Where Can You Find Bulk gluten-free Snacks?

[missmommy]

hello all

my son just turned two and has been diagnosed with celiac with a biopsy last month.

the problem is when we are at church and he is in his classes. it is near impossible to keep the other children's snacks away from him. and even if he doesn't eat their treats he still gets a hold of their sippy cups or all the crumbs on the tables and toys.

if we could find gluten free animal cookies or something similar to replace what is offered in his class, that would make it safe for him.

does anyone know where we can order snacks in bulk?

thanks so much

[Edo]

There are plenty of places online and in stores that offer gluten-free treats, though if you are looking for them in bulk, online ordering would probably work better.

I haven't branched out to eating too many processed gluten-free foods myself, because my stomach doesn't seem to quite handle them yet. But I do know of a couple places.

Kinnikinnick Foods offers a wonderful variety of gluten-free items, including animal cookies and oreo type cookies. I haven't tried these personally but see them recommended a lot. Open Original Shared Link

Enjoy Life Foods also makes delicious snacks (I've tried their cookies, chocolate, granola, and rice cereal). Cheapest I've found it is here: Open Original Shared Link But I've also seen some of it sold in bulk on Amazon.

Hope this was helpful. Good luck.

[missy'smom]

Some things can be found at Costco-we buy individually packages fruit crisps-Brother's is the brand name-they are freeze dried fruit-apples, strawberries, bananas or pears with no sugar

most mainstream fruit snacks-those gummy type, and fruit leathers are gluten-free, Walmart is a good place to get a good buy, Costco sells bulk packs of individually wrapped ones, some have no added sugar

look for bulk bags of dried fruit-blueberries, cranberries "craisins" at Costco

what about a box of the flavored Chex(General Mills brand) cereal?, they say gluten-free on the box

most pudding cups are gluten-free

applesauce cups, many flavors and no-sugar varieies available too

Lays Staxx chips, all flavors, are gluten-free and made on dedicted gluten-free lines, they're inexpensive to boot

fresh fruit

gelatin, box mixes or make your own sugar-free with the Knox unflavored gelatin and 100% fruit juice-grape, apple, white grape, cranberry, pomegranate, there are so many choices these days

[Darn210]

what about a box of the flavored Chex(General Mills brand) cereal?, they say gluten-free on the box

Be careful about peanut allergies with this one . . . don't know why, but the Cinnamon & Chocolate Chex (don't know about strawberry 'cause we don't eat that one) have peanut flour in them.

Kix and the Honey Kix would also work. I think the Berry Kix is OK, too (check the label).

One of the big hits at the preschool I work at is minimarshmallows.

Raisins and yogurt covered raisins.

You can also take some of the previous items mentioned and throw them together to make "trail mix". That way if you use some actual gluten free specialty items such as pretzels, you can stretch the distribution by adding mainstream items like Kix.

[missy'smom]

Be careful about peanut allergies with this one . . . don't know why, but the Cinnamon & Chocolate Chex (don't know about strawberry 'cause we don't eat that one) have peanut flour in them.

Ooo! Thanks for the heads up! We hadn't gotten around to purchasing them yet as kiddo has plenty of snacks to work his way through but he's one who needs to avoid all nuts.

[stolly]

We really like Mi-Del gluten free arrowroot (animal) cookies...they're like animal crackers. We also like Envirokidz crispy bars in chocolate and berry blast (not berry/fruity burst). We order them from the river A M A Z O N via Subscribe & Save, free shipping and a discounted price.

[seezee]

We liked the orgran cookies.

Open Original Shared Link

They sell them online.

[CeliacMom2008]

Be careful about peanut allergies with this one . . . don't know why, but the Cinnamon & Chocolate Chex (don't know about strawberry 'cause we don't eat that one) have peanut flour in them.

Kix and the Honey Kix would also work. I think the Berry Kix is OK, too (check the label).

One of the big hits at the preschool I work at is minimarshmallows.

Raisins and yogurt covered raisins.

You can also take some of the previous items mentioned and throw them together to make "trail mix". That way if you use some actual gluten free specialty items such as pretzels, you can stretch the distribution by adding mainstream items like Kix.

So you feel comfortable with the Kix products even though they're by General Mills and don't say gluten free?? I've been avoiding them because I assumed they're be cross contaminated.

[OBXMom]

My son was several years older than yours when he was diagnosed, so we never dealt with the problems a toddler classroom presents for a celiac child. You have gotten a lot of good snack ideas, but I would encourage you to help your church and school set up some safe eating practices. If the children only eat and drink while sitting, crumbs should not get around and the teachers should be able to prevent sharing. I would also make sure clean up is taken seriously. Your child may be the only child with gluten issues in the group, but the whole group will benefit from a cleaner environment and less shared germs.

[missmommy]

My son was several years older than yours when he was diagnosed, so we never dealt with the problems a toddler classroom presents for a celiac child. You have gotten a lot of good snack ideas, but I would encourage you to help your church and school set up some safe eating practices. If the children only eat and drink while sitting, crumbs should not get around and the teachers should be able to prevent sharing. I would also make sure clean up is taken seriously. Your child may be the only child with gluten issues in the group, but the whole group will benefit from a cleaner environment and less shared germs.

thank you all for your great suggestions! we did try going to sams and buying fruit chew snacks in bulk. we brought it to the class and explained about replacing the snacks that were there. the teachers said it would be ok if we brought stuff to replace. and they said they wouldn't give out cookies or other "bad" things while our son was in class. when we went to pick him up he was having a cup of gold fish crackers. my husband ran over to him and took them away. my poor kid had no idea what was going on, he thought his dad was mad at im and started crying.

i feel awful for him, his stomach has been a mess since this happened.

im not sure what to do, other than to keep him home. but that doesn't seem right either, he loves his friends there. im feeling a little defeated.

[missy'smom]

thank you all for your great suggestions! we did try going to sams and buying fruit chew snacks in bulk. we brought it to the class and explained about replacing the snacks that were there. the teachers said it would be ok if we brought stuff to replace. and they said they wouldn't give out cookies or other "bad" things while our son was in class. when we went to pick him up he was having a cup of gold fish crackers. my husband ran over to him and took them away. my poor kid had no idea what was going on, he thought his dad was mad at im and started crying.

i feel awful for him, his stomach has been a mess since this happened.

im not sure what to do, other than to keep him home. but that doesn't seem right either, he loves his friends there. im feeling a little defeated.

I'm so sorry.

My hairdresser's husband has celiac disease and they help in the Sunday School in their church. They both aren't quite educated enough about it unfortunately but their heart's in the right place and they do the best they know how to help one child in one class with celiac disease. I hear her stories of what seems like slip ups that happen too often. It seems they ocurr because of lack of understanding of the seriousness of the disease and the consequences of eating gluten and lack of communication. Not everyone's on the same page, they step out of the room and someone else comes in and hands something out unexpectedly. Maybe you need to go to whoever heads the SS and give them some literature and make sure that EVERYONE is notified and informed. This can be done firmly but without a critical spirit. Here's just one source for literature to distribute. There may be others available from Univerity or other major hospital websites, ones that have celiac disease centers. Open Original Shared Link

[OBXMom]

I can't tell you how sorry I am that that happened to your son, after you went to such lengths to supply safe snacks and to make sure everyone understood. I really think you should put this incident in writing, and send it to whoever you can think of. (School director? Governing board?) I would include in my letter some basic information about celiac disease, and ask how you can be assured that nothing like this will ever happen again. Maybe you could even say that you are considering contacting your local tv station to do a piece on the difficulties of celiac children in finding safe school environments. My guess is that your school does not want to be the centerpiece of such a story. (And I just have to say, I hate goldfish! I remember when my own milk allergic toddler was at the playgroup stage, everyone seemed to think that any group of toddlers needed a bowl of goldfish on the floor among the toys. It was a nightmare for me.) My sympathies are totally with you . . .

[Darn210]

So you feel comfortable with the Kix products even though they're by General Mills and don't say gluten free?? I've been avoiding them because I assumed they're be cross contaminated.

Yes, we are comfortable with General Mills policy of disclosing gluten in their label (and not requiring "gluten free" on the packaging). My daughter has not shown herself to be sensitive to shared facilities or shared lines. This is true for many Celiacs . . . and also NOT true for many Celiacs. You have to do what works for you.

[Darn210]

Unfortunately, this is probably the worse age (IMO) to have to deal with Celiac. The child is too young to understand and also mobile enough to get his hands onto things that he shouldn't. The good news is that eventually, he'll grow up In the meantime, it means a lot of intervention on your part. I have found in most church settings, you have different volunteers every week (or at a minimum, some kind of rotating schedule). If you can get him under the care of the same volunteer each week (or a few volunteers depending on the rotation/schedule), then hopefully you can build up a rapport and also won't have to "educate" someone new each week. I would put a sticker on the back of his shirt (you can order them premade or just do it yourself with blanks) that say "Allergy!! Don't feed this child" or "Allergy!!! Only snacks with his name on them" It goes on the back of his shirt so he can't take it off. Then label his snacks with his name also. It's nice (and generous) of you to offer to feed the whole class as this would be the ideal situation if everyone was eating the same thing. Is it possible to have them remove all other food from the classroom so they don't have the ability to pass out anything else?

sample of the allergy stickers:

Open Original Shared Link

Just google "kids allergy stickers" or "do not feed stickers" and you'll see quite a selection. You can also buy T-shirts with the same kind of message.