Poppi

Do you need ideas on what you could pack?

We are gluten, coconut and food colouring free here and my son's 6th birthday party is on Saturday. I am the only person in the family currently gluten free (although all the children are being tested over the summer) but since I am preparing all the food and there will be over 20 kids I am making the party gluten free. I don't want to be worried about all the surfaces in the house and yard being contaminated!

I made the a party from 1:00-4:00 so nobody expects a full meal.

Cake will be a Dairy Queen ice cream cake made with cold fudge in the middle instead of cookie crumbles and left without decoration except for the birthday message written in cold fudge. We bought a bag of safe Hariboo gummy candies to decorate with. I will also make a batch of dairy/gluten/egg free chocolate cupcakes as well as I think one of the kids coming has a dairy and/or egg allergy as well and the cake won't be enough for everyone.

Other food:

Fruit (watermelon, grapes, oranges)

Veggies and tzatziki dip

Cheese platter with gluten-free crackers and various cheeses

Lay's salt and vinegar chips

Tostitos, mango salsa and guacamole

Homemade gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

Juice and pop to drink

We're focusing a lot on the games and activities and I think it'll go great.

Oh that is a tough one. My first plan would be to call the camp director and talk about options.

I'm guessing you might just have to send food if the camp will allow you some freezer and storage space.

I had a rash that spread all across my stomach, down my hips, up under my arms and I even had a patch across my forehead. It didn't itch and nothing made it go away. It disappeared after 4 days gluten free. So just because it doesn't conform to the typical gluten rash doesn't mean it's not a gluten reaction.

You might want to add in the testing for Pernicious Anemia.

As for your "picky eater", does your little one chew food and then spit it out? That is another symptom of PICA.

I had pica when I was pregnant. Only stuck to the ice though. The crunchier ~the better, was the feeling that I was going for.

Holy cow! Yes! She has always chewed her food and spit it out, ever since she was just starting to eat, it drives us crazy!

I'm so worried about her. I don't mind having Celiac, I'm a grown up I can deal with it. I was hoping my kids being half Asian would protect them since it's so uncommon in Asians. Well, I'll request the Celiac bloodwork along with the other vitamin/mineral stuff next week.

The only problem is that you have to cook your food to an internal temperature of 160 F to kill E. Coli. The only way to determine that is with a meat thermometer and cooking vegetables to that temperature would likely leave you with a disgusting plate full of mush with little nutritional value left.

It is a huge learning curve. I did really well in my first month of gluten-free but didn't really believe that things like kisses and pots could make that much of a difference. Now that I've eliminated all those "tiny" sources like gluteny kisses and non stick pots my recovery has been amazing!

I'll preface this by saying that I have made a doctor's appointment for Lily but I have to wait more than a week and I'm wondering if anyone else has any similar experiences.

Lily is 2 and seems to be perfectly healthy, she is a bit small for her age but active, happy and rarely gets sick. Her bowel movements are normal and she doesn't appear to be in pain.

She is an incredibly picky eater. She likes baked goods, fruit and yogurt. That's pretty much it. 90% of the baked goods she eats are gluten free because I obviously can't bake with wheat flour. I just passed her picky eating off to being 2.

However... she eats other stuff. She's obsessed withe eating felt tipped markers and sidewalk chalk and her brother has this little plaster statue of an ice cream cone that she has actually eaten chunks out of. Today I found a spot behind the living room curtains where she has apparently been eating the drywall right out of the wall. It looks like she's been picking the pain chips off and then using her teeth to scrape drywall out.

So I looked up Pica and discovered that it can be a symptom of celiac. Celiac runs in my family but can pica be the only symptom? Anyone else have a kid with pica?

Thanks

The first week would be excruciating. The brain fog hits within the hour. Constant migraine, intense muscle pain and spasms all up my back and neck, severe nausea, fatigue, joint pain, irritability, constipation. The second week the nausea and pain start to fade, the headache is gone but my neck still hurts really badly. By the end of the second week things are almost back to normal and in the third week I start feeling really good again.

That's how it played out when I got cc'd by some hashbrowns a month ago.

Since even crumbs will set off a 2 week reaction for me it's not something I would ever do.

That said, I absentmindedly took a bite of my daughter's alphabet noodle soup a few weeks into being gluten-free and panicked. Vomiting was the only thing I could think of to do so I did. Then I took a whack of digestive enzymes and hoped for the best. It seemed to work as I didn't have a reaction but I would certainly never do it on purpose.

My kids start helping with their laundry when they are old enough to throw clothes in the machine, my 2 year old can do that. My 5 year old can put the soap in and is learning which knobs do what. My 15 year old son has been 100% responsible for his own laundry since he was 10.

Your son definitely needs to be taking care of his own clothes whether that's at home or at a laundromat.

Be careful of the diner food. I didn't think I was sensitive enough to get sick from contaminated pans but within a month I realized I was and have had to replace all my pans with stainless steel. So be cautious about food being cooked/grilled on a shared cooking surface.

But I want to go to Ottawa. A whole week without kids or laundry. No fair.

This lady blogged a recipe:

Open Original Shared Link

So I'm mildly peeved at my husband. His work is sending him away on a course and he's floating about the house all happy that he gets to spend a whole week in Ottawa in a nice hotel with $100 a day for food and entertainment. I'm insanely jealous. I want to get away from the kids and home too.

So in a fit of poutiness I just spent a bunch of money ordering cake mixes, cookies and donuts from Kinnikinnick. I probably shouldn't have done that. It's funny because a few months ago I would have spent that $100 on yarn or spinning fibre but now it's bread, donuts and cake mix.

I think celiac is a definite possibility. Your boyfriend is right on one count though, a whole foods diet is a great way to start. In your case just leave the gluten and dairy out of the equation. A month on meat, fruits, veggies, rice and quinoa is a great beginning. Then you can try a bit of gluten or dairy and see how you feel. If you feel like crap you have your answer.

Good luck!

And depression is often caused by celiac so you may find your depression improving as well.

Excuse me? Whose kitchen is it anyway? You are the one who has Celiac disease! You are the one whose health is at risk! You are the ONLY one who has anything at risk here. Frankly if it was me, the entire house would be gluten free and if that was not workable then there would not be any moving. You are changing your life to allow them in, but in so doing you are putting yourself at risk and you need to manage that risk at an acceptable level to you. If you are willing to subordinate your health for their comfort, fundamentally showing them that they are more important than your life and health, than that is your decision. If you feel that a manageable and acceptable risk level is gluten-free kitchen with an island for them, that is also your decision as it is your risk, not theirs.

That may sound callous and uncaring, but in reality I believe that placing yourself in an at risk situation that you are not comfortable with is more callous and uncaring to your husband and daughter.

uh. Yeah. Ignore everything I said. Korwyn is right. They are moving into YOUR house, too bad if it's inconvenient for them.

That can't possibly be an issue of we would all have to be vegans. Chickens, cows, turkeys, pigs ... all their food is grain and a good portion or it is going to be wheat, barley, oats etc.

I posted a month's worth of dinner plans on my blog recently. I feed a family of 7 and while some of these dinners aren't super cheap there is enough variety that you should be able to get a few ideas.

Lentil soup, salad and gluten-free cornbread

Hamburgers, steamed cauliflower and baked potato wedges

BBQ salmon, brown rice, steamed broccoli

Grilled skewers from M&M meats (they have several gluten-free varieties), grilled asparagus and rice

Roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn

Turkey tostadas with homemade corn tortillas

Bacon & eggs, hashbrowns and fruit salad

Asian peanut butter pork, rice and broccoli

Green Thai curry with chicken, zucchini, carrots and baby corn, rice

Beef stir fry with lots of vegetables and rice or rice noodles

Salad and turkey soup made with the bones from last week's turkey

Tacos with corn taco shells, ground beef and homemade taco seasoning along with all the usual taco toppings

Breakfast skillet with potatoes, eggs, sausages and toast

Sole fillets fried with panko crumbs, cauliflower and rice

Chicken nuggets, fries and tabouleh

Maple salmon, brown rice and corn on the cob

Grilled steak salad and baked potatoes

Butter chicken, curried cauliflower and rice

Prawns sauteed in garlic butter with rice and grilled zucchini

BBQ chicken, Macaroni and cheese (I'll post a recipe for feeding a mixed family of gluten and gluten-free eaters) and salad

Homemade pizza

Fritatta with potatoes, peppers and mushrooms, fruit and bacon

Beef stir fry with lots of vegetables and rice or rice noodles

Asian peanut butter pork, rice and broccoli

Hamburgers, salad and fries

Maple salmon, brown rice and steamed carrots

Chili and cornbread

Korean Ribs, rice and steamed broccoli

I don't generally plan a full 31 meals because there are always at least 3 evenings a month where we eat leftovers or eat out or just feel like oatmeal and tea.

t's pretty much the same food we ate before I had to stop eating gluten. I just cook with some slight modifications. Where ever there is a bread product I either purchase a gluten free alternative for myself and a regular version for everyone else or I bake a gluten free version for everyone.

I couldn't help but read that as a poem because of the way it was centered.

For me the nausea takes 1-2 weeks of 100% purity of diet to go away after being glutened. Meaning if I get glutened by accident or at a restaurant it takes up to 2 weeks of eating only whole foods prepared myself for the nausea and muscle pain and inflammation to go away. Everyone is different though so your body may behave differently from mine.

I also had to stop drinking coffee, it makes me have very similar symptoms to a glutening. 1/2 a cup of coffee for me results in several hours of nausea and fatigue.

You have a Tim Hortons across the street? Does that greasy donut smell drive you nuts? Not in a " I want donut" way. We loved them when we have been in Canada & not gluten-free, but they smell greasy.

Maybe give it a couple of months and try some plain home made coffee?

Well it's not exactly across the street more like kitty corner from our back yard and there is an Earl's in between the Tim's and our house so we mostly smell their wood burning ovens which is quite nice.

Absolutely a gluten free kitchen with a gluten island. It is your kitchen and the vast majority of it needs to be safe. best scenario would be an island with storage for gluten foods, especially foods that leave crumbs like bread, crackers and cereal.

What's the shop across the street? Does home brewed bother you also?

It's a Tim Horton's. I've also tried a local shop that roasts their own beans and a couple varieties of the Starbucks Via packets. Same reaction every time.

I haven't made any coffee at home since a month before I went gluten free because I was hooked on the Caramel Starbucks Via.