New Here

[cymrudenver]

Hello All,

I'm a newbie diagnosed via labs as a Celiac last week, I will be having my EGD tomorrow. I had my kids tested and my daughter Bryony (11yrs) came back positive today. My son garin (4yrs) was negative 18 mths ago on blood & biopsy but is allergic to corn. My daughter Lowri (22mths) came back negative for celiac disease - for now anyway!!

I'm worried about sending Bryony back to school, what to pack for lunch, how to halp her cope with going to outdoor lab for a week in September. She's a pretty good label reader, thanks to her brothers allergies.

I'm thinking my best bet is to cook every meal twice, one gluten free the other corn free since many of the gluten free pasta's etc seem to use corn as a replacement.

We have all been eating corn free since my son was diagnosed, but I think for us all to eat gluten & corn free is a little unrealistic.

I'll be heading out to get my new toaster, cutting boards, can opener etc this week.

I'd love to hear your success stories, I know we can do this, it's just figuring out how we will do this

[psawyer]

Welcome aboard.

Just for openers, there are plenty of gluten-free pasta items that are made from rice, and are thus corn-free.

[ShayFL]

I dont eat gluten or corn. And I have plenty to eat. I make one dinner. Everyone eats it or they can "fend for themselves".

You dont have to make it complicated. Try Tinkyada pasta. gluten-free and CF.

[cymrudenver]

I dont eat gluten or corn. And I have plenty to eat. I make one dinner. Everyone eats it or they can "fend for themselves".

You dont have to make it complicated. Try Tinkyada pasta. gluten-free and CF.

Thanks I'll start looking for those products.

[missy'smom]

School lunches are very do-able. You'll need a lunchbox or bag, ice packs, thermos or plastic containers and kid friendly silverware. Then you decide how much you want to cook and how much you want to use pre-packaged products. You can click on my profile to see a link to photos of what we do for lunches. Feel free to ask about recipes or products, either with a comment on the photo, a post here or PM. I cook and send a combination of asian and western foods with alot of rice. If you want to cook, you can make and freeze main dishes and warm up individual portions for that day's lunch, add some rice or pasta, veg and fruit. It doesn't have to take alot of time, just a little planning and preparing batches of things from time to time. I make a batch of a different main dish maybe once every two weeks. Many of the main dishes are things that we've eaten as dinner dishes for years. An automatic rice cooker makes having fresh rice in the morning easy. If you don't want to cook, there are many regular products like applesauce, fruit cups, puddings, cheeses, fruit leather, rice crackers(not all are gluten-free), deli ham or turkey and the like that you can use.

[CeliacMom2008]

Well you're already off to a great start. Your attitude is terrific!

My son is definitely a success story. He has done so well with the changes. He has so much more energy. He no longer has to take naps regularly and he loves staying up "late" vs. the old 7-7:30 (he just turned 9). His mood swings have disappeared. His intestines are normal. He's growing. The dark circles are gone from his eyes. AND WE DIDN'T THINK HE WAS SICK!!

Lunches are a challenge. I was excited summer was here and he could have microwave or oven or stove prepared meals! But they are definitely doable. He likes PB&J, Hormel turkey slices and cheese, fried rice (I usually use leftovers from dinner), leftover stroganoff, leftover fettucine alfredo, cold shrimp, hard boiled eggs, string cheese, nuts, fruit, veggies, Lays Stax chips, Gluten Free Sensations cookies (it's a mix), rice crispie treats, and trail mix. He was an eating machine the first 6 weeks or so, so lunches were really tough. I had to pack his lunchbox as full as I could get it. My mom and I (OK, mostly my mom) would take turns either taking a hot lunch up to him or bringing him home for lunch. We did that a couple times a week during that eating phase, then tapered it off to weekly or so toward the end of school. He really likes the special treatment.

When school starts, I would suggest meeting with her teacher(s) and explaining things thoroughly and providing a "treat bag" to use whenever necessary for each teacher. I was shocked at how much my son was getting at school that he never mentioned. Bubblegum math, jolly ranchers for turning in study guides, smarties for perfect spelling, etc. Everything he was getting happened to be gluten-free, but I didn't know it was even going on until he was diagnosed. So his treat bag had quite the variety of stuff. Everything to cover birthday treats to classroom rewards. His teacher knew to check EVERYTHING with me. Speaking of birthdays, if 11 year olds still do birthday treats, I'd recommend getting a class list of birthdays. That way you can send something in on those days. I keep cookie dough and slices of cake frozen for these occassions.

As far as multiple meals, I think you can probably do most meals as a single meal. Especially if you stick with the meats, veggies, rice, potatoes, fruit. I was surprised how many of my regular meals didn't need to be changed at all and how many more just needed little changes (like gluten-free bread crumbs instead of crackers in my meatloaf). Try to make your life as simple as possible - at least at first. It's going to be challenging enough! But if you've mastered life without corn you're already way ahead of where I was!

Good luck and welcome!!

[Amyleigh0007]

I don't think it's necessry to cook two dinners. That is waaay too much work for you. Tinkyada pasta is the best (in my family's opinion) and it's made from rice. We eat a lot of cheeseburgers (bunless) with Ore-Ida fast food fries and BBQ chicken with salad . Tonight we had pork steaks and sweet potatoes. I am not a great cook by a long shot and my son is very picky but I don't have trouble finding dinner ideas. There are many, many corn free, gluten free options. My son is also allergic to corn so we stay away from it as much as possible (his GI told us we did not have to eliminate it completely yet - but we may have to in the near future if the hives in his esophagus haven't gone away by his next scope which is next week).

My 8-year-old son is a gluten free success story. He was 43 pounds when he was dx with Celiac in March. He was small and weak and ill all the time, always catching colds and the colds turned into ear infections. He had terrible leg cramps at night. Now, almost 4 months into his new gluten free life, he is 50 pounds and very healthy. He bounces off the walls with energy. He plays baseball and is considered one of the best on the team. He hasn't had a leg cramp since going gluten free (except after a cross contamination issue after eating at a Pasta House). He hasn't been sick since going gluten free either.

Our house is gluten free with the exception of my lunches during the school year. I bring my lunch to school (I'm a teacher with summers off), usually a frozen meal, so I'm not worried about cross contamination issues. Our breakfasts and dinners are gluten free. My husband eats his lunches out so that's not an issue either. We have not given our 10-month-old daughter anything that contains gluten. She has only had gluten free food. It's just easier if the whole family is gluten free (for us, anyway).

My son loves string cheese, Hormel Natural Choices turkey, and Glutino crackers in school lunches. I sometimes do a small thermos with mac and cheese, dinner left over from the night before, or hot dogs. He also likes apple slices or baby carrots. He gets bite sized Hershey bars for a treat.

I keep a bin of gluten free treats in my classroom in the event of surprise classroom birthday treats or food rewards. His teachers know that he can come to my room anytime to get something. I also typed up a description of Celiac Disease, what it does to Haydon when he consumes gluten, and what the school can do to ensure that Haydon does not consume gluten. I gave this to every staff person at our school to ensure everyone is aware that this is serious and it's not to be taken lightly. Most people have not heard of Celiac Disease (we live in a small town) so it helped to have something to educate them.

[ShayFL]

My daughter is 12 and will make her own breakfasts and lunches often. She loves Amy's gluten-free mac and cheese with little sliced pieces of hot dog. She also loves making her own sushi with the little kits. She opens a can of salmon or tiny shrimp and put them in the nori roll with rice and avacado, carrot........It can be fun for kids too to learn how to make things for themselves. And it takes some pressure off of you too.