sashabetty

Yes, it is that much better than any other gluten-free bread you can buy. I went home and threw away all of the other breads I had in the freezer after I tried it.

I keep a loaf on the counter and use it without toasting (unless I want toast!) and it's gone within 2 days in our house.

If you pick up the loaf it squishes in your hand, it's not hard! It doesn't get all gross sitting in your lunch for a few hours with a damp filling like other gluten-free breads. It's a fairly neutral flavor and it is a reminder of what bread really is like.

I am considering buying separate a freezer just so I never have to run out of Udi's.

The pizza crust is not bad either.

I have seen that too with other brands, and I wonder if it happens at the farm level (during harvesting on shared equiptment)

Sucks.

Sasha

Does anybody know of a brand of masa that is safe? I would love to make some tamales. Ideas anybody?

thanks,

Sasha

Wasabi has WHEAT in it?

Oops.

Wasabi itself, if you can get the fresh real thing, does not have wheat in it, but prepared wasabi (found in a tube or in in a can or jar in powdered form), which may or may not contain any actual wasabi, could have wheat in it. it's worth checking the label or asking your sushi chef.

woohoo for more sushi options! I'm glad you had such a good experience

Tiffany,

Since you are also in Seattle I must ask, where do you go for sushi?

Sasha

I went to Nishino to get some takout sushi the other day, and talk about nice and helpful. After I explained my dietary needs they:

checked to make sure the spicy tuna roll was gluten free,

made sure I knew that something I had ordered had soy sauce (it was for my husband, I then heard them repeat two times, it's for her husband),

let me know they weren't going to include the wasabi because it had wheat in it (I haven't heard that before but I have wondered!),

and offered me wheat-free soy sauce.

I felt pretty sure that I wasn't going to get any gluten, and it was scrumptous.

And it really is a nice sit down date restaurant rather than a takeout place. With much more than sushi.

Yay, somewhere else I can eat!

Sasha

Thanks to everyone that responded!

I agree that this is a big red-flag item. I know that when I make some tasty gluten-free fish and chips at home (not very often, but Yum!) there is a lot of batter residue that ends up in the oil, and I can just picture what this would mean if it were gluten in my batter, it would be in the oil and all over everything I fried after that.

The restaurant no longer labels their fried foods as gluten free. They were awesome about it. I really appreciate that they are trying to offer foods that we can eat, and that they answered my questions and listened to my concerns.

I have been emailing with a local restaurant that has some items listed as Gluten Free on it's menu because I wanted to clarify whether a specific item was or wasn't Gluten Free.

The subject of fried foods came up and they said that they were told that it wasn't a concern to fry foods in the same oil as Gluten Foods and label them as Gluten Free.

Am I the only one that wouldn't eat (or feed a Celiac family member) foods fried in the same oil as Gluten foods.

I would love to get feedback to pass on to the restaurant.

Thanks!

Today my daughter had breakfast with grandma, and she ate 2 bites and then grandma thought to look at the waffles again and realized she had gotten the wrong one, not the gluten free one, arggh! Van's or Lifestream, a brand that makes gluten-free and non-gluten-free.

My daughter has a bloated belly and had the worst meltdown this afternoon.

The last 2 times she got glutened she had the runs in her pants all the next day. My poor little girl.

I know it was a mistake, but I was so mad and upset. All I could say was at least it wasn't with eggs too so my egg allergic daughter isn't going to be vomiting all day. She felt bad (though not as bad as my daughter will) and I bit my tongue.

This is why I usually bring all of the food when my kids stay with anyone!

All she has to do is look for the words GLUTEN FREE, it's not so hard!

Betty

I will be keeping a selection of safe foods at school just in case.

The thing is, so many kids have special needs, vegetarian/vegan, lactose intolerant, no sugar, soy allergy, etc, so my daughter is one of many that the parents have to consider.

I guess I figure it's a learning opportunity for everyone, and there are compromises in preparing foods that everyone can eat.

The snacks are pretty basic. The teacher did corn chips with a bean and corn dip and veggies and bananas, which everyone loved, so I don't feel bad about it happening to be gluten-free.

I told the parents if they want to bring something like bagels, let me know in advance and I can provide a substitute.

And if there is a party they can have their cake, we can just bring Dowd and Rogers chocolate cupcakes and my daughter loves them.

I figure if they can include her without too much inconvenience then I will try to let it happen.

The thing is, I was raised Macrobiotic and vegan with no sugar so I know what it's like to be left out in school situations with foood that you are not supposed to eat. Plain apple while everyone else has a carmel apple? Done that, it sucks, sorry but it does. I realize that's the reality of this, but they don't have to leave her out all of the time.

The parents have the choice of making the entire snack gluten free, or providing a gluten-free option for my daughter.

Betty

Lisa,

Happy Birthday! And it will get easier, I promise.

If you have a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, get their gluten-free lists online or at the store and get shopping.

If you have Whole Foods, ask if they have the Dowd and Rogers Chocolate cake mix, vanilla is OK, but chocolate is best. My sisters and nieces and nephews are not gluten-free and they looove it! It scored best natural food chocolate cake mix in Organic Style, and that wasn't even a contest limited to gluten-free products. Don't get Lemon, it's like window cleaner.

or try the Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Brownie Mix, it's pretty good in a pinch.

Our favorite lunch foods:

Arrowhead mills Pizza crust

gluten-free tortillas for tacos

I make a dark pumpernickel style bread with dried cherries that my kids love, ask me and I will send the recipe. Great for turkey sandwiches.

Check out Living Without Magazine, their website is Open Original Shared Link, and they has a recent issue with a flatbread that made good rollup sandwiches.

Wellshire Kids chicken nuggets (a little spicy for my kids but tasty.)

Amy's Rice Mac & Cheese frozen dinner.

Thai Kitchen makes some just-add-hot-water noodle meals that are gluten-free, Thai Peanut is our fave.

We also make sandwiches out of one of the frozen gluten-free waffle brands (Trader joes and I think Van's or Lifestream?)

Applegate Farms or Wellshire Farms lunchmeats should disclose gluten ingredients, sometimes we just roll lunch meat around a piece of string cheese and call that a rollup.

Add some Edwards & sons rice crackers.

Make a quick bean dip/layered dip with some Trader Joe's Corn Chips.

Betty

Whole Foods make a Whole Kids Multivitamin that states that it is gluten-free.

HTH,

Betty

My 3 yr old is starting school next week. It's a small co-op preschool.

The parents take turns bringing and preparing the daily snack (can you feel my anxiety?) and I am trying to educate them as much as possible.

I have provided the Trader Joe's list, the Whole Foods list, a brief description and a list of our favorite foods.

The parents all get a list of food preferences and allergies for everyone that attends.

We had a practice school day and the teacher provided a snack for the group with foods from the Trader Joe's list. Didn't I just want to kiss her!?

But I don't trust that everyone else will get it, sigh.

I also got the gluten-free Playdough recipe (the best recipe I have found) from this site and have convinced the school to switch to gluten-free playdough and I don't even have to make it.

I spent time scrubbing the gluten playdough off of 5 cartons of playdough tools at the school.

I am in charge of tracking who makes the snacks so I can send reminders about gluten-free foods on the day my daughter atttends, is that too neurotic?

Is this normal anxiety for a parent with a gluten-free child or just a normal part of letting go of control when any child goes to school? Maybe a little of both.

What do you do to keep your child's school environment safe?

I was thinking of ordering the gluten free shirt from Jeeto and putting her in that for the first month or two!

Betty

Thanks so much, it wouldn't be a holiday without the cheese grits.

Regards!

I work for a magazine distributor that sells Living Without on the West Coast, so I can read it for free! But I also can look up what stores carry it, so if someone is looking for a west coast store let me know.

Isn't there a rolled Quinoa product? Would that work? Has anyone tried using it?

My 2yr old daughter loved my "lola bars" as she called them, and I would love to find an oat substitute.

My MIL makes cheese-grits every Thanksgiving and I am trying to find out which brands if any of dry grits would be gluten-free. I couldn't find it on a gluten-free list, anyone know??

Thanks!

Here is what I do. It's not really a recipe but maybe it will help.

Cut raw chicken breast or thigh meat into chunks. Dip into beaten eggs seasoned with salt and pepper. Coat in cornflake crumbs (dry crust that is extra crunchy) or a combination of cornflake crumbs and ground pinenuts (my secret ingredient, you could use another mild-flavored nut like macadamia?), about a 4:1 ratio (less crunchy, with a nice texture) place on a baking sheet coated with parchment paper (to prevent sticking) You may want to drizzle or spray a little butter on the nuggets before baking or the coating may seems a little dry, but you don't need to do that if you use pinenuts in the crust. Bake at about 350 degrees until done. About 15 minutes depending on the size of the chunks. I use the Nature's Path cornflakes but I imagine there are other gluten-free brands. My daughter loves these with yam fries and honey-mustard for dipping!

There is also a gluten-free brand, Wellshire Farms, that is available at some Whole Foods stores. I like them OK, they are a little "processed" tasting to me, but kids love them.

Hope that helps!

In regards to the children that licked paper, ate dirt or sand, has anyone had an explaination from their doctor ?

Cravings such as these are known as pica, and indicates a deficiency, if I remember right, of either Zinc or Iron. I used to eat match heads when I was very young.

Makes sense with Celiac causing absorption isuues and deficiencies that some people would experience this.

To preface, I think there may possibly be something to that book, at least as a method for people to examine what foods are not right for them. I think that there may be groups of people for whom there would be value in eliminating some foods, but I think the premise is a little too broad in that book, from what I know of it, though anyone is free to disagree with me.

But I am sick to death that whenever I am forced to discuss the fact that my daughter is gluten-free, chances are the person inevitably chimes in, oh I'm not supposed to have wheat either because I am an O. Give me a break, your food choices are not the same thing as when my toddler became ill and started losing weight! And most of them do cheat, and my daughter can not cheat.

And my biological father, who has a host of health problems, went off wheat because of that book, and it turns out he has had lifelong GI symptoms, and my daughter may have inherited her condition from him. So he is doing better and is a big believer in the book, but he does cheat ocasionally. And his doctor took it upon himself to order a Celiac panel for my dad which came back negative. Big surprise, he isn't eating gluten regularly, so of course it didn't show antibodies. And yet he may very well be Celiac. Sigh.

Arrgh! So my 2yr old daughter had the tests, blood (inconclusive due to low total IGA) genetic(has one gene) and endo(no visible damage found) but she gets sick and stops gaining weight when she eats gluten. So that is all I need to know for now.

So I told my MIL that we are gluten-free at home, and my daughter is gluten-free everywhere. She likes to have us over for dinner occasionally and babysits my kids 1-2 days a week. And she asks if I am going to be "as strict about being gluten-free" as I was before we pursued testing! The problem is that she has a friend that self-diagnosed as gluten-sensitive but still eats spelt so she thinks I should make similar choices for my daughter. And MILs neighbor was just diagnosed as Celiac through endo and still eats like half a gluten doughnut or whatever and says her children had Celiac but outgrew it. So I am the weirdo that says no spelt no cheating.

To me it's pretty all or nothing, I don't think it's healthy for my daughter to eat "just a little bit" of gluten. Nor do I appreciate when my MIL wants to give my daughter junky sugary treats (but it's gluten-free!) when I would never feed her those foods. And she lives right by a gluten-free restaurant (!) but she won't think of going there with us.

And I am so sick of having the conversation explaining why there is a value in feeding my child in a way that is "socially isolating." I usually just resort to "I am the mom, so too bad if you don't understand" but some people just want to push the issue, and unfortunately I can't avoid my family who are otherwise wonderful.

Anyone share my aggravation?

My daughter was about 13 months old when she had the runs for 2 weeks, followed by 2-3 months of smelly unformed stool, lethargy, weight loss, crankiness, bloating. Testing provided no conclusions so no official diagnosis and only going gluten-free made her health improve and her symptoms abate.

I love the Dowd and Rogers gluten-free Chestnut flour cake mix! The lemon is too lemony for me, and they all get sticky on the outside if you bake them a day ahead (not that it matters if you are frosting it), but the chocolate is sooo good and I love the vanilla (be warned that it is not white, which is the only clue that it's something different that gluten food. But everyone in my family loves them, and I make cupcakes all the time for birthday parties so that my 2 yr old gets to have cake too, and other people always enjoy them and can't tell they are gluten-free. I only wish I didn't have to order them because sadly my local Whole Foods doesn't carry them.

You've come to the right place to vent! There is a lot of guilt and anger and frustration that is so normal after a diagnosis and the first six months or even the first year is certainly the hardest. You are still learning, so give yourself a break, you are doing the best you can, and you will get better at it as time goes on. Your children are so lucky to have a parent that is so dedicated to preserving their health. It's not an easy adjustment going gluten-free, give yourself a pat on the back for getting it right 99.9% of the time! I know the guilt, my daughter is gluten-free, and I have "glutented" her by mistake. You are also in the right place to get the information and support you need to help figure out the food choices. Most of us probably mess up once in a while. It will be OK.

And remember that as a parent there are many opportunities for guilt, try not to dwell on it too much.

Take care!

scaredparent,

The testing is such a frustrating process. I wish I could tell you what would help your son get better. I know how frustrating it is when doctors can't tell you what is wrong with your child. It sounds like you are determined to be a good advocate for your son't health, and that is an important part in finding what will help him. If I left it to others, everyone would say my daughter was fine with stinky runs and weight loss and lethargy at 13 months, but I knew better and I will keep pushing for what made her better, and in her case that was eating gluten-free. Trust your instincts, if you think something isn't right with your son you do know best.

It couldn't hurt to try gluten-free, it is a huge adjustment at first, but there is a lot of great support here for figuring out food choices. I would be hesitant to try going gluten-free at the same time as you are doing other treatments because if ther is a change in your son's symptoms it may leave you wondering whether it was medicine or food that made things change.

You son's symptoms, except for the throwing up, are very similar to my daughter's symptoms before going gluten-free. Of course I can't say if going gluten-free will work for your son, but it is definitely worth ruling out, and I don't believe that the tests alone can rule out the possibility based on our experience and the stories I have read on this board.

In my daughter's case, the change in symptoms is the only proof we have that she has a gluten issue, no tests have come back positive. I don't care anymore if it's celiac or gluten intolerance or if anyone wants think it's some kind of food neurosis that I have manufactured. I have watched how her health changes in relationship to her consumption of gluten and that is all of the evidence I need. Would confirmation from an MD be helpful? Sure it would, but I have to trust myself to do what's best for her. That to me is the biggest drawback with diagnosing a child through diet challenging. You can't get the official stamp that gives you the credibility you need when dealing with family, friends, and schools. But that comes after improving the child's health, which is the key issue.

I hope that you find what works for you child very soon. Take care.