above the norm to be deducted. Also you would hate to eliminate a vast amount of food from your child and find later it would be unecessary

.

I just wanted to let you know that my son had the exact same "stool issues" as yours. His started at about age 1. We too did the GFCF diet for about 1 year. My son was in and out of the GI dr's office. We tested him for everything uder the sun!! Seriously. We spent so much money trying to figure out why his stool were so sandy and never solid. The diet never did actually hep. We tried the probiotics too, sugar free diet, brat diet, nothing processed diet, etc.
Nothing worked, his stools stayed pretty much the same. Then, all of a sudden when he was about 4 1/2 - his stools started to be normal. We were able to potty train at that point - yea!! The GI doctor said he wasn't sure what the problem was - we had tried everything. He decided in the end that my son's body just took and EXTRA LONG TIME to get used to food. But since then we have had no issues.
If you want, I can forward you the links to all of the sites we used while being GFCF - there are a ton of truly heplful ones. There is also a yahoo group of dedicated GFCF parents for you to use as support, trust me you will need all the support you can get if you are going to do this diet. But really, I think it truly is a big waste of time, not to mention expensive!! If I could go back in time, I would have never put my son through this diet for a whole year.
Hope this helps. A.

Please read Breaking the Vicious Cycle by DR elaine Gothschall (spelling on last name is probably not correct. dont have the book with me) This will help you immensely. It is about the specific carbohydrate diet. There is another book with recipies for it by another gentleman that is good and several websites with groups that you can join to discuss and for additional help. a great website is pecanbread. goggle it. your colon makes up 80% of your immune system and if it is not working right, your body is not functioning properly. Kids are the easist to mold. Heal his gut now while you can! Good luck!

Hi K.,

My mom has gone gluten free for a while now. We really liked the Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam. Assuming your son doesn't have nut sensitivities, and you can get almond flour, it's a lot easier to bake with since you don't need Xanthan Gum to replace the gluten in breads, etc. Search for Elana Amsterdam on the web -- she also has recipes on her website -- or check out the book from the library and try it.

We also really like Mary's Gone Crackers crackers. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have a lot of gluten free products, including pasta, bread, pizza crust, etc.

You may also want to take your son to an allergist and think about getting him tested for food allergies/sensitivities.

Best,
R.

First of all, there is a LOT of harm in going gluten-free if you plan to ever introduce it again. Once you eliminate it entirely (I believe it takes about 6 weeks), your body cannot ever process it again. You actually LOSE the ability (if you ever had it- which, unless you have a wheat allergy, or Celiac's Sprue, then you do have that ability.)

There are many tests for Celiac's, but they are imperfect. If you want one of these tests, then have it done BEFORE you eliminate gluten, or it will be even more imprecise.

If you still want to go gluten-free (even if tests come back fine) then I say go for it. I do think there are ways to eat gluten that are healthier than the norm. One book to check out is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. She describes how to use grains in a way for more optimal absorption for nutrition, like soaking them before using.

Check out diets like SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) and GAPS. There are many sites devoted to these. One for children in particular is www.pecanbread.com . I love SCD Kat's blog and we have started our own blog about eliminating gluten and sugar and eating specific dairy as well as following some of the Weston A Price and Nourishing Traditions guidelines for more traditional foods/eating at www.chickiepea.wordpress.com for my daughter's autoimmune disease and to help cure my youngest daughter's caries.

If he can do dairy, I would recommend trying to make your own kefir, since that will give him great probiotics (which we all need.) It is very easy and you can usually find the bacteria grains to make it yourself at home in local yahoo food groups devoted to the Weston A Price (WAP) way of eating or on freecycle.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help. I have many sites bookmarked too on Delicious, which you should be able to find through my blog as well.

Good luck!!
M.

*One more quick thing- you say he loves crackers and bread. Often, if we have a problem with a food then it is the exact food that we CRAVE that is causing the problem. See what he craves (like, would fight you for!) and eliminate that. Once he heals, he will start to crave more nutritious things that he really NEEDS to eat. Sugar and starch are so often culprits.

Hi There,

Both my kids are wheat and dairy sensitive (we found out in January). The first month or two was horrible, but now that we've adjusted and just buy different things, it's not so bad. My daughter also is sensitive to corn, so that adds another level. We've gotten used to goat cheese, so that's helped (pecorino/romano with sheeps milk is awesome!) Rice crackers are great - there are quite a few different kinds now at the co-ops and even Cub. We tend to do a lot of rice & beans type stuff and curries & stir frys using brown rice or quinoa (rinse it first!). Haven't figured out how to make millet yummy, but I have a friend who eats it regularly. Granola is just about the only cereal we do. Or Oatmeal. Chia seeds are kind of fun - just add coconut milk/whatever and some honey/sweetener or berries and let it sit for 10 minutes - it gets kind of gelatinous - I really like it! I guess you can do it hot too. Someone suggested it instead of ice cream, but I think it's good for breakfast too - LOTS of nutrients in those little seeds! Udi's bread is pretty yummy. The millet bread from Deland FL is pretty good too. And if your looking for tortilla's, we like the Teff ones best (the brown rice is ok, but stiff). oh- and for a treat, Mochi is fun! You bake it and it puffs up - you can add jam or honey or not. It's a quick roll/muffin type thing, but no wheat! Oh - and Pamela's pancake mix is excellent!

We started out with the mind set that most meals would just be veggies and meat (which was tough, with me being vegetarian), but now we're back to meat just 2-3x a week, and a wider variety of foods. I'm lucky because my kids love their veggies - especially green beans & parsnips & cherry tomatoes! So many websites....blogs that come to mind are everythingfreeeating and Elana's Pantry.

Good luck!
A.

In case no one has mentioned it, you will also have to avoid oats since they are contaminated with gluten due to crop rotation. The only kinds that are not are Irish Oatmeals which you can find at health food stores.

These days the gluten free diet is much easier than you think. They make gluten free everything now and Jewel and Whole Foods carries a variety of gluten free items. My daughter was on a gluten free (GF) diet for a while and I found a great selection of GF chicken nuggets, blueberry waffles, pancakes, cereal bars, etc. Also, Rice Chex cereal is gluten free and so is that Pirate's Booty snack. My daughter loved all those things and really did not notice the difference between the non GF products. Good Luck!!

I've been gluten free for months. The easiest thing for me has been to stick with lean meats, brown rice, steamed veggies, home-made soups, and anything I can make with gluten free flour. There is a flower with the brand name of pamela that can be bought at Hy Vee or other stores with health food sections and it can be used for pancakes or waffles. I love the brown rice pasta by Tinkyada. When you buy tomatoes it's good to look for all natural ones with only spices spelled out like onion and garlic. But stay away from labels that say natural flavors. Those could be anything.

I like to eat the corn and rice chex by Kellog that says gluten free right across the front. Stay away from deli meats and stick with whole foods like baked chicken. Better than Boullion is a gluten free boullion that comes in several flavors and needs to be kept in the fridge.

I would stay away from the crackers for the most part because they are terribly expensive. But sometimes you can find some on sale. The breads are still pretty nasty, though they are better than they were a few years ago.

I love those little rrice noodle packets that come in a variety of flavors and say gluten free right on the front. You can add veggies to that and even some diced chicken.

You can look for gluten free lists for processed foods. But it's very difficult to find that sort of thing that's worth eating anyway.

I don't know if you have a Whole Foods by you - but they have lots of gluten-free options there. I've seen various Jewel stores start to carry gluten-free items.

Every fall the U of Chicago holds a free blood screening to test for celiac disease. Your child must not be on a gluten-free diet though - gluten must be in his system to have an accurate result. Here's the link for the testing: http://www.celiacdisease.net/free-blood-screening

Otherwise, you can ask your doctor to test for celiac disease if you don't want to wait that long.

Even if your son doesn't have celiac - he still may be gluten intolerant. I myself am on a gluten-free diet - and while it was hard in the beginning, its much easier now that stores have started to carry lots of options.

Yes, there is a test that is pretty easy and quick, so I've heard. I have a good friend who is gluten intolerant (along with both her daughters and her grandmother, FYI) so I know a little bit.

Good 2 year old foods would be... any meat, lunch meat (although make sure at the deli counter before you buy it), cheese, yogurt, rice, Rice Chex, corn, corn chips, nuts (if he's eating those yet), fruit, chocolate, ice cream, ...pretty much your basic fresh foods.

If you go to a specialty store of course you'll find a ton of stuff (like Whole Foods) but even most grocery stores around us sell at least a few rice flour pastas, etc. He can also eat corn tortillas which are great for quesadillas, tacos, dipping in salsa or other dips, etc. From what I understand you can subsitute rice flour for regular flour in any recipe and it's fine.

Also, Blue Diamond makes gluten free crackers and they're sold at regular grocery stores in the cracker aisle. They are nut based, so make sure he doesn't have any of those allergies, but they are really good!

Good thinking. It never hurts to try. I have been gluten free for a year now and have cut my kids gluten intake in half, just because mommy does it! Just google gluten free and you come up with thousands of choices. Garden fresh has gluten free bread in the freezer section that's good. Whole Foods have a large selection. Any book store has gluten free cookbooks. Betty Crocker now has 4 box mixes that are gluten free. Good luck to you!

Have you spoken with the pediatrician about your suspicion of a gluten allergy?

I know a physician who believed he had asthma for years (he's in his late 30's) and learned about 2 years ago that it's actually a gluten allergy. He had a tough time accommodating a new diet, but it was medically necessary after extensive allergy testing.

My guess is that there's no harm in going gluten-free, and most grocery stores carry at least some products to make food preparation easier for you.

Good luck - I hope you find a solution to your son's digestive issues soon.