pr40 Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 We've been on gluten free diet for 3 years. It was hard at the beginning but it is no longer. I want to give you a few simple pieces of advice if you want to try. 1) it is easier to have the whole household do it. 2) the way to start is to gather all gluten products you have and give them to a friend 3) stop buying prepared, prepackaged food with very few exceptions like hot-dogs, rice cakes of all kinds, some cereals 4) center your meals around meat, fish, fruit (apple, banana), and veggies 5) there are great gluten free breads, muffins, and cakes, but you have to make them at home. i'd be happy to share our best recepies 6) go to Asian market. most of the things are either gluten free or have a gluten free version -- avoid MSG, of course 7) remember, it gets easier as you go along. first three months are the harderst. i'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about how to manage first months on a gluten free diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeskneesmommy Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 We went GF last August and it was a major game changer. Since then we have discovered that DS7 has very significant allergies...to a lot! It is perfectly reasonable that he is gluten intolerant, especially when we were able to see such a measurable change. I truly wish I had not waffled with one foot in and one foot out of the GF world for so long prior to taking the plunge. All or nothing is the only way and we will never go back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hrosenkrantz Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 pr40 -- on making the whole house gluten free-- for argument's sake -- what do i do about the resentful 11 year old who already has issues with how much of a drain his PANS brother is on the functioning of the entire family? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowPow Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 My other kids practically starved the month we went gf. Total disaster here. I wish I had a good answer for you, hrosenkrantz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowingmom Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 Our family had no choice in the matter. If they did not want to eat the gf food I cooked, they went hungry. Fortunately, along the way our acne-prone 15 year old, now 17, found that by eating gf/paleo, his acne cleared up. It was only then that he realized that our new diet was perhaps healthier than the old one. He is also one of the few kids on his hockey/lacrosse/rowing teams that has no abdominal fat issues. The kid can eat a truck load of meat/veg/some fruit/resistant starch and gain only muscle. He's pretty proud of his physique. They will come around, but you have to use some propaganda too. Have them read Mark's Daily Apple. Mark is an easy to understand paleo proponent that tells things like it is. Our bodies evolved eating certain kinds of foods and we are naturally more healthy when we eat them. It's probably easier to get the older teenagers on board as they are more concerned with appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeskneesmommy Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 (edited) I have the pickiest eater ever, and we have not had a big problem. Sure, he is irritable about it at times, but there are so many mainstream foods that are fine for him. For instance, popcorn, corn tortilla chips, potato chips, Fritos, which we occasionally have although I like to stay away from GMOs. Some BBQ sauces are GF, like Sweet Baby Rays. GF breads are generally yucky in my opinion, but Udi's is great and you can get large loaves at Costco for a reasonable price. We eat pretty normally but exclude gluten completely. However, we are not dairy free and apparently do not need to be. I would suggest cutting out the gluten first, then the dairy/casein of there is no change in going GF. We had very fast, evident results, but most people need to be on GF for at least 1 month prior to seeing improvement. Patience! PS: I have gone GF along with my son (since 8/13) and it has helped some of my joint pain and skin issues (I was getting these weird, itchy rashes). My husband appears to be unable/unwilling to follow thru w/GF. I got rid of all of the stuff in the cupboard, like wheat crackers, flour, etc. However, he still buys some items that have gluten and just keeps them to himself. If he wants dinner at night, he has to eat what I make! PPS: Costco, Walmart and Trader Joe's are good resources for GF at reasonable prices. Lucky for us GF has recently become kind of a "fad", so those of us that really need it have more choices at this time! Edited February 17, 2014 by beeskneesmommy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyD Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 The ONLY food I have not been able to find a suitable replacement for is bread. My DD is really picky about her bread. Any GREAT GF breads out there? I know about Udi's. Any others? I would even ship it in if I can't find it locally! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr40 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 pr40 -- on making the whole house gluten free-- for argument's sake -- what do i do about the resentful 11 year old who already has issues with how much of a drain his PANS brother is on the functioning of the entire family? we started with younger children and I can tell you how we did it. when ds5 was diagnosed with celiac two years ago, we told dd10 that she too has to be gluten and dairy-free because she is sensitive to both. She did not have medical expertize to question us. But, yes, it is difficult to convince an 11 year old to give up so much. In the long run, giving up in this culture will help for his character. I think that you can argue that he too would benefit from being gluten free -- you can make exceptions for outings with his friends if you really think that there is no sensitivity to gluten. He could have a special eating regime at home and outside of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr40 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 The ONLY food I have not been able to find a suitable replacement for is bread. My DD is really picky about her bread. Any GREAT GF breads out there? I know about Udi's. Any others? I would even ship it in if I can't find it locally! no, unfortuantely, there are no great breads out there but there are great recipes for both breads and muffins that you can make at home. After a year of practice, it takes me 20 minutes to prepare the bread for baking. I bake enough for the whole week. muffins and banana cakes take only a bit longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 What about spices? We like flavor in our food. Some say gluten free but are they msg free also? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyD Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 I buy all organic spices and they are both gluten and MSG free. When I am in doubt I always google a specific product to make sure it's GF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibcdbwc Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 DS12 eats his friends foods at school, every day. We are not GF but I go to great lengths to ensure a somewhat healthy balanced lunch meal. It's maddening to see that meal come home. So now, with my desire to try GF I wonder how in the world i can convince him to stop eating junk at school. I'm amazed at the array of junk available to him. I suppose with age, he will one day realize it's up to him. In the meantime it's so completely frustrating that he wants to undo all the potential good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dut Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 rowingmom - are you fully paleo? did you go gf first? I would like to go fully paleo here. well maybe primal (with some dairy) but am wondering whether we should go gf first or just try the lot at once. If you went gf first, did you see a big difference from gf to paleo? We've flirted with it over the last few months but haven't gone whole hog. I've been gf free for about 10 days or so. Nothing noticeable yet but.. my mother stopped eating bread last week and is already feeling loads better. WAY less tired, walking better etc... A great book is Grain Brain if folks haven't read it yet by Perlmutter. A really good, fact/study laden book on the benefits of going grain free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pr40 Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 rowingmom - are you fully paleo? did you go gf first? I would like to go fully paleo here. well maybe primal (with some dairy) but am wondering whether we should go gf first or just try the lot at once. If you went gf first, did you see a big difference from gf to paleo? We've flirted with it over the last few months but haven't gone whole hog. I've been gf free for about 10 days or so. Nothing noticeable yet but.. my mother stopped eating bread last week and is already feeling loads better. WAY less tired, walking better etc... A great book is Grain Brain if folks haven't read it yet by Perlmutter. A really good, fact/study laden book on the benefits of going grain free. I want to urge you not to do all at once. you'll put yourself and your family through . cravings are going to be intolerable, etc. so, start with what seems easiest for you, either gf or casein free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowingmom Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 (edited) We went paleo first, and after all I have read about the GMO grains that they use in GF products, I plan to stay that way. I researched it a lot when I thought DD's IBS issues were food based (it actually cleared up when she started bartonella treatment). We tried so many elimination diets, it was crazy, but I came upon paleo and it made sense, so I went with it. We simply do not eat bread. Hamburgers are eaten with a knife and fork. Spagetti sauce is eaten over spagetti squash noodles. Full paleo is hard. We only managed for several months. It is pretty low carb, and the carbs they allow tend to be high oxalate (sweet potatoes), so we have ended up going more with the PerfectHealthDiet. This is a great site with lots of research to back up the Jaminet's recommendations. We eat more vegetables than the Jaminet's recommend, leaning more toward Terry Wahl's prescription. We eat potatoes and white rice (almost always cut 1/2 and 1/2 with mashed cauliflower), both cooked and cooled to produce resistant starch. 3 mornings a week we have cooked soaked/fermented oatmeal. That's my only concession to grains. Hopefully the fermentation eliminates the lectins and phytates that can cause gut damage/leaky gut. We eat a fairly large amount of fat (coconut, grassfed ghee, red palm oil, olive oil) and this helps with hunger. I haven't been entirely successful in changing my husband's eating. I buy him 1 loaf of organic bread per week so he doesn't feel too put out, but the rest of us don't touch it. He eats the breakfasts, lunches and dinners I make, but I know he heads off to Tim Horton's for a treat. That's up to him. He's not my kid. I guess the diet just kind of evolved. I started giving the kids dinner leftovers for their lunches so that eliminated sandwiches. Then I started substituting every other breakfast with wilted arugula/kale, some beets, maybe an egg (just the yolk for DD) with some bacon/ghee/seasalt on top. Then if they don't have greens for breakfast, I make them some when they get home from school. At this point they are starved and will eat anything. I don't keep any snacks in the house. If DD and I make macaroons, they are gone in a flash, but it's fun. We do this every couple of weeks. I make pancakes from fermented oats, almond flour and coconut flour with banana for sweetener, and muffins from pretty much the same recipe. We do some dark chocolate, but again it makes DS break out, so I can't use that in baking. We make smoothies with coconut milk, whey powder and frozen berries. Edited February 18, 2014 by rowingmom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now