Can any people with Coeliac help me please

[Sheselectric77]

Hi,

My little girl who is 9 is Coeliac. We are starting on her new diet asap but we feel clueless. I know things are much better now in terms of the food available but I’m not sure where the best place to shop is, for both cost and variety. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Dd already has a very limited diet (probably because she has spent her whole life in pain from eating gluten) and so we need some of her safe foods. I remember trying the bread once and it was like cardboard. Has it improved? My dd is quite particular with textures.

How do people find eating out?
We are going to Spain next month and will be self catering at a villa and hopefully eating out most nights? Is this possible now?

Any advice is very appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

I have just been shopping and it took 2 hours but I checked everything twice. I’m happy that lots of the food she likes are ok. I spent a while in the free from in Asda but only ended up getting a few bits to try.

She is supposed to be baking at school next week so il have to go back for ingredients as school usually provide them.
My main worry with school is cross contamination but she only eats at after school club as we already provide her lunch and snacks.

She has already been really good at reading ingredients and asking if she allowed certain things.

I have sent all your advice to dh too so we are both aware. Dh is a really good cook and baker so he will be able to make lots of lovely things.

What sort of things do they have in ASC? Ours will happily cater for allergies and have separate toasters etc.

@AtleastitsnotMonday they normally do beans on toast or chicken wraps, sometimes it’s pasta. I’m sure they will provide alternatives if I asked, I assume she won’t be the only child that has allergies or dietary needs. It might be easier for everyone if I just send a snack with her because she gets home early enough to eat dinner here.

We were going to take her and a few friends to an arcade that has food like pizza and burgers for her birthday in a few weeks so il need to look into something else. I might ring them to see what they can do.

Lots of pizza places do GF pizza and pasta. You need to check re cross contamination - some have GF dough but cook it with the ordinary pizzas.

Your poor little one, I hope with the correct diet she starts to feel better soon.
The best thing I did when my daughter was diagnosed was to join Coeliac UK. They have lots of helpful information online and a member to member mentor program which I joined and was assigned a food mentor who advised us on switching to a coeliac level gluten free diet.

We replaced kitchenware like wooden spoons, mixer, oven trays etc. Scrubbed the kitchen to within an inch of its life and bought a new dedicated toaster for GF breads etc.

CoeliacUK also have a great food app which will enable you to check whether things are okay to eat. Lots of regular food is gf without the hefty price tag.

When you travel some airlines give you extra baggage allowance to take food with you. I would take pasta, bread and biscuits. Also, take a roll of foil with you, you can use it to cover baking trays to cook her food in the oven and avoid contamination. Take some kitchen wipes so you can clean surfaces and fridge before you use them. Eating out maybe difficult for your little one abroad, our daughter will eat in the villa/apartment and then come with us when we eat later.

For your DH the Doves Farm baking recipes tend to be the most consistent. We love their gf brownies. Recipe here

A few things:

1. M&S GF bread is very good
2. Waitrose GF pasta is the best in our experience
3. sponge do brilliant GF cakes
4. Pizza express is great for GF

Good luck OP!

Spain is better than the uk for coeliacs. Their gluten free (sin gluten) products are generally cheaper and better quality than in the UK. All menus have to have allergens listed.

Hi, we have ceoliacs in the family and go to Spain a lot.

I find them as good if not better than in UK... Carrefour is fab for GF section. Allergens listed in bold same as UK.

In the uk I find Italian restaurants really good as easy to swap pasta or pizza bases for gf as long as they use different cooking implements. Fish and chips also good bet as most have gf fryers and are good with cross contamination.

Good luck with it all, she'll feel so much better when she's eating properly x

Most Italian chain restaurants are very good for GF . My coeliac daughter likes the Promise GF bread , and it’s also a good size slice whereas many GF breads are tiny slices . M &S gf pasta ready meals / pizza etc are excellent . Birds Eye’s GF chicken nuggets are superior to other frozen supermarket versions .