[ljb]

Looking for any and all gluten-free recipes that will entice a very picky, rapidly thinning two-year old boy. It is hard to say what he actually likes, it has been 3 months since he has eaten much at all. But at one point he liked the typically toddler staples: chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, pastas, fish sticks, cereal.... NONE of which he can eat, now. - At least not in the traditional sense.

This is all very new to us, so the simpler the better. We have yet to speak to the nutritionist, so I am just trying to prepare now.

The Internet is full of ideas, but I want some tried and true winners!

[ljb]

<< Maybe this needs to be moved to Recipe Exchange. If appropriate, please move there. Thanks>>

[AussieD]

You can simply substitute rice pasta for normal pasta and rice crumbs instead of breadcrumbs for coating chicken, fish etc, which is what I do. Our diet hasn't changed a lot since we went gluten free several years ago. Recipes, goodness it's a common joke in our household I'm incapable of following them as I make them up in my head as I go along. Valorie might have some ideas. And here are two sites where people have sent in or tried recipes.
www.Gluten-Free-Online.com
members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/
Hope it helps.I knowhow hard it is a first. It gets easier after time.

[ljb]

Originally Posted by AussieD

You can simply substitute rice pasta for normal pasta and rice crumbs instead of breadcrumbs for coating chicken, fish etc, which is what I do. Our diet hasn't changed a lot since we went gluten free several years ago. Recipes, goodness it's a common joke in our household I'm incapable of following them as I make them up in my head as I go along. Valorie might have some ideas. And here are two sites where people have sent in or tried recipes.
www.Gluten-Free-Online.com
members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/
Hope it helps.I knowhow hard it is a first. It gets easier after time.

Thank you! I will definitely check out the sites.
It is going to be a complete change in lifestyle for us. DS doesn't even know what is going on - he's too young to realize the affect this will have on his life going forward. Eating out, school lunches, birthday parties, cookouts. We are going to have to bring his own food where ever we go. Need ideas for easy travel items as well as sit down dinners.

Also, we entertain a lot. I need ideas that won't discourage those who don't need a special diet.
Thanks for the idea of rice crumbs and rice pasta. The rice crumbs will come in handy for coating chicken for DS.

I also found a great idea for green bean casserole - which is a holiday favorite around here. Progresso's Mushroom soup is gluten free and you can use Frito Lay Funyuns for the onions. I can't wait to try it!

Thanks again! I really do appreciate the response.

[AussieD]

I agree the eating out one is hard and I used to have to take mine wherever we went and eating at a restaurant was completely out. But these day I have friends who are aware and cater to me and more restaurants are aware of the problem too plus I have learned what i can have and what I can't. Of course it's always harder with little ones who don't understand. Just one thing to be careful of, a lot of products have glucose syrup in them and most is made from wheat although some is made from corn. You learn to read labels really carefully. When I first started it used to take hours to do the shopping. Not so now. Just one tip, for pizza bases since I'm too lazy to make my own, I use corn tortillas. They work well.

[ljb]

Originally Posted by AussieD

I agree the eating out one is hard and I used to have to take mine wherever we went and eating at a restaurant was completely out. But these day I have friends who are aware and cater to me and more restaurants are aware of the problem too plus I have learned what i can have and what I can't. Of course it's always harder with little ones who don't understand. Just one thing to be careful of, a lot of products have glucose syrup in them and most is made from wheat although some is made from corn. You learn to read labels really carefully. When I first started it used to take hours to do the shopping. Not so now. Just one tip, for pizza bases since I'm too lazy to make my own, I use corn tortillas. They work well.

Thanks for the tip about glucose syrup - I haven't read anything about that. So, I might have missed it without your post! Is there a way to tell if it is made from corn or wheat? Or do I need to contact the manufacturer on something like that?
... Corn Tortillas! Great idea! Thanks you!

How long have you been on a gluten free diet? I expect shopping to be very difficult at first. I am hoping that I start to get the hang of shopping and cooking really quickly. I barely have the time to do the shopping now. But for DS, I will make as much time as we need to ensure he is as healthy as possible. It will certainly stretch cooking times, too.

[AussieD]

In Australia products have to be labelled with a list of ingredients. So it should say glucose syrop (derived from wheat) or made from corn. Something like that. It's ofetn in icecream, lots of sweets as well as sauces and canned and bottled goods of all types. If it doesn't say I'd assume it's made from wheat as that is most common, though you could contact manufacturers. I was amazed when I first started reading labels where wheat and gluten cropped up.
I have probably been on it about four years. The few years before that I was in so much pain I could barely function so it was a relief to discover the cause and be able to do something about it.

[ljb]

Thanks for the info.

Yes, it is amazing where gluten pops up. I have been reading, researching, contacting manufacturers, and praying... and am still very overwhelmed and confused! I need to learn to take baby steps.

When you went gluten-free, did you have withdrawls symptoms? Did it get worse before it got better?

Right now, DS won't eat much of anything, gluten-free or not. I really worry about his overall health.

I know this isn't the place for this discussion, but sometimes talking to someone who knows is really helpful.

[AussieD]

No, nothing like that. I just started to gradually feel bettter and ended up pain free and that felt so good. If you do eat something that doesn't agree with the body it can take up to five days to show up in the body's system and bring on the pain which is often what confuses the issue and makes it hard to track down which food is the problem. On doctor's orders I kept a rigid food diary for proably twelve months which recorded everything I put in my mouth including any tablets like paracetemol etc before I finally tracked down everything I could or couldn't eat. eg Most commercial potato chips have gluten escpcailly the flavoured ones but Smiths plain salted chips are ago. That's what I mean about having to read carefully and certain products will have gluten in one flavor of an item but not in another. And although the food diary itself was time consuming it was well worth it. Now, its almost hard to remember back to those dreadful days when it used to take me hours to shop and I didn't know I how I was going to cope.