This is an offshoot of the mom who had a question about hyperactivity and several mom's answered with trying out a gluten free diet. I am very open to trying but my daughter is VERY picky about food! Can anyone give me suggestions for how to approach a gluten free diet with a picky child?
THANK YOU!
There are a ton of products out there that are gluten free. Start replacing these items and don't say anything. Kids sometimes are so reluctant to try anything new. I slip the gluten free noodles in all the time when we have spaghetti and meat sauce...they don't even comment. In addition to the gluten free limit the refined sugars/high fructose corn syrup...those are major culprits for hyperactivity
Replace the products that she currently eats with Gluten free ones.. But if you are looking to reduce Hyperactivity, also look at the Dyes in food.. and chocolate. My son can not have Dyes or chocolate or trust me you do not want to be around him. We had to take fruit snacks away from him which was the hardest. lots of foods that did not contain Gluten are still going to be in her diet.. Meat is typically fine, fruit and veggies.. it is the grains that have it.
Good luck
when we started it was pretty hard, but kids really do get used to what is available to them. You have to just stop buying anything with gluten in it, and buy things from whole foods or trader joes (or wherever) that is gluten free. I don't know what your daughter is picky about... but i mean you can get gluten free corn tortillas, Udis bread is good, The most affordable GF cerial is the new Gluten free rice crispies (make sure it says Gluten free on the front, the others have malt, which is made of barley and is gluten.)You have to make more things from scratch.. its a lot of work, but was so worth it for my daughter. Good luck
They are more expensive than normal foods, the whole food stores usually carry gluten free bread, gluten free rice crispies and other cereals, oats, gluten free rice, etc. You might on your next ped visit ask the doctor to check/test for food allergies/sensitivity. Even though she might not be allergic, she might still have bad reactions to some foods.
Then you will know for sure what to cut out of her diet, be it sugar or dairy or gluten.
Good luck!
http://lynnskitchenadventures.com/lra/ has great recipes
You might also check out the silly yacks groups on yahoo http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/SillyYaks/
