Weaning without wheat?

[BikeBug]

help help help, I need some ideas because ds is getting very bored of sweet potato and so am I...
ds is 8+ months, we've been weaning since 5 and a half months with lots of tummy pains, constipation, sleep disturbances on his part. Have narrowed things down to a possible wheat intolerance (hopefully temporary, though 2 of his grandparents have same, so not looking good for poor lad).
Anyway, I am avoiding bread and pasta, but am finding it really hard to switch from purees to the stage where ds shares 'family meals' type food. Partly because I am veggie and have a very wheat-heavy diet.
If anyone has any advice / hints/ recipies for weaning very, very carefully I'd love to hear from you.

[terramum]

We avoided all gluten until DS was over a year as a precaution due to allergies in both families & it wasnt a huge issue tbh. All we did was substitute a gluten free alternative for DS. Sometimes it meant that we had to cook something extra, but it wasnt that much extra work, normally just an extra pan of boiling water.

• For pasta we bought the gluten-free (usually rice or corn) pasta...easily found at most supermarkets in the "free from" ranges
• If we had bread or sarnies we simply gave DS a rice cake.
• Breakfast we made porridge using quinoa

[AitchTwoOh]

have a look on here for some good gluten free recipes. potato scones, chickpea burgers, that sort of thing. look out for anything from Moomin, she's the expert.

[BikeBug]

thank you both for your suggestions - between you, you have managed to stop my panic that ds will (a) starve or (b) get very poorly with me in charge... Terramum, I'll get some rice pasta and some quinoa in next time I'm at the supermarket (and finally find out what to do with quinoa - the last packet went out of date before I even opened it and dh made me promise not to buy any more! And thanks for the link Aitch - have just seem moomin's onion bhaji recipe and will add gram flour to my list because they sound lovely.

[Chandra]

Careful with Quinoa, if you have allergies in the family is best to wait a bit longer to introduce it. I have been told that by a nutritionist, I don't remember exactly why but I think it was related to peanuts.

We use plenty of rice, and rye/rice/corn pasta. You can get corn cakes too (very similar to rice cakes).

And for desserts (for when she is older), Dietary Specials do an acceptable chocolate cake flour as well as one to do blueberry muffins. This brand is sometimes stocked by major supermarkets.

[terramum]

Quinoa is not related to the peanut (which is part of the legume family) - just looked it up on wikipedia - it is a "pseudo cereal" (ie its grown as a grain crop but isnt actually a grass). Its a species of Chenopodium, a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants, known generically as the Goosefoots - others that Ive heard of are Fat Hen & Good King Henry. Never ever heard it considered an allergic type food. TBH Ive always thought of it as very suitable as a first food, similar to millet, because they dont contain gluten.

[Chandra]

Wonderful! yet another example why I should always double check whatever advice a health professional provides .