Practicality of Gluten free diet with 2 employed fulltime parents...

June 5, 2004

Ok, it has been suggested that we try our 2.9 year old son, Aidan,

on a Gluten-free diet (by his OT) just to see if there is an

increase in his tolerance and flexibility, etc.. I have avoided it

because I cannot imagine adding the extra work into our daily

routine. Both my husband and I work full-time, he usually works

until about 9:00 in the evening - which means it is my

responsibility to pick the kids up at the end of the day, get them

fed, bathed, homework done, and down to sleep. I am worn out (along

with being 8 months pregnant!) and have had great difficulty

thinking about adding more 'home cooking' and meals which require a

bunch of prep to the mix.

How has everyone done it? Any suggestions? Are there enough kids

on this diet that stores are stocking GFCF things on their shelves?

I've also heard that it may take a month or so to see the results

(this has been disheartening because we could try anything for a

week or two). What have been your experiences?? I want to do what

we can but I also need to be available, emotionally..........

~Tracey in WI

June 5, 2004

Hi,

perhaps given the 8 months pregnancy, it may give youthe little bit

of time to see if it may work. I have 4 kids, and I work too, not

full time, but it just takes a bit of planning, it took me a week or

two to find the foods that he would eat. There are some regular

supermarket items, that are gf/cf. Breakfast seems to be my hardest

meal to concoct. But there are a few breakfast suasages that fit the

bill, one is found in regular supermarket, ' breakfast sausage.

And if you aren't soy free also, Vances makes a toaster waffle, use

pure maple syrup, the one that is about $8.00 a bottle, it has no

corn syrup in it.We haven't used it cause it has soy, and on our no-

no list right now.there are a few cereals, available, but we have had

a hard time getting them down my son, he didn't care too much for

them, but I have a box of what looks like rice crispies and plan on

trying them when I get my " fake milk delivered via UPS this

week.Lunch is easier, especially if your child is at home, Applegate

makes a nitrate preservative free hot dog, they also make a bacon

that is safe.I got mine at Trader Joes, Whole food market I think

they are nearly all over the US now, has a ton of gf/cf stuff, but be

forewarned, you will spend time reading labels.We ordered a gf/cf

pancake mix that was really simple to make, and all my kids actually

ate them. I did try baking cupcakes, but a flop, so I will stick to

the known prepackaged stuff for now. Dinner is quite simple, if you

eat basic meat vegetable and potato, any meats are alllowed except

processed stuff, we get Italian sausages from a local butcher, that

swore nothing is in them but fennel salt and pepper, so you can get

gf/cf sauce, and their are gf/cf pastas, but we haven't ried them ,

as my son isn't a lover of pasta. Boars Head deli meats like chicken

roast beef turkey are all preservative free, and taste good, son eats

them every day in lunch box. Lutz potato chips are a godsend, regular

p.chips, but no trans fats and gf/cf. Hope this gives you some

insight, it isn't all that bad, all fruits are allowed, my doc told

us no citrus, as it can be an offender to some kids.all vegetables

except canned cause they may contain gluten? Or you caould wait a

little bit till you have your baby and just watch his behavior after

certain foods, and after you watch for a awhile you may see a pattern

I know I did, and couldn't believe it was right in front of me. Hope

this helps.

> Ok, it has been suggested that we try our 2.9 year old son, Aidan,

> on a Gluten-free diet (by his OT) just to see if there is an

> increase in his tolerance and flexibility, etc.. I have avoided it

> because I cannot imagine adding the extra work into our daily

> routine. Both my husband and I work full-time, he usually works

> until about 9:00 in the evening - which means it is my

> responsibility to pick the kids up at the end of the day, get them

> fed, bathed, homework done, and down to sleep. I am worn out

(along

> with being 8 months pregnant!) and have had great difficulty

> thinking about adding more 'home cooking' and meals which require a

> bunch of prep to the mix.

>

> How has everyone done it? Any suggestions? Are there enough kids

> on this diet that stores are stocking GFCF things on their

shelves?

> I've also heard that it may take a month or so to see the results

> (this has been disheartening because we could try anything for a

> week or two). What have been your experiences?? I want to do what

> we can but I also need to be available, emotionally..........

>

> ~Tracey in WI

June 5, 2004

Thank you, to both you and Lori for some ideas. I have to admit

that I am worried about the expense but after reading your posts my

largest concern is the amount of meat that they supposedly can eat.

My son will barely touch meat. He JUST recently began allowing some

hamburger in his spagetti and aside from his chicken nuggets and

fish sticks, that is it. He won't touch sausage, bacon, hotdogs,

etc.. Did either of you have this issue prior to introducing the

diet? Obviously if he is only being fed certain things and is

extremely hungry he may venture into the meat world a bit more, but

currently he is nowhere near a 'meat and potato' little guy. His

staples are decent cereal, yogurt, fruit, peppers, cottage cheese,

popcorn, cheese, some mac and cheese along with the nuggets and fish

sticks mentioned above.

~Tracey

> Hi,

>

> perhaps given the 8 months pregnancy, it may give youthe little

bit

> of time to see if it may work. I have 4 kids, and I work too, not

> full time, but it just takes a bit of planning, it took me a week

or

> two to find the foods that he would eat. There are some regular

> supermarket items, that are gf/cf. Breakfast seems to be my

hardest

> meal to concoct. But there are a few breakfast suasages that fit

the

> bill, one is found in regular supermarket, ' breakfast

sausage.

> And if you aren't soy free also, Vances makes a toaster waffle,

use

> pure maple syrup, the one that is about $8.00 a bottle, it has no

> corn syrup in it.We haven't used it cause it has soy, and on our

no-

> no list right now.there are a few cereals, available, but we have

had

> a hard time getting them down my son, he didn't care too much for

> them, but I have a box of what looks like rice crispies and plan

on

> trying them when I get my " fake milk delivered via UPS this

> week.Lunch is easier, especially if your child is at home,

Applegate

> makes a nitrate preservative free hot dog, they also make a bacon

> that is safe.I got mine at Trader Joes, Whole food market I think

> they are nearly all over the US now, has a ton of gf/cf stuff, but

be

> forewarned, you will spend time reading labels.We ordered a gf/cf

> pancake mix that was really simple to make, and all my kids

actually

> ate them. I did try baking cupcakes, but a flop, so I will stick

to

> the known prepackaged stuff for now. Dinner is quite simple, if

you

> eat basic meat vegetable and potato, any meats are alllowed except

> processed stuff, we get Italian sausages from a local butcher,

that

> swore nothing is in them but fennel salt and pepper, so you can

get

> gf/cf sauce, and their are gf/cf pastas, but we haven't ried

them ,

> as my son isn't a lover of pasta. Boars Head deli meats like

chicken

> roast beef turkey are all preservative free, and taste good, son

eats

> them every day in lunch box. Lutz potato chips are a godsend,

regular

> p.chips, but no trans fats and gf/cf. Hope this gives you some

> insight, it isn't all that bad, all fruits are allowed, my doc

told

> us no citrus, as it can be an offender to some kids.all vegetables

> except canned cause they may contain gluten? Or you caould wait a

> little bit till you have your baby and just watch his behavior

after

> certain foods, and after you watch for a awhile you may see a

pattern

> I know I did, and couldn't believe it was right in front of me.

Hope

> this helps.

June 6, 2004

This is Doreen is DC. I have been feeding my son on a GF/WF/DF diet for about 2

years. I started out with the " Incredible Edible Gluten Free Foods for Kids " .

Excellent book but a lot of work for your scheduled except the 15 minutes meals.

As I continue to try and make it easy, I got help from a vegetarian bakery. For

pancakes, muffins and etc, I use the FEARN RICE Baking Mix ($1.99 a box). Since

my son is lactose tolerant, I replace my eggs with BANANAS, I use the SOY MILK

or Almond MILK as MILK replacements or just make my own sometimes from the

almonds. I cook on SUNDAYS for the whole week otherwise I might look like MR.

MOM is the kitchen. I make about 12 pancakes, 12 muffins and freeze what I

don't use for the week. I use the maple syrup ($8.00) is correct to replace

HONEY so on his pancakes I only add a teaspoon after warming. The Gluten Free

Pantry has a lot of pre-prepared doughs ready to cook. I buy all vegetables and

fruits from FARMERS MARKETS (less monies than

Whole Foods) and make my juices for the weeks. Once you get a system that

works in your schedule it becomes easy. His lunch is catered (SCHOOL PAYS-

included in IEP) by my local vegan/vegetarian chef here in DC. But sometimes I

do send EVERYTHING to school from BREAKFAST, SNACK, LUNCH and SNACK. For your

meats try BOCA products and it must say VEGAN. Morning Star products are good

but I think somethings have wheat it just depends. VANS make fruit and plain

waffles and pancakes. I could give you some websites to check also if you need

it but don't want to overwhelm you. Just start off slow and it will build.

Brown Rice Krispies Cereal is good but how about some Quinoa flakes. You should

also try ordered your items off the internet and in bulk it makes it easy too.

deverelementary <kearneysix@...> wrote:Hi,