Eating out can be such a luxury; a respite from meal preparation, grocery shopping, and the cooking and cleaning that go with eating at home. But if you or your child has a gluten sensitivity or allergy, eating out can be a hassle, or even stressful, especially if the other people dining at your table don't have dietary restrictions. That basket of bread and butter on the table is a great temptation if you can't have it as an adult, but if you're a child, not being able to have what everyone else at the table is eating is cause for a scene. Here are some tips to successfully dine out gluten free, especially with GF children:
1.) Order an appetizer with the drink order: order soup, a side of rice or avocado immediately so that the children have something to snack on instead of the bread basket.
2.) Deconstruct meals: many restaurants are willing to accommodate a gluten sensitivity or allergy by combining pieces of other dishes together.
3.) Sides are your friend: You can also construct your own meal by ordering a number of sides. For my daughter, I often put together sides of grilled chicken, rice and avocado.
4.) Chef Salad: These salads are packed with variety and often suit both myself and my GF daughter. I order her a side of rice and then give her the kids friendly bits of my salad: hard boiled eggs, cheese, turkey, ham, tomato and cucumber. You can always add grilled fish, chicken or steak to the salad for additional protein.
5.) Peeling doesn't count!: Removing the breading on kids menu items such as chicken strips, at least in our experience, doesn't work. It may be different for others, but for us, it's not worth it.
6.) Maximize fresh fruits and veggies: fill up on a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies, being cautious with any "dips" you may use. Ask a server for an ingredient list if needed.
Friday, August 3, 2012
These gluten free products can make life easier !
If you, your child or a loved one has a gluten sensitivity or allergy, you are not sentenced to a life of deprivation of the finer (and tastier) things in life. Since discovering our youngest child's gluten sensitivity, our whole family has made the switch to eating a gluten free diet (for the most part anyway). As with anything in life, you tend to meet others on your journey that share similar circumstances, and in ours, we have met many families that have children with gluten sensitivities and allergies that are unable to find or lack access to good gf alternatives. The following is a list of products and companies that make really delicious GF foods that, most often, are tastier than their gluten containing counterparts. Many local grocers can special order these products, while amazon is also a great, and often lower priced, option. Here are some of our favorites:
Ancient Quinoa Brand - Quinoa noodles and spaghetti
Bio-Nature Brand (fron Italy) - Rice & Potato Noodles
Pamela's Brand - cake mixes, pancake mix (really good!), everything snack bars, cookies
Annies Brand - Gluten Free frozen pound cake, GF Vanilla & Chocolate bunnies , and ginger bunnies
Rice and Shine - GF hot rice cereal
Udi's Brand - frozen bagels, breads, rolls (hot dog / hamburger), granola and muffins
Bob"s Red Mill Brand - GF oatmeal
Garden of Eatin' Brand - corn chips
Pirate Booty Brand - Veggie Bootie
Glutino Brand - Pretzels and table crackers (really good!)
YaYa Brand - Popcorn
Sonoma Brand- GF soft tortillas
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a start. I'll be adding to it as we find other good products. Happy Eating!
Ancient Quinoa Brand - Quinoa noodles and spaghetti
Bio-Nature Brand (fron Italy) - Rice & Potato Noodles
Pamela's Brand - cake mixes, pancake mix (really good!), everything snack bars, cookies
Annies Brand - Gluten Free frozen pound cake, GF Vanilla & Chocolate bunnies , and ginger bunnies
Rice and Shine - GF hot rice cereal
Udi's Brand - frozen bagels, breads, rolls (hot dog / hamburger), granola and muffins
Bob"s Red Mill Brand - GF oatmeal
Garden of Eatin' Brand - corn chips
Pirate Booty Brand - Veggie Bootie
Glutino Brand - Pretzels and table crackers (really good!)
YaYa Brand - Popcorn
Sonoma Brand- GF soft tortillas
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a start. I'll be adding to it as we find other good products. Happy Eating!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
My Gluten Free Baby
I am not an expert, and won't make any claim as such, just a mother to a young child with a severe gluten sensitivity. That said, it is my intention with this blog to create a platform with which to share our trials and errors, successes and failures, and to hear back from others who'd like to share their stories. Together, maybe we can help our children to live happier, healthier lives and to teach and guide them, as they become older, to manage their sensitivities on their own. So, I'll start by telling my story, as briefly as possible, from the beginning.
From the very beginning my daughter loved food. I mean, really beginning, like in utero beginning. Every night at dinnertime, she would get so excited and active just as I'd sit down for dinner, kicking and stretching, turning and pushing. It seemed a happy, excited feeling. I remember saying that this one would be our Iron Chef.
She came out saying "Nah", the second she was out, the universal cry for "food". I laughed saying that she had lived up to our expectations as a "foodie" already. Her joy around food was short lived. At about three weeks or so, she developed colic, which by definition is a baby that cries each day (or most days of the week) for hours , usually at the same time of day. For us, it was like clock work, starting each day at seven pm and lasting well until ten or eleven at night - every night. It literally lasted for months and was an unbelievable stress on the entire family. We bought books (all who stated "there is no cure for colic" - thanks! ) , all forms of natural remedies, walking, bouncing, driving, swaddling... on and on and on. I felt like a complete failure. What a helpless feeling to be unable to help your baby who is clearly in excruciating pain.
And then, one day, it stopped. Oh, the relief! It really was just the end of the nightly screaming and the beginning of something different. As iI look back on it now, I think that perhaps she was sensitive to my diet, though I am unaware of whether gluten can enter breast milk.
Our daughter was extremely interested in table food, as you might imagine. She watched her parents and big brother eat all these amazingly colorful, flavorful, aromatic foods, and she wanted in. We held her off until six months and started her on the bland diet most babies eat at that time of life, oatmeal being a central element of her diet.
What began was screaming, crying, painful poops. We held her, rocked her, gave her natural remedies, to no avail. It was when she started pooping mucousy blood that we took immediate action and brought her in to the family doctor. They diagnosed her as having a gluten sensitivity (not celiac disease) and had us take her off of gluten containing foods. The relief was immediate for her. I was under the misconception that gluten was only found in wheat containing products. I was amazed at the prevalence of gluten in our food supply.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful natural foods store in our area that not only carries an abundance of gluten free foods but also clearly marks its shelves with a red "gluten free" label, making it much easier and quicker to find the products that are right for us.
At this point, we have switched the entire family over to gluten free foods because its easier to make one meal for the whole family, and it's much more democratic than allowing my older child to eat foods in front of the baby that she can't have. We find that many of the gluten free are better than their gluten containing counterparts.
She is now a happy, healthy 18 month old toddler, when she stays off the gluten. We still slip here and there and the baby ends up getting a bite of something she shouldn't have, and boy do we (really she) pay for it - for days. All it takes is one bite and she is in for an agonizing three days. So we do our best to keep a constant watch on what she eats, especially at play groups and friends houses where the chance of slipping up is higher. I feel like putting a sign on her, "I can't have gluten". Perhaps I should.
So that's the short of it for now. We'll follow up with more stories, experiences, and recipes. Until then, we'd love to hear from you.
From the very beginning my daughter loved food. I mean, really beginning, like in utero beginning. Every night at dinnertime, she would get so excited and active just as I'd sit down for dinner, kicking and stretching, turning and pushing. It seemed a happy, excited feeling. I remember saying that this one would be our Iron Chef.
She came out saying "Nah", the second she was out, the universal cry for "food". I laughed saying that she had lived up to our expectations as a "foodie" already. Her joy around food was short lived. At about three weeks or so, she developed colic, which by definition is a baby that cries each day (or most days of the week) for hours , usually at the same time of day. For us, it was like clock work, starting each day at seven pm and lasting well until ten or eleven at night - every night. It literally lasted for months and was an unbelievable stress on the entire family. We bought books (all who stated "there is no cure for colic" - thanks! ) , all forms of natural remedies, walking, bouncing, driving, swaddling... on and on and on. I felt like a complete failure. What a helpless feeling to be unable to help your baby who is clearly in excruciating pain.
And then, one day, it stopped. Oh, the relief! It really was just the end of the nightly screaming and the beginning of something different. As iI look back on it now, I think that perhaps she was sensitive to my diet, though I am unaware of whether gluten can enter breast milk.
Our daughter was extremely interested in table food, as you might imagine. She watched her parents and big brother eat all these amazingly colorful, flavorful, aromatic foods, and she wanted in. We held her off until six months and started her on the bland diet most babies eat at that time of life, oatmeal being a central element of her diet.
What began was screaming, crying, painful poops. We held her, rocked her, gave her natural remedies, to no avail. It was when she started pooping mucousy blood that we took immediate action and brought her in to the family doctor. They diagnosed her as having a gluten sensitivity (not celiac disease) and had us take her off of gluten containing foods. The relief was immediate for her. I was under the misconception that gluten was only found in wheat containing products. I was amazed at the prevalence of gluten in our food supply.
We are fortunate to have a wonderful natural foods store in our area that not only carries an abundance of gluten free foods but also clearly marks its shelves with a red "gluten free" label, making it much easier and quicker to find the products that are right for us.
At this point, we have switched the entire family over to gluten free foods because its easier to make one meal for the whole family, and it's much more democratic than allowing my older child to eat foods in front of the baby that she can't have. We find that many of the gluten free are better than their gluten containing counterparts.
She is now a happy, healthy 18 month old toddler, when she stays off the gluten. We still slip here and there and the baby ends up getting a bite of something she shouldn't have, and boy do we (really she) pay for it - for days. All it takes is one bite and she is in for an agonizing three days. So we do our best to keep a constant watch on what she eats, especially at play groups and friends houses where the chance of slipping up is higher. I feel like putting a sign on her, "I can't have gluten". Perhaps I should.
So that's the short of it for now. We'll follow up with more stories, experiences, and recipes. Until then, we'd love to hear from you.
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