Newbie To Gluten-free

[Yellow Rose]

Okay first of all just ignore all the celiac info on my profile. I'm logged onto a family member who also has celiacs' account. I'm fourteen and I have celieac's disease. I've been misdiagnosed for almost a year now, and I thought that the unbearable pain was never gonna go away. But five members of my family also have celiac's and after telling them all my syptoms, they figured out I have it. I only found out about two days ago, no blood test yet. But today my family put me on a wheat free diet. I'm used to all of the pain coming right after I eat but I've been pain free for almost twelve hours!!! I know it's something weird to be happy about, but after a year of chronic and constant pain, I'm just tickled pink that it's been gone for twelve hours! Does anyone have any advice for me? What do I do?!

Ashley Lee

[luvthelake21]

Hey Ashley, my daughter is thirteen and has had it for 3 years. She is doing great on the diet. She was so tired of the pain she was glad to change her diet. It was kind of hard at first not being able to eat a lot of teenagers munchy foods but since there is so much other food she is cool with it. It is good you came here to ask questions. Ask away somebody probley knows the answers.

[mushroom]

Yeah, what a joy to be pain-free after eating. Sure keeps the motivation going. Good luck!

[Chef16]

I know what you mean! It's so great to be pain-free!

The first thing to do is to not panic! You're probably at a loss of what to eat. Living Without magazine has great recipes, if you cook. You can get a lot on the website too. (www.livingwithout.com)

In the meantime, you can buy packaged food. However, there are rules:

1. Check the ingredients!!! If it contains any gluten ingredients, don't eat it, obviosly

Some gluten-containing ingredients/foods are wheat, barley, oats (not determined), rye, malt, coucous, triticale, semolina, graham, ect.

If you ever want to check an ingredient, you can check here: Open Original Shared Link

You also need to be careful of things in open containers and bins where people use scoops that could have been in something with gluten. Pretty much just don't eat anything unless you're sure it's safe.

2. Check the "processed with..." list. If it is processed with wheat/gluten, you can't eat it. This can usually be found under the ingredients list (aka cross-contamination)

To get you started, here are some basic foods that you can find at any grocery store:

Basics like most dairy products and all fresh fruit and vegetables

Fruity Pebbles, Bush's Vegetarian beans, Cocoa Puffs, Rice Chex, all Pamelas Products (www.pamelasproducts.com), all Glutino products (www.glutino.com).

A good meal is Trader Joes corn chips with Safeway Organics salsa and grated jack cheese. They're sort of like fresh nachos that are ready in minutes! You can also just eat heated Bush's Vegetarian beans.

If you have a health food store near you, you could probably find an abundance of gluten-free foods there too. For a HUGE list of gluten-free food and restaurants that you can eat at, buy the triumph dining books at Open Original Shared Link. They can be a real life saver!

You can also email me with any questions you have. I'd be happy to help! I'm 13 and I've been gluten-free for over 1 yr.

Here's my email address: Emmaliffick16@comcast.net

(Sorry, you might have to enter my email manually, I couldn't get the link to work.)

[Esther Sparhawk]

Ashley,

When my daughter was first diagnosed w/ celiac disease, I bought a book called, "Kids with Celiac Disease" by Danna Korn. It was a life-saver! It helps you plan ahead for any teen events that deal with food: pizza night, birthday parties, church youth group, summer camp, school lunches, etc...

I tried to attach a link to Amazon, where you could buy the book online (with a parent's approval/help), but the link wouldn't work for some reason. Health food stores sometimes carry "Kids with Celiac Disease" as well. It's a must-have.

FYI, I'm not just a parent of a kid with celiac disease, I'm also a public school teacher and author. My web site is found at Open Original Shared Link