New With Celiac

[StarSki]

I just found out today that my 7 year old has celiac. I am trying to figure out where to start. I was wondering if anyone one has any recipes for kid friendly foods , cookies muffins? I am very concerned with doing this right. Please help!!

[xjrosie]

Hi there.

Whatever you do, DON'T buy tapioca bread or rice bread. My daughter (age ten) refuses to eat it. They do make white bread, which is usually in the freezer section. She says it's much better. We are still experimenting, but she says most of the stuff in the freezer section tastes good.

White rice spaghetti noodles is really good.

I have used a few recipes from this place. All I do is a google search for whatever recipe I'm looking for, read some of the reviews, then try it out if there aren't many negatives. So far, so good.

[Darn210]

I just found out today that my 7 year old has celiac. I am trying to figure out where to start. I was wondering if anyone one has any recipes for kid friendly foods , cookies muffins? I am very concerned with doing this right. Please help!!

Hi StarSki,

Welcome to the board. You have found a great resource.

My daughter was diagnosed at age 6 so I can totally relate.

Do you know if your daughter has problems with dairy? Many Celiacs do initially (and some need to remove it permanently). My daughter did not appear to have issues although the pedGI had us use LacTaid milk and Lactaid chewables when consuming dairy for a couple of months. We did do this just as a precaution and it certainly didn't hurt anything.

Some recommendations on brands and kid friendly food (I'll address baking in the next post):

Tinkyada pasta - they have lots of shapes including one for kids that has stars and cars and cats and such. My daughter loved it and said she could eat it everyday . . . in the beginning when I was overwhelmed, she almost did.

Pamela's baking and pancake mix - makes great pancakes, muffins (recipe on the package) are good taste-wise, just a little dense for my tastes.

Applegate Farms gluten free chicken nuggets - my daughter's favorite. They do sell glutenized ones so make sure you've got the right package. Another good brand is Bell & Evans (also, make sure your box says gluten free on these as well.)

Van's gluten free french toast stix - they also have the toaster waffles that I think are pretty good but my daughter only eats once in a while.

Glutino pretzels - she uses these to dip in peanut butter (instead of taking a sandwich in her lunch)and we also make a lot of home made chex mix.

Kinnikinnick Glazed Donuts - she loves these, I can't buy them too often because when they are in the house, she doesn't want to eat anything else for breakfast until she's gone through the entire box.

Udi's Bread - she likes all the flavors. Udi's wasn't out when she was first diagnosed and this is far better than what was available then. Rudi's is also good. Your daughter might not care for it at first just because it IS different. The difference is much less noticeable as toast.

Udi's Pizza Crust - home made with pizza sauce, cheese and hormel pepperoni.

Udi's Muffins - these are pretty expensive and don't make it home unless they are about to expire and the store has made them half price. Then I individually bag them and pop them in the freezer. She nukes them for about 30 seconds and has a soft warm muffin.

Betty Crocker's gluten free Brownies - these are the only brownies I make now. They have cake mixes, too, but I prefer my cake recipe. I will use the cake mix in a pinch and it's decent . . . best as cupcakes.

Kinnikinnick K-toos - these are an Oreo type cookie. They have a chocolate and a vanilla version. She likes them both. (This is one that I'm not a big fan of.)

Schar cheese bites - this is her goldfish cracker fix. I don't get these too often either as she blows through them. Also the store that I get them from is kind of far away and I only get to it a few times a year.

[pricklypear1971]

My son isn't dx'ed Celiac but the house is gluten-free so he is too, when he's in it.

I've found the King Arthur Flour mix to be a good "general purpose" mix if you want to attempt baking. Start with flavored muffins (chocolate chip, cinnamon sugar, fruit). They have good recipes on their site. Pamela's has recipes for their mix on the bag. If a mix has a recipe, try it first, since it will be optimized for that specific mix.

I found my cookies and pancake recipe translated to gluten-free very well. In the beginning it may be easier to use a gluten-free recipe, though. It will give you some assurance. The KAF chocolate cake mix is PERFECT if you need cupcakes or a party cake.

Carry snacks with you (for her) and teach her to always have something with her to snack on so she won't feel left out if her friends snack. I like Kind+ bars but a 7 year old may not. There are some gluten-free apple bars, etc. out there. Just go to health-food stores and start looking at what's out there.

The first six months will be a roller coaster, so prepare yourself and her. Keep asking questions, and feel free to vent.

[Darn210]

I just found out today that my 7 year old has celiac. I am trying to figure out where to start. I was wondering if anyone one has any recipes for kid friendly foods , cookies muffins? I am very concerned with doing this right. Please help!!

OK, baking . . . did you bake a lot before? This is my take on baking. It was the same with the gluten versions of things. There are some decent store bought cookies. The store bought cookie mixes produce a better cookie than the store bought cookies. The totally homemade versions make the best cookies.

In my opinion, the mixes that I have used that I liked OK were:

Betty Crocker's gluten free brownie mix

Betty Crocker's choc chip cookie mix

Betty Crocker's yellow cake mix (as cupcakes . . . when ever I try to make it as a cake, the edges are way too dry).

I also found that using my former recipes and adjusting them to use gluten free flours worked the best for me. I jumped right in and bought lots of different kinds of flours and have settled on Annalise Roberts recipe for a flour blend (2 cups brown rice flour (extra finely ground), 2/3 cup potato starch (not potato flour) 1/3 cup tapioca flour.) Some people prefer the prepackaged flour mixes (Better Batter has a good one and I've also used King Arthur's).

Many of the flour blends have the xanthan gum already added (check the ingredient list). If you make your own flour blend or buy a blend that doesn't have it listed, you'll need to add it. (I use about 1/2 teaspoon per cup of flour).

I also increase the leavening by almost double and split it between baking powder and baking soda. If it calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda I will put in 1 tsp baking soda and about 3/4 tsp baking powder. Also, if it's a recipe with a flavoring like vanilla, I double it. (I've seen this recommended for gluten free baking but I was doing that before my daughter went gluten-free.)

So here is my Chocolate chip cookie recipe . . . it's the Tollhouse recipe adjusted for gluten free:

2 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I use the Annalise Robert's blend above)

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum (eliminate if it's in your flour blend)

1 cup butter (soften)

3/4 granulated sugar

3/4 brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups Nestle choc chips

Mix and bake like on the package.

As far as gluten-free cookies go, they can spread a bit too much (which is why I have a bit more flour in my recipe). Usually, I'll stick my dough in the fridge and chill it first. If I don't have time for that, I'll cook one pan with just a couple of cookies to see how much they are spreading and add a little more flour if they are spreading too much.

Quite frankly, it's all trial and error in the beginning. You'll be horrified with how much money you waste on products that "look" good but your daughter hates. In the beginning, I would make a half a recipe so I wouldn't waste to much if nobody liked it.

I feel I've written too much. It's hard to read big long posts. So ask questions and you'll get lots of answers/opinions and when it comes down to it, we all have different tastebuds/preferences so you'll end up having to figure out what works for you and your family.

[cahill]

I just found out today that my 7 year old has celiac. I am trying to figure out where to start. I was wondering if anyone one has any recipes for kid friendly foods , cookies muffins? I am very concerned with doing this right. Please help!!

You start by taking a very deep breath and knowing that you are not alone.

You will make mistakes, we all do, forgive your self when you do.

Keep it very very simple at first. Have fresh fruits and veggies , if tolerated and gluten free lunch meats and cheeses and a good gluten free crackers and chips on hand all the time.

Give your self and your 7 year old the time you will need to

go thur withdraw,grief ,anger,sadness and all the other emotions that come with a celiac diagnoses.

Read and post here often.

((HUGS)) to you and your 7 year old.

A couple sites that may be helpful

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/the-gluten-free-diet-101-a-beginners-guide-to-going-gluten-free-r1640/

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

These are the best peanut butter cookies EVER

Open Original Shared Link

[nocornhouse]

I found it helpful went we first tried gluten free (part of an elimination diet a few years ago, just diagnosed with celiac this week) to go and take every gluten-free cookbook out of the libary. I have slowly bought cookbooks since then.

I found starting with a good gluten-free all purpose flour blend (store bought or homemade) allowed me to make a lot of things like muffins and cookies at first by just subbing in my old favourites (and adding some guar gum). yeast raised foods is harder, so start with the easy stuff.

Remember it will take you time to learn, don't expect yourself to know everything by the end of the month. You will learn, you will make mistakes, you will make weird odd tasting food adn you will make delicious masterpieces!

[GFdad0110]

me and my 21 month old son are gluten free good thing i like to cook. I like "namaste" brand mixes for muffins, pizza, and brownies. I sometimes take the recipes on the package are transform them into something more complex and nutritious. I add a shredded sweet potato into the muffin mix and they are awesome. like like "food for life" brown rice bread and I make french toast with it for my son. I make waffles with the Namaste flour mix, almond flour,and quinoa flour to make waffles for my son and he loves them plus their very nutritious. The Namaste pizza mix is really good. My wife who has no food allergies loves it. Ancient harvest quinoa pasta is really good and very nutritious. Tinkyada brown rice pasta is also good. Try not to get overwhelmed. there is plenty out there.

[Ginnie64]

Hi Star Ski

It is hard at first,but believe me it gets easier. My son (age 11) has been on his diet for just over 3 months. I agree with not buying rice bread, my son will not eat it. But the white bread in the freezer section is much better. He also really likes corn pasta instead of the rice pasta. I buy plain muffin mix and add my own things to it, like chocolate chips or fruit. I'm not big on baking so the packaged mixes or good, there is a lemon cake and brownie mix that my son really likes as well.

Hope this helps