Newly Diagnosed 8 Year Old Help!

[cancan]

I'm trying to figure all this out. Ugh.. Not that it's a bad thing b/c I'd rather have this than other things. I'm just trying to figure out food.. Or I should say breakfast. Nate's not a big breakfast eater. Normally it's poptarts/glazed donuts..Sometimes waffles.. He's not a big cereal eater.. Anyone have any hints, ideas? Help!!! We just found out last night about Nate having celiac disease so it's really a new thing for me that I'm trying to process. So any help would be wonderful...

Candy

[dilettantesteph]

Would you believe my son has tortilla chips for breakfast? Good luck with figuring this all out. It can be very challenging.

[mstroud]

Hello! My 8 year old son was diagnoses in May '08 and I still feel like we're trying to figure out the food out! I remember reading on this site that you can't expect to figure it out over night ... it's a huge learning curve!

We eat a lot of Gluten Free Van's Waffles (there are 'normal' ones as well so just check the box). I believe there are other brands of gluten-free waffles ... I know Trader Joes has them if you have a TJ's in your area. We make a lot of pancakes by useing the Pamela's mix.

There are gluten free donuts that we've found by Kinnikinnick (roughly $6 for 6 donuts!), but they're pretty expesive so we only get them for a treat.

This site is great for ideas and info!

Good luck!

[ang1e0251]

Eggs and ham with toasted corn tortillas are my favorite breakfast. OK, I'm not 8 years old. Occasionally I'll have the Van's waffles. I don't like them plain that well so this weekend I spread them with peanut butter and dipped in syrup....m.m.m.m.m...

I don't have a problem with dinner for breakfast either. 'Fess up, how many of you have had cold pizza for breakfast? As a kid we used to eat "banana soup". It was a sliced banana with sugar and milk. I used to make hot cereal for my kids on cold days. I hear the cream of buckwheat is good.

I have had the Bob's Red Mill pancake mix too. I like it better if I add some vanilla and cinnamon to it. I read one mother say she cooks extra and spreads them with different toppings for the lunch box.

I think fruit and cheese is good also.

[dandelionmom]

I make pancakes from Pamela's mix on the weekends and put the leftovers in the freezer for week day breakfasts. My girls also like hardboiled eggs, Envirokids chocolate cereal bars, apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt, and Rice Chex with cinnamon and sugar.

[Amyleigh0007]

Would you believe my son has tortilla chips for breakfast? Good luck with figuring this all out. It can be very challenging.

That sounds like my son! He is not a breakfast eater at all. It's a struggle each morning to get something in his belly and he doesn't eat lunch until noon. He usually eats half a stick of string cheese and a glass of Sunny D. He would eat chips if I would let him but he gets them in his lunch and he is restricted on how much corn he gets each day. Once in a while he will eat a Kinnikinik maple glazed donut. I have actually paid him one dollar to eat a banana for breakfast.

[CeliacMom2008]

First, welcome! My son was 8 1/2 when he was diagnosed. The first few months are tough, but it really does get much easier. My son just told his gastro last week (1 year follow up visit) that this diet isn't hard at all.

Here are our breakfast line ups:

Scrambled eggs

Bagels from Joan's gluten-free Bakery (online ordering)

Pamela's pancake mix - for pancakes and waffles (the pancakes also make great PB&J sandwiches)

French toast (made from Gluten Free Pantry Sandwich Bread (mix) or Whole Foods 365 Days Sandwich bread (mix))

Vanilla Yoplait yogurt with fresh berries and Trader Joe's granola

Oatmeal (you might want to wait awhile to include oats in his diet and then you have to use gluten free oats)

Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal

Various cold cereals - including General Mills Rice Chex which are gluten free

You mentioned that your son didn't like cereal, but we have found that our son didn't like/care for a lot of foods that had gluten before he was diagnosed. I swear his body was trying very hard to tell him what the problem was! Now he craves those same foods only in the gluten free versions. So go into all food with a fresh eye and try to encourage your son to do the same!

Again, welcome!!

[cancan]

Thanks to all. It's def. going to be something new for all of us. Any thoughts on lunches for school? He had fruit this morning for breakfast lol.. I'm hoping that once he starts to feel better it'll be easier. For me it's nice to know why he's been feeling so bad. He was funny last night b/c he thought it was going to change everything he ate and I told him that it's not going to change everything we just have to eat diffrent. My youngest doesn't quite get it yet. He wanted poptarts and I said no b/c it wasn't fair for him to have some and not his brother. Maybe later but not now. I'm trying to make this a family change b/c I don't want him to feel left out. I think we're going to make our own bread and I found tomato soup online last night so that's good. I'm still trying to figure out the labels. UGH!!! But the more I do this the easier it will get. I walked down the bread isle and wanted to cry b/c I couldn't find any bread @ all.. So it's make our own bread time.. I'll let them help and we'll have fun w/it.. I know I'll just be glad when we get a routine down. And I think it'll help once I sit down and plan out menus for us I think that's the best way for us to get used to things.

[Rondar2001]

I have a picky 8 year old too, so I know that lunches can be a challenge.

My suggestion is to buy a thermos. A couple of times a week I will make something for dinner that can be sent in her lunch, homemade soups, stews, shepards pie, etc. I think she gets better lunches now then before she was diagnosed.

Another thing that helps us is when she help to make her lunch. At first, she refused to eat the bread part of her sandwiches (she just picked off the meat), after a few months of being gluten free, she is now eating the bread (she likes Kinnikinnik sp.? tapioca and cheese). I think it was just some time off so she is forgetting what regular gluten bread tastes like.

Good luck, in a few months you will find it much simpler and it does become somewhat natural to just cook gluten free.

[cancan]

I didn't even think about a thermos.. Good idea.. Nate will be happy to have warm stuff too.. Thanks a bunch..

[missy'smom]

My son is 10 and this is what he likes for breakfast these days. I won't allow much sugary stuff.

Erwhon(sp?) rice crispy type cereal with berries and milk

Arrowhead Mills Maple Buckwheat Flakes and milk

There are so many cereal options but most are too sweet so I won't buy them- it's a personal choice

Healthy Choice Chicken and Rice soup

Hormel Naturals ham

Kirkland ham(from Costco)

hard boiled eggs

Gluten-Free Pantry French Bread mix baked, sliced, frozen and used for grilled cheese sandwiches or ham and cheese toast broiled under the broiler

Pamela's Pancakes with natural maple syrup or homemade berry sauce

fruit

cornbread with a bit of honey

cheese

Click on the link on my profile to see what we do for lunches.

[CeliacMom2008]

Poptarts - Silly Yak bakery in Madison Wisconsin (online ordering) has a poptart replacement. I've not tried them, but I've seen them on their website. Just in case you need a splurge treat!

Lunches-

PB&J on Pamela's pancakes (today I made them in the shape of Mickey Mouse heads - his absolute favorite!)

Mac & Cheese (either homemade or Amy's frozen (available from Krogers and health food stores)

Sloppy Joe meat (my son never liked the bun pre-Celiac, so this is the way he's always eaten them)

Pulled pork (again, he never ate buns before)

Scrambled eggs

Quiche

His concoction this week - diced leftover turkey breast with mashed potatoes and gravy all mixed together

Fried rice

Chicken pot pie (with or without "breaded" top - we use pie crusts or biscuits for top or when I'm in a hurry nothing on top) (I freeze the leftovers in thermos size (just over 1 cup for us) portions for quick lunch prep)

Canned tuna fish (just plain old straight out of the can)

Lunchmeat and cheese rolled up

Stew from roast/potato/veggie leftovers

Lasagna leftovers (I freeze individual pieces when we have lasagna and then can pull them out as needed for lunches or quick suppers)

Suppers and his worry about change - I highly recommend making a big list of all the foods you know how to cook/cook regularly (pre-diagnosis). Then go through and see which ones you can still make with slight modifications (i.e. using gluten free spaghetti noodles for spaghetti). I was really surprised when I did this how much of what I cooked was already gluten free or easily made gluten free. It also gives us something to look at when we're trying to plan meals. In the beginning we would sit down on Sundays and plan out the meals for the whole week and then I'd go shopping on Mondays. It helped greatly with lunches too - when it's on paper it's easy for me to see roast on Wednesday night and figure out that Thursday's lunch is going to be stew.

Above all else - have fun with the diet! It will make it so much easier on him! We have become obsessed with good food and my son is a food snob now! Only the finest for his taste buds!! And I don't mean the most expensive - just the best tasting to him. And oh how we go on when we eat something (either pre-made or made by me) that is bad. "Can you believe anyone would sell this?!?!? Who would eat this?!?!? We won't be trying this again! It's not even good enough for the dog!" But we are only able to do that because we have learned that there are some pretty amazing foods out there as well and we play those up as much as we tear the other kind down!

Another thing I do is really play up presentation. I bought several inexpensive (read clearance) items that are fun - fun season and holiday placemats, plastic dishes that we use to eat outside whenever possible, I got these funky toothpicks as a gift that we use with lunchmeat roll-ups and cheese cubes, we also eat in strange places (i.e. game and snack night in bed). Gluten free wasn't the end for us but the beginning.

Sorry about the long post - I just can't be short-winded!

[Amyleigh0007]

Reading all of these wonderful breakfasts and lunches your childrean eat makes me so sad that my son won't eat any of that. He is so picky. I feel like a terrible mom when I pack him a hot dog and Stax everyday for his lunch but it's the only thing he will eat at school

[ek327]

My daughter will be eight next month. she was diagnosed this summer.

her favorite breakfasts:

cooqi bread/toast "Ellie's Bread" with Nutella.

post cocoa pebbles

glutino english muffins with poached egg and cheese

sausage or bacon

sometimes freezer waffles

pamela's are favorite pancakes for sure

yogurt and fruit.

soft polenta (corn grits) with butter and salt. loves this with bacon.

lunch:

I send gluten free sandwich meat rolled with cheese and a fancy toothpick

carrots and ranch (wishbone)

chips--any variety that is gluten free

fruit (if she is in a mood to eat fruit--this is a battle)

mac and cheese in a thermos (Annie's boxed rice mac and cheese--more like kraft)

yogurt

pudding

corn tortilla chips with hummus

corn tortilla chips with feta or other cheese (they have micro to melt this)

dinner: whatever we are having (I'm gluten free too--thus my husband is mostly gluten free)

she does great.

good luck!!

[Twisted Spoon]

We had a similar problem! We're exhausted in the morning and the last thing we wanna do is try to find something to eat specially when in a hurry. This started out as a quest to find drop biscuits like the ones from Red Lobster they serve in gooey goodness of garlic and cheese that I can no longer have. I found this site and this recipe and it has turned into a great breakfast food that is fast to grab, lasts all week in baggies in the fridge.

Open Original Shared Link

I've experimented a little with this recipe- for breakfast food we add bits of sausage or bacon, cheese, sweet red peppers, onions and garlic powder. But you could just as easily add anything else such as scrambled egg bits, cheese and meats etc. I have found making this with bob's redmill gluten-free all purpose baking mix and subbing egg replacer instead of eggs makes this recipe alot better. They do raise a little bit but will still need to be plopped down in large spoonfuls. HTH!

[Pattymom]

my kids favorite fast breakfast is a smoothy. right now I use a frozen banana or 2 ( I buy the yuckyones cheap at the grocery store, peel, break into chunks and freeze in baggies. Add frozen fruit, my favorite at the moment is two fruit chillers ( they are little pureed fruit things that have also been or sale cheap at a discount store, I just dump in the one or two little cups) I add soy milk or rice milk, and lately one spoonful of orange juice concentrate with added calcium, blend and serve. We drink them thinner with a straw or eat them thicker with a spoon. leftovers, if ter are any, can be frozen as popsicles or in the leftover fruit chiller cups as a sorbet.

I'm embarassed to admit that hotdogs and corn chips are also a lunch staple for my picky 7 year old, He does alos eat a lot of fruit, so I try not to worry too much.

Patty

[sugarsue]

Reading all of these wonderful breakfasts and lunches your childrean eat makes me so sad that my son won't eat any of that. He is so picky. I feel like a terrible mom when I pack him a hot dog and Stax everyday for his lunch but it's the only thing he will eat at school

HUGS! I'm right here with you. I'd love it if my dd would eat even a hot dog! I send her with a fruit cup, jerky and staxx (for eample), every day, and I'm lucky to get the protein in since she gets sick of it fast. Sometimes it's fruit cup, funyuns and a pickle so I don't make it the same too many days in a row! On the days they have something good to eat at school, I ask her if she would like to buy she says "Ummmm........ No thanks"