What To Feed An Infant With celiac disease?

[lipreader]

We found out tonight that our 13-month-old has celiac disease. Our 4 yo daughter was diagnosed at 3 1/2. Obviously, our son - who only has two small teeth - is eating very different foods than she was at the time of her diagnosis. He lives on his Puffs, Gerber Graduates, graham cracker sticks, veggie crackers - you name it. I'm also feeling frustrated because I can't give him easy microwaveable meals like the Gerber Graduates anymore (not that they were healthy to begin with, but...). Does anyone have any suggestions for food alternatives? Also, what do you know about Gerber products like the Garden Mashers? Are they safe?

Thanks,

Lisa

Pittsburgh, PA

[flagbabyds]

I would suggest Earth's Best Whole Grain Rice Cereal, I ate it this summer on liquid diet and it is quite tasty. It has a really good source of IRon, and also Perky-O's for dry cereal, both bery good cereals.

[penguin]

My mom just ran whatever the rest of the family was eating through the cuisinart and fed it to us.

He can still have things like vienna sausages, and there is a site for gluten free biscotti you might try. They could work for him like holland rusks.

There are also veggie chips out there that are air puffed veggies.

[gf4life]

There are a fair number of Gerber baby foods that are gluten-free. I know some of the toddler ones were also, obviously not the ones with noodles. But there are things you can still give him. Are you against baking your own teething biscuits? Because there are gluten-free recipes for those. You could probably bake them in bulk and not have to do it as often...

My kids were older when we started the diet (4, 7, and 9), but we have had to do two kids on soft food diets for their tonsils being taken out and I gave them some fruit, veggies and "meals" of Gerber baby foods. They liked the little turkey sticks.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I didn't give my kids crackers or much jarred baby food, either (and I've only had DH/celiac problems for about 6 weeks, so didn't even know about celiac when they were little).

I gave my babies rice cereal or oatmeal mixed with breast milk, salmon, ripe avocado, mashed sweet potatoes, canned apricots, pears, peaches, etc. cut into tiny non-chokable pieces.

When they got a little older, I pureed chicken with a little chicken broth, carrots, onions and garlic. I also made hummous.

Most of the other moms thought I was nuts, but I thought I was just giving them nutritious foods.

One thing that may not have ben so good was that I also gave them stone-ground whole wheat bread spread with unsalted butter and cut in little squares. I also gave them cheerios when they were around 2.Oh, well.....

Dang, all this talk of food is making me hungry...

[Guest nini]

it's really easy to make gluten-free teething biscuits out of rice cereal... I can't remember the recipe but I'm sure you can find one on the web...

Also, when my daughter was a baby, before I even knew about celiac, I made all of her food... I just cooked fresh veggies and even fruits like peaches and apples and then froze the batches in ice cube trays. You could do this with any gluten free recipe, make a large batch, make sure it's soft enough for him and freeze in individual portions. If ice cube trays are too small (you can use more than one cube per serving and they store easy in freezer bags) Glad makes those little individual size serving cups. I still do this with leftovers, fill up the glad containers, freeze them, then I have a quick meal for the kid when she's hungry. Things that work better are Tinkyada pastas with lots of sauce, Rice with different mixed veggies, tuna or chicken and a gluten-free creamy mushroom soup mixed in, and things that don't work so well are anything with corn pasta (blech)

PM me if you want more ideas...

[mrsnj91]

Oh a mom with a baby our age!! I am new to this too and have no idea!!! Totally at a loss myself! My DD is 12 months. In our case she wasn't eating much on table foods. I sometimes think it had a lot to do with her diet as the only thing she would pick up was the exact items you mentioned. Otherwise, she didn't eat unless I fed her and then not a lot. Now....she is picking up on the eating more. I am so happy. Since she is not a big eater and trying to find itmes that are gluten free in toddler foods I stuck with the stage twos. I was lucky before this diet if she completed a full jar in one day now she is eating two at each sitting. I would like to switch to the toddler foods for texture but there is so little out there without pasta. So what I do is I feed a veggie/meat and a fruit in stage twos and then offer something for her to pick up like fruit, cheese, veggies or gluten free items. Sometimes what I am eating at dinner, etc.

Here is some things we have been eating (mixed in with cheese, veggies and fruits) ....

*French fries, baked pot and mashed

*Stage twos (gluten free-no pastas, barley, etc).

*Gerber Wagon Wheels

*Mi-Del Arrowroot Cookies

*Enjoylife soft backed Snickerdoodles and Choco. Chip cookies

*Almond Nut thins (these are almost like a chip texture)

*Quacker Quakes Rice Snacks (apple and Chedder)

*Gerber Graduates Mini Fruits/Veggies

*EnerG Pretzels (which everyone loves here in our house)

*Gultino Crackers (like a ritz almost-good)

*The Gluten-Free Pantry Brown Rice Pancake/Waffle mix (very good)

*The Gluten-Free Pantry Fav. Sandwich Bread mix-made into cinn. bread (very good)

*The Gluten-Free Pantry Yankee Cornbread made into muffins

*Tried millet bread which is good for toasting and grilled cheese sandwiches

*Tried EnerG Tapioca bread but am not sure I like

*Envirokids-Natures Path Animal Cookies/vanilla

*Orgran Natural Rice and corn veggie pasta in animal shapes.

*Glutino Breakfast Bars-apple (not sure if she likes these yet)

This is Delaneys diet roughly. You can do meats and rice, etc. She just isn't into that right now. One step at a time! She seems to really like most on the list. Just double check the ingredients when you buy cause I have made a few mistakes along the way!! And Delaney isn't as bad as some on here. Like some can't eat things that are not made in a dedicated plant. She seems to have no trouble right now. So if you need to check with that, you would have to contact Gerber, etc and see. The most on that list though are from Gluten Free Co.

I about cried when I started this. Now it is coming a little easier. I still haven't strayed from already made items or mixes but I guess it will come. Good luck!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I forgot to mention tofu (if there is no soy allergy)--very easy to digest, non chokable, and you can make it taste like whatever you want. I cut it into cubes and stir fry it with ginger, garlic, onions and serve it on rice, sprinkled with soy sauce (look for gluten-free, of course), sesame oil, an the tiniest pinch of sugar.

If I don't have time to cook it with onions, I sprinkle it with chopped green ones at the end, but that's for me--the little kids don't usually like the green onions.

I'm getting hungry again.

[Smunkeemom]

My youngest was diagnosed at 12 months, she could eat a lot of the jarred Gerber baby foods, she enjoyed rice cereal, and Mi-Del animal crackers. Also she ate mashed potatoes, apple sauce, yogurt, and bananas.

Amy's makes some really good gluten free microwave mac and cheese.