GFCF Diet - how to get started?

[airial95]

I've read on here that many of you have gone GFCF with your kids (and families) and was wondering if it's really worth it? My husband and I recently lost over 75 lbs between the two of us, so the whole households diets have been shifted to more fresh/healthier meals (as opposed to catering to the spaghetti/meatballs, chicken fingers/mac & cheese crowd in our home!)

 

I was thinking of testing it out, but money's tight for us (no surprise there!) and I'm skeptical if my son will even eat it. Are there some quick easy "test" foods we can try for a little while to see if he'll get any benefits out of it? I've read results are about 50/50 as to whether it will work or not. If it does, I'd like to try to switch the whole familiy (I cooked 2 seperate meals while hubby and I were losing weight and I really don't want to go back to that again!!!) but worry about my daughter - she's an EXTREMELY picky eater, and is reluctant to try anything new.

 

My PANDAS son is awfully skinny too (about to turn 3 and still wearing 12-18 month pants - but very tall for his age, winter is going to be fun!) so I want to make sure he'll keep gaining weight.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome!!

[matis_mom]

I've read on here that many of you have gone GFCF with your kids (and families) and was wondering if it's really worth it? My husband and I recently lost over 75 lbs between the two of us, so the whole households diets have been shifted to more fresh/healthier meals (as opposed to catering to the spaghetti/meatballs, chicken fingers/mac & cheese crowd in our home!)

 

I was thinking of testing it out, but money's tight for us (no surprise there!) and I'm skeptical if my son will even eat it. Are there some quick easy "test" foods we can try for a little while to see if he'll get any benefits out of it? I've read results are about 50/50 as to whether it will work or not. If it does, I'd like to try to switch the whole familiy (I cooked 2 seperate meals while hubby and I were losing weight and I really don't want to go back to that again!!!) but worry about my daughter - she's an EXTREMELY picky eater, and is reluctant to try anything new.

 

My PANDAS son is awfully skinny too (about to turn 3 and still wearing 12-18 month pants - but very tall for his age, winter is going to be fun!) so I want to make sure he'll keep gaining weight.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be very welcome!!

I am thinking of doing this myself, but are also worried about $ and time spent in the kitchen! What I'm doing is working by way backwards by not buying certain things when they run out. My kids are pretty good eaters, but like rather plain food, so roasted chicken/beef, salad, veggies, etc, work pretty well.

I'd love to hear suggestions from those who have done it/are doing it.

 

I think your son might even gain weight on the GFCG diet. I was looking more specifically at the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The premise is that by eating only very simple and easy to digest foods you give the gut a break and the person can actually absorb nutrients better. If you can, check out a book called "Breaking the vicious cycle" or google Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

 

I think I will only do it with PANDAS ds because I could not afford to buy the special ingredients to make enough food for a family of 10! But if he does well, I will try to do it for everyone. We'll see...

[dut]

Hi - we did dairy free for 3 years with no problems (dd's allergy).. IMO that's the easy part.. lots of different options and not so hard to exclude when you get used to it.. gluten free has been another issue. I've also got a saboteur in the house, an adult one, but that's another story.

 

 

I find dinners are easy if you stick to the meat and two veg type dish or casseroles etc and shouldn't cost any more than normal dinners. You can get decent quinoa/corn pastas and some not so bad pizza bases (Udi's do good ones) but are pricier than normal.

 

Breakfast is okay, you can get buckwheat pancakes and waffles at Trader Joe's that come in cheap and the usual eggs and stuff is ok.. bacon may need to be checked.. some hams have gluten so check the bacon.. not sure. My difficult one is luunches and packed lunches for school. Getting decent sliced bread. Again Udi's do a good one for toast but IMO nothing is nice as a sandwich bread that is gluten free but there are work arounds.

 

For us the sticking point is eating out/any fast food. Dairy is fairly easy to avoid when out but not so easy the gluten.

 

I think it is definitely worth a try. I've been told you need to go at least a few months for gluten as it can take 6 months for the antibodies to leave the body.. dairy is much quicker I believe. We only managed 3 weeks gf but are going to go for it again when school starts and really give it a go.

 

Our almost definite PANDAS ds (dd has a dx) is a very physicl boy .. with lots of heavy handed play and some biting and inability to control impulses. When we cut out gluten and eggs (he had an elevated egg IgG) almost all of it disappeared within a week and has returned since we've been more slack. Not sure if it's gf or eggs but something was helping...

 

I think you really need everyone in the house on board.

 

Good luck...

Edited August 20, 2010 by dut

[mkur]

Elimination diets are not expensive. They are just hard to do especially for children. It knocks out all their favorite foods and makes birthday parties really hard. This is a major problem if the child is in school and has to watch all his classmates eating his favorite foods. It did not work for my son and created more problems - he would not comply. He started begging food from friends and neighbors etc. If I lived on 100 acre farm away from everyone, it might have worked.

 

You need to eliminate all the highly allergic foods for 4 days and then introduce them one at a time and look for reactions.

This website lists the problem foods http://www.cfids.org/archives/1998/pre-1999-article01.asp#diet.

 

Good luck.

[Suzan]

I think it is worth it, for us anyway it's been great. If you think of the staples you can still eat, provided he's not allergic to any of them, it may not sound so daunting. Rice, Potatoes, corn, meat, dairy, veggies, fruit, plus lots of other grains.

 

Find a GF cereal (most chex is GF now), see if he likes Annies GF Mac and Cheese, for chips be sure ot check the ingredients, some of the flavored ones have gluten/wheat.

 

It's not as easy to just pick up quick snacks and you often have to bring your own food or snacks along just in case. I make Betty Crocker cake or cookies for them for each birthday party they go to and send snacks to school to keep for when they have food brought in for parties, etc.

 

I buy too many GF wheat substitute products but I know you can cut those out and do it for much more cheaply. And mainstream brands are getting GF stuff that is cheaper (Hamburger Helper has one now with hashbrowns instead of pasta). Not sure how much you cook. I don't cook as much as I would like to and get a lot of easy stuff. I'd like to do more but it's not happening right now.

 

Susan

[airial95]

Thanks for all of the ideas...I think when we get back from our weekend away I might take the plunge and start trying it. It sounds like I can do it slowly and build up...

[momoffive]

I think it is worth it, for us anyway it's been great. If you think of the staples you can still eat, provided he's not allergic to any of them, it may not sound so daunting. Rice, Potatoes, corn, meat, dairy, veggies, fruit, plus lots of other grains.

 

Find a GF cereal (most chex is GF now), see if he likes Annies GF Mac and Cheese, for chips be sure ot check the ingredients, some of the flavored ones have gluten/wheat.

 

It's not as easy to just pick up quick snacks and you often have to bring your own food or snacks along just in case. I make Betty Crocker cake or cookies for them for each birthday party they go to and send snacks to school to keep for when they have food brought in for parties, etc.

 

I buy too many GF wheat substitute products but I know you can cut those out and do it for much more cheaply. And mainstream brands are getting GF stuff that is cheaper (Hamburger Helper has one now with hashbrowns instead of pasta). Not sure how much you cook. I don't cook as much as I would like to and get a lot of easy stuff. I'd like to do more but it's not happening right now.

 

Susan

 

Hi. I am trying to understand why GFCF would help? is it that Casein and Glutens are inflammatory? my son's celiac was negative and his in not technically allergic to dairy

[philamom]

I'm considering making some changes in my daughter's diet and appreciate the helpful suggestions here. With school approaching (hopefully, i get her back this year), I don't have alot of time for food preparation. Is there any more brand names of GF products that are recommended?

Thank you!

[EmersonAilidh]

Arial95 - Are you considering the diet for general P.A.N.D.A.S. symptoms, gastrointestinal issues or both? I'm gfree (not cfree, as you all have read what a battle gfree alone has been..) & it has been nothing less than a miracle for my stabbing abdominal pains that used to come multiple times a day & now only come up a couple times a week. I hope the diet change goes well!

 

We live in a fairly small part of Texas, not exactly restrictive-diet friendly, & some brands that I see quite often are Amy's Kitchen & EnviroKidz. Amy's Kitchen is mostly a vegan brand, but a lot of their little frozen meals (like mac & cheese) are gluten-free. They, & lots of other gfree frozen items, are a tad on the pricey side though. EnviroKidz makes granola bars, cereal, & stuff like that all aimed towards kids (i.e. Leapin Lemurs to substitute for Reese's Puffs) that is considerably cheaper than Amy's. I've been a granola bar fiend for the past couple weeks thanks to them. If you have a Whole Foods or a store like it near you there is a brand called Udi's that is awesome as well. They make gfree white bread, "wheat" bread, bagels, pizza crusts, you name it. They're not as expensive as Amy's but they do go bad kinda fast & the sandwich bread is small in comparison to regular bread.

 

As for sample foods to see if it would help, I would recommend anything mentioned above & also mashed potatoes & rice. When I was eating solid food everytime I ate (if you can call mashed potatoes solid..) those two were great because they're quick, easy, & if you make a bunch your kids could just throw their favorite toppings in. Hope I helped some! Sorry I don't know much about cfree. :/

 

_________________________________________________________

 

Edit :

 

ACTUALLY.. I'm an idiot & I just now actually read into to casein free. Can people be casein intolerant or is that just lactose intolerant? Or, does it just make some people feel better not to eat it? Anyway. I haven't drank milk in years & I eat cheese very rarely. I have no idea how to check any of the above named brands for casein though. Sorry again. :/

Edited August 23, 2010 by EmersonAilidh

[airial95]

Emmerson,

 

We'd be doing it for the PANDAS symptoms primarily. We haven't had any gut issues (yet - keep your fingers crossed!) eventhough we've been on abx for 8 months straight now. He doesn't complaing of any abdominal pain either. I've read that parents with ADHD kids have found great results with the GFCF diets and know there are lots of parents on here that do it.

 

We're so close with just the abx (about 85% when he's NOT exposed/fighting strep) that we're hoping with the CBT for the OCD (which is going well so far) and maybe switching his diet we can get the rest of the way.

 

Thanks for the suggestions - we do have a Whole Foods locally, as well as a local grocery chain that has opened 2 Greenwise markets (their version of Whole Foods) so I'll be doing some shopping when we get back next week!!

[EmersonAilidh]

I was at Target today & I thought of you when I saw this.

 

http://www.iansnaturalfoods.com/entrees.html

 

Not ALL of it is GFCF & Target sure didn't have much of it (worst place for restrictive dieters, I swear), but I thought it was cool that it was kid oriented & they had a pretty good selection, comparatively speaking. Good luck!

[DebC]

We recently saw a nutritionist to see about building our daughter's immune system. We are not gluten free but are doing the following to build her immunity:

 

No white flour

No white sugar

No milk

No hydrogenated oils

No white rice

 

I am doing some shopping at Target but the majority at Whole Foods. Our grocery bill has definitely gone up, but we all feel better eating this way. We are also eating mainly organic foods and our meat sources are now grass fed/free range/no antibiotic. When I was growing up, we used to get our eggs from a relative's farm. The eggs we are now purchasing look just as I remember them to look.

 

One item which we have all loved in the Quinoa pasta. I was surprised that the kids like it better than regular pasta. I have learned to make a great strawberry smoothie with ice, yogurt, strawberries, orange juice, a dash of honey, and stevia. I also figured out a chocolate smoothie (also sugar free) to trick ourselves into thinking that we are having dessert as we used to love our desserts. I think losing the white sugar has been one of the harder parts of the diet. I do allow some items with small amounts of evaporated cane juice. If I didn't do this, there wouldn't be many cereals that we could eat. Z Bars have also been a replacement for dessert -- some evaporated cane juice, but a ton of nutrition in them. As I said, we are doing this just to shore up her immune system so we do allow some straying from the diet. We will allow her to eat a hot lunch at school once a week and we eat out as a family once a week. We allow her to eat whatever her friends have at their homes if she is over for a playdate. I would say we follow the plan 85% of the time. One plus for me is that I have lost a bit of weight myself because there are no sodas or junk going in the majority of the time.

 

She is also taking several supplements a day: Immuplex, Cataplex B, and Omega 3's. I'm participating in that part as well since there are a ton of autoimmune land mines on my side of the family.

[DebC]

I was at Target today & I thought of you when I saw this.

 

http://www.iansnaturalfoods.com/entrees.html

 

Not ALL of it is GFCF & Target sure didn't have much of it (worst place for restrictive dieters, I swear), but I thought it was cool that it was kid oriented & they had a pretty good selection, comparatively speaking. Good luck!

 

One other thing to look for at Target is the Glutino Brand pizza in the freezer department. They are personal sizes and we tried them a few weeks ago (I do purchase some items gluten free). It was great!