What Do You Feed A Kid For A Gluten Free Trial

[Chako]

My 4 year old is reacting to the following:

corn

dairy (allergy)

soy

peanut and treenut (allergy)

Some other foods like citrus seem to be hit and miss right now but I think they will be ok. We started a multiple elimination diet in January and he has not progressed very far.

So, what on earth can I feed him (in reality do remember that he is 4 years old) when he reacts so much to other foods? I have him on a fairly restricted diet right now but gluten is in it obviously. Yesterday we tried a corn trial again and WOW it is not good. We had to check and make sure he kept his intestines inside. Poor kidbert coughed and exploded. This was after a previous explosion. Corn is not good. Did I say that already?!

Has anyone had a kiddo who is literally reacting to everything out there and managed a gluten free diet trial?

**looking for the help emoticon**

[ravenwoodglass]

My 4 year old is reacting to the following:

corn

dairy (allergy)

soy

peanut and treenut (allergy)

Some other foods like citrus seem to be hit and miss right now but I think they will be ok. We started a multiple elimination diet in January and he has not progressed very far.

So, what on earth can I feed him (in reality do remember that he is 4 years old) when he reacts so much to other foods? I have him on a fairly restricted diet right now but gluten is in it obviously. Yesterday we tried a corn trial again and WOW it is not good. We had to check and make sure he kept his intestines inside. Poor kidbert coughed and exploded. This was after a previous explosion. Corn is not good. Did I say that already?!

Has anyone had a kiddo who is literally reacting to everything out there and managed a gluten free diet trial?

**looking for the help emoticon**

I would try to do with him what I would do with an adult, give him fruit, veggies, unprocessed meats and rice. Delmonte fruits and veggies are all gluten-free, the snack cups are handy and quick but get them with no syrup added. Kinnikinnick makes some excellent gluten-free baked goods, they have a web site although I get the stuff from my health food store. They will have ingredient lists so that you can check for other offending foods other than gluten. This is going to be much easier if the whole house does the diet with him, at least for a while. I know this will be tough at first but it will be worth it in the end. I feel like I am doing this backwards cause I always refer the folks from there here but.... you may also want to check out webMD 's message boards and click on the IBS link under digestive problems, there you will find some lengthy recent postings by a poster called 'Trudy' check out her posts, she has children with multiple food intolerances as well as gluten intolerance and has many good ideas for dealing with multiple food intolerances. I am Kris on that board but I don't go into as much detail or have as much experience with young children dealing with this. I am sure the folks on the parents board here will have some good advice also but another resource can't hurt.

I hope he gets some relief soon.

Kris

[Chako]

Thanks Kris. It is going to be hard to do this due to all his other food intolerances/ allergies. It is also difficult as he gags (and I mean GAGS) on most veggies. It is not a behavioural thing he just retches when eating them. Where he used to eat beans before he now retches and gags until he brings them pretty much back up again. Peas seem ok and we are going to try some cauliflower and broccoli again although last time it was not good. It seems he suffers from texture problems same as my wee one did but at least my wee one is getting over it.

Fruit is like poison to him and I keep trying. Every night he has to try a new food at least a piece of something as he has such a limited diet as it is. He does try but often it does not work. I am looking for supplements again to make sure he is not deficient.

I will go and take a look at that site. It astounds me that a child could be so sensitive to everything.

[Guest nini]

wow... I think I would stick with the more mild fruits and veggies (find the ones he CAN tolerate) like bananas, apples (as in applesauce), pears, peas and potatos... for grains, stick with white rice and brown rice for now. For protein, plaiin meats like baked chicken and pork, lean beef, and fish. My daughter loves tuna fish. There are times when I seem to react to everything, so I find just a few items that I can tolerate and stick with those for a while... yeah not much variety, but my system eventually calms down enough that I can tolerate a wider variety. I've just been able to really reintroduce citrus back into my diet.

My daughter was 3 when I put her on the gluten-free diet and initially I made a lot of her food from scratch. If you are looking for allergen free ready made products, Enjoy Life Foods has some really good cookies and cereal bars and bagels. I had to make chicken nuggets from scratch using instant mashed potato flakes as the coating... Applegate Farms has great gluten-free, allergen free hot dogs, and deli meats... hope this gives you some ideas

[ravenwoodglass]

Thanks Kris. It is going to be hard to do this due to all his other food intolerances/ allergies. It is also difficult as he gags (and I mean GAGS) on most veggies. It is not a behavioural thing he just retches when eating them. Where he used to eat beans before he now retches and gags until he brings them pretty much back up again. Peas seem ok and we are going to try some cauliflower and broccoli again although last time it was not good. It seems he suffers from texture problems same as my wee one did but at least my wee one is getting over it.

Fruit is like poison to him and I keep trying. Every night he has to try a new food at least a piece of something as he has such a limited diet as it is. He does try but often it does not work. I am looking for supplements again to make sure he is not deficient.

I will go and take a look at that site. It astounds me that a child could be so sensitive to everything.

My DS had the gagging problem also, for 3 years about the only food he would eat without doing this was pasta. He is also mildly autistic so I can symptathize with the difficulty you are facing with this. We didn't know about the celiac till he was 19 but when he was small what I would do is puree veggies and mix them in with the meat sauce for the pasta, he never knew it was there. I also used stuff like carrot cake with applesauce instead of shortning, Hid veggies in meatloaf anything I could think of. You could also try making fresh fruit 'sauce' with your fruits, not just apples, a bit of cinnamon added is helpful with nausea also and with the cooking and the cin. they may be more digestable. Another thing that helped with my DS was letting him help cook, I know it seems odd but sometimes kids are more willing to try something if they have a hand in it. Even the littlest guys can usually do something.