Ds Has Been Diagnosed With Celiac.....

[wolfie]

DS had his biopsy last Friday and it came back positive for Celiac. He will be going gluten-free this weekend. Any thoughts on starter foods from those of you with kids close to his age (he is 10). I have been eating gluten-free for 6 months, but he doesn't like a lot of the same stuff that I do. I tend to eat lots of veggies/meats/rice. He is more of a carb boy. He loves his pasta, bread, pizza, chix nuggets, french fries. I do make the Tinkyada pasta with the Kraft Cheese topping and he likes that, so that is 1 thing I can get down him! LOL!! Thanks for any suggestions! The hardest part is my almost 4 year old doesn't have to be gluten-free and is also a little carb monster, so that will be tough. She may end up being gluten free by default if I can get her to eat the gluten-free stuff.

BTW, thanks to all who supported me when I was pushing his Ped to test him. It took me a few months to convince him and now I am glad that I kept on him. The Ped is still finisihing up the Connors Rating scale for ADHD evaluation and should be done next week.

[queenofhearts]

Congratulations on getting your son tested! You have done him a huge favor for life. It's crazy that doctors are so resistant to testing, but thanks to people like you, maybe they will learn eventually that parents do know their own kids!!!

I don't know if you are willing to do some baking, but if you are, Bette Hagman's books are full of delicious treats your son should enjoy. Also Annalise Roberts & Carol Fenster have some great recipes. If your son likes waffles I'd recommend making a bunch of them & freezing the leftovers-- my non gluten-free husband & kids eat my waffles happily-- they can be breakfast, sandwich "bread" or a starchy base for dinner. (I love welsh rabbit on waffles, it's like mac&cheese only moreso.)

Leah

p.s. I'll bet your 4 y-o will come around once you make some delicious treats for your son & say "these are only for gluten-free eaters"

[celiacgirls]

My 10 year old daughter is 2 1/2 months gluten-free. She is a picky eater anyway but does love meat and rice. She will eat the Tinkyada pasta. She went to a celiac camp and ate a pizza on Chebe pizza crust that she liked. We haven't tried it at home, yet. She is also CF so hers would have been one of those. Chick Fil A french fries are gluten-free. She also likes the Gorilla Munch cereal and the peanut butter panda puffs. Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles are gluten-free but I have to limit those. She loves tacos. She will also eat fajitas with a corn tortilla and she used to eat, before she had to be CF, cheese quesodillas with a corn tortilla.

My 8 year old daughter, who has been gluten-free longer, likes the gluten-free Pantry sandwich bread. We all like the cornbread recipe posted here that is made in a cast iron skillet in the oven with cornmeal, egg, sugar, and milk (for us, soymilk).

I also got her some kids gluten-free cookbooks and she likes to look in there for ideas. She made some cornbread last night but it wasn't as good as the other cornbread.

[jerseyangel]

Hi Kim Glad you got a definitive answer for your son. It will be a big adjustment for him, to be sure! It's great, though, that he was diagnosed so young--think of the health problems he will avoid. Good for you--pushing that doctor to test him

[genicol]

Hi. I am faced with a similar problem, but my daughter is only 20 months old! She has been gluten free for 2 weeks now, and I am running out of ideas on what to feed her. I had posted a question earlier, and I got a list of food ideas from someone. If you look through the forum (I think it's on page 2) for my post "food ideas for 20 month old" you can find the list! This was very helpful to me, so I hope it helps you out too! I know that there are many gluten free foods that kids like such as nuggets, fish sticks, etc., but my little one doesn't like these things, but your son might. I hope this helps! Best of luck. Gail

[TCA]

This is a list of foods I put together for my son for people who may keep him. Hope it helps!!!

This list has the brands that we buy, but others are fine as long as you know they are gluten free. ALWAYS double check ingredients since they can change from time to time.

• Delimex Taquitos - double check ingredients

• Oscar Mayer Hot dogs and bologna

• Hormel microwave bacon

• Kraft Cheese – singles, mozzarella, and cheddar

• Mission Corn tortillas

He likes these made into quesadillas and pizzas. To make the pizzas, put one tortilla down, sprinkle lightly with cheese and place a 2nd tortilla on top. Top that tortilla with pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni. I put it in the toaster oven, but the oven is fine. Just cook it until the cheese melts.

• Ragu or Sam’s Choice pasta and pizza sauce

• Hormel Pepperoni

• Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Runts, Laffy Taffy, jolly rancher jelly beans, skittles, starburst

• Reese’s Cups, Hershey’s kisses, Reese’s pieces, M&M’s

• Member’s Mark (Sam’s) Gummies

• Breadless Coating brand Chicken Tenders. They say Gluten Free on the bag. (found at Publix)

• Gluten free biscuits. (Cause You’re so Special is a good Brand)

• Peanut Butter and Jelly

• Gluten free pancakes – Bob’s Red Mill is good from Kroger. Golden Eagle syrup, Real Maple syrup, jelly, and honey are good toppers. Pamela’s brand is excellent!

• Gluten free bread – cinnamon toast is a favorite, grilled cheese, grilled bologna and cheese (Use Bob’s Red Mill, Pamela’s, or Cause You’re Special Homemade bread. Tapioca bread from EnerG -found at Kroger- is ok in a tight, but not nearly as good and has to be toasted to be consumable.)

• Kraft regular and light Mayo

• Heinz Ketchup

• Hunt’s Snack cups – jello and pudding

• Jello brand jello.

• Vann’s gluten free waffles (found at Target, Publix and Health Food stores).

• Amy’s Frozen Rice Crust Cheese Pizza (found at Target and Health food stores).

• Black Forrest Hormel Ham (I buy this at Sam’s). If getting deli meats cut, make sure they clean the slicer first since gluten meats and cheeses may have been cut on it.

• Frito Lay chips – fritos, stax, cheetos, ruffles, plain

• UTZ potato chips

• Popcorn – I usually pop the real stuff. I need to check on Microwave types.

• Ore Ida French fries (most) and tater tots(all) – check ingredients

• Gluten free cornbread – make sure the mix does not contain flour (most do). Don’t cook it in a cast iron skillet where gluten breads have been cooked. The porous material holds gluten.

• Fruit – he loves grapes, apples (especially with peanut butter), bananas, oranges

• Real butter, country crock - a lot are ok, but be careful! Cross contamination is a big issue.

• Pillsbury or Betty Crocker Icing – cream cheese is his favorite

• Veggies are good, but good luck getting him to eat them! ; )

• Crystal Light – orange is his favorite

• Coke and Pepsi brand soft drinks are gluten-free, but I don’t give him many.

• Popsicles – Popsicle brand and Kool Aid brand are good. There are MANY others.

• Raisins

• gluten-free cupcakes – Cause You’re Special Brand is good.

• Chebe mix and Kinnikinnik frozen pizza crusts and white sandwich bread are good. So are Enjoy Life Snickerdoodles.

[wolfie]

Wow....thanks for all of the great ideas!!! I really appreciate it. We spent some time yesterday making up things he would be willing to eat for each meal. We are going shopping on Sunday and he meets with the dietician on Monday. I have a couple of Bette Hagman's cookbooks, I will check out the others, too.

Question.....I have a Con-Agra gluten-free list from Nov 2005 that lists their gluten-free products. The Hunts Snack Pack Pudding that is listed is chocolate. Are they all gluten-free? I know that Con-Agra is one of those companies that is supposed to label all gluten, but why do they have this list that doesn't list some of these products that don't appear to have gluten in them? I have run across this several times now with CA.

[Cheri A]

I found that when we first went gluten free, that she needed to give up bread for awhile to "forget" what it tasted like. Now it's no problem, though I have to bake it once/twice a week cuz the store brands don't work for us. So for that interim, she did like Carol Fenster's banana bread at www.savorypalate.com I made a lot of that!!

We mainly had fresh veggies, meat and salads.

I hope that when he sees how much better he feels, that it will help motivate him to stay on the diet!

[Sarah8793]

TCA,

This is an awesome list! My kids aren't gluten free Yet but I am saving your list just in case!

Thank you so much.

Sarah

DS had his biopsy last Friday and it came back positive for Celiac. He will be going gluten-free this weekend. Any thoughts on starter foods from those of you with kids close to his age (he is 10). I have been eating gluten-free for 6 months, but he doesn't like a lot of the same stuff that I do. I tend to eat lots of veggies/meats/rice. He is more of a carb boy. He loves his pasta, bread, pizza, chix nuggets, french fries. I do make the Tinkyada pasta with the Kraft Cheese topping and he likes that, so that is 1 thing I can get down him! LOL!! Thanks for any suggestions! The hardest part is my almost 4 year old doesn't have to be gluten-free and is also a little carb monster, so that will be tough. She may end up being gluten free by default if I can get her to eat the gluten-free stuff.

BTW, thanks to all who supported me when I was pushing his Ped to test him. It took me a few months to convince him and now I am glad that I kept on him. The Ped is still finisihing up the Connors Rating scale for ADHD evaluation and should be done next week.

I am considering having my 7 year old son screened right now since I found out I have the 2 celiac genes. I was wondering what symptoms your son had? I see you had him tested for ADHD. My son is just beginning to show some sign of ADD/ADHD.

Sarah

[TCA]

Wow....thanks for all of the great ideas!!! I really appreciate it. We spent some time yesterday making up things he would be willing to eat for each meal. We are going shopping on Sunday and he meets with the dietician on Monday. I have a couple of Bette Hagman's cookbooks, I will check out the others, too.

Question.....I have a Con-Agra gluten-free list from Nov 2005 that lists their gluten-free products. The Hunts Snack Pack Pudding that is listed is chocolate. Are they all gluten-free? I know that Con-Agra is one of those companies that is supposed to label all gluten, but why do they have this list that doesn't list some of these products that don't appear to have gluten in them? I have run across this several times now with CA.

I called the 1-800 # in the spring and they said they're all gluten-free.???? I always read the labels and haven't seen anything. My son won't eat the pudding, but loves the jello packs. I need to get the CA list, though. Don't have that one!

[rinne]

Thanks for the list TCA. I forwarded it to my sister with two kids who have gluten issues. I think she will find it very helpful.

[wolfie]

I am considering having my 7 year old son screened right now since I found out I have the 2 celiac genes. I was wondering what symptoms your son had? I see you had him tested for ADHD. My son is just beginning to show some sign of ADD/ADHD.

Sarah

He has had some vaque symptoms over the years......constipation when he was younger and still does occasionally. He has anxiety issues. He has stomach pain 3-5 times per week. He does have symptoms that go along with ADHD and that is why he is being evaluated. He has a lot of the characteristics of the inattentive and impulsive parts of ADHD. His grades have tanked this year as school is getting harder. He is going into 5th grade now. If it requires any amount of effort, he has no interest. He is very lucky that he is smart and has cruised through the early years of school. Since his dr was evaluating him for ADHD I did the final push to run the Celiac screening. I haven't gotten the results yet, but if he is diagnosed, I want him to give the gluten-free diet a good year before I would even consider meds.

I have to run, but if you have more questions, please feel free to IM me or post here.

[Sarah8793]

He has had some vaque symptoms over the years......constipation when he was younger and still does occasionally. He has anxiety issues. He has stomach pain 3-5 times per week. He does have symptoms that go along with ADHD and that is why he is being evaluated. He has a lot of the characteristics of the inattentive and impulsive parts of ADHD. His grades have tanked this year as school is getting harder. He is going into 5th grade now. If it requires any amount of effort, he has no interest. He is very lucky that he is smart and has cruised through the early years of school. Since his dr was evaluating him for ADHD I did the final push to run the Celiac screening. I haven't gotten the results yet, but if he is diagnosed, I want him to give the gluten-free diet a good year before I would even consider meds.

I have to run, but if you have more questions, please feel free to IM me or post here.

Thanks, sounds a little bit like my son. I think your idea to give gluten free a try before meds is excellent. Your son is very lucky to have a knowledgable mom.

Sarah

[wolfie]

Thanks, sounds a little bit like my son. I think your idea to give gluten free a try before meds is excellent. Your son is very lucky to have a knowledgable mom.

Sarah

Thank you Sarah Keep us updated on your son.