Trialing DD gluten free for a week. Advice needed pls

[OldMonkey]

My DD (5) has very bad eczema. We were told it was most likely a dairy allergy. We have cut out dairy, but 2 years later she's still suffering. She's itchy all the time and scratching herself raw. She often complains of stomach aches, she's constipated and only goes once a week. Her stools are very pale in colour. I have suspected for quite a while that she may have a gluten intolerance or coeliac, but keep getting fobbed off by Dr's and prescribed with more creams for her skin.

I would like to trial her going gluten free for a week to see if there's any improvement. I've heard from many people who've done this that they've had immediate improvement which helped strengthen their case for further testing from Dr's.

Problem is I don't know very much about going gluten free. She loves carby stuff and usually has toast or cereal for breakfast, a sandwich and fruit and veg for lunch and chicken, veg and some kind of carb for dinner. She loves chicken and rice and soy sauce so I've added GF Tamari to our weekly shop along with a seeded GF bread (most similar to what she'd normally eat) and some rice crackers to snack on. But what else can I give her to eat? Obviously meat, fish, fruit & veg are fine. But I'm lost as to what we have in the house that will have hidden gluten in it that she'd normally snack on and what I need to stay away from. As well as what things are safe.

I don't want to invest a lot of GF foods straight off the bat as I'm just trialing this for a week at first.

Does anyone have any tips for a GF beginner please? Child friendly meals / snacks. And can anyone point me in the right direction of child friendly U.K. based resources that I can read up on?

The only issue with cutting gluten is that she'd need to start eating gluten again for any testing to be done.

Potatoes & rice are both gluten free as are veg and fish. There's gluten free cereals in asda (own brand) and you already mentioned gluten free soy sauce. Basics like bolagnaise are gluten free as long as you buy gluten free pasta or serve on a baked potato perhaps.

I watch my gluten and find sourdough and wholemeal wheat bread are better for me than white bread, whole meal pasta similarly

Yes, I understand that. But if I cut it out and we see an improvement surely that gives us some direction and motivation to get it looked into further. I'd rather cut out for a week now to find out if there's any improvement than wait months and months and try it and we may not even see any improvement after all that time and then be back at square one

Becky Excel has amazing GF recipes!

Thank you. Can you recommend a good tasting gluten free pasta (penne or similar shape)? I've heard a lot of the GF breads and pastas don't taste very nice. I don't want to put her off by taking away her favourite foods and giving her a load of things that taste awful.

Agree with @dementedpixie re testing. And symptoms can be much worse when re-introducing, so think carefully.

You need to read labels on everything as gluten is in so many processed foods. Gluten is in wheat, barley and rye, and many have similar symptoms from oats.
Obviously bread, cakes, pasta, biscuits, cereal, pizza, anything breadcrumbed or battered etc can contain gluten.
But check sauces, gravy, stock, crisps, sweets.

I have just ordered her book! I know she has a blog as well, but not had the time to sit down and sift through it all.

Problem is if you cut it out and then have to reintroduce it for any testing there is a good chance any reaction could be a lot worse.

Dd had fairly non descript reactions prior to diagnosis, then went gf and now if she accidentally gets glutened will projectile vomit for hours, pass out, have to be carried home semi conscious (it’s like she’s drunk) and spends two days in bed!

pushing for a coeliac blood test again might be an idea?

if you do trial it you have to be super strict or there’s no point as even an invisible speck of gluten is enough. So new butter, new jam, don’t use the toaster, don’t eat any food that says may contain, etc. I’d stick to stuff which is naturally gluten free such as jacket potato, rice/curry, chilli, meat and potatoes. Rice cakes for snacks. Be careful with chocolate, some is a may contain. Same for crisps.

Crisps for junk/food snacking.
Rice cakes/Corncakes
Popcorn.
Cornflakes should be fine - check labels
You can make pancakes with buckwheat flour.
Oats are lower in gluten than wheat/barley
Rice noodles/vermicelli

Would suggest you all do gluten free in the house. Hard for a 5 year old to see you snacking on toast.

If you can find it rice pasta is very very nice.

Dd will eat any gf pasta, says it’s all ok. Bread is a different story. I tend to use sainsburys pasta. Warburtons gf tiger loaf seems the best out of everything. Be warned, everything is terribly expensive, think that bread is over £4 a loaf!

Steer clear of sausages and burgers during the week as these often have breadcrumbs as a binding agent. Also agree with others about secondary contamination- she will need her own butter and spreads for her GF toast to ensure that no one has dipped a glutened knife in them and you will need to buy a cheap new toaster just for her

I like sainsburys taste the different gluten free pasta best. But you can generally taste that it's corn rather than wheat flour, so it's best with a sauce.

Old el paso do corn tortillas without wheat flour which are good for fajitas.

Polenta is naturally gluten free, it's quite mild in flavour so might be worth trying for a bit of variety.

Generally I'd not bother with gluten free bread - that's probably one where you need to try the brands as they are quite different. Schar and Nairn do decent gluten free crackers.

Crisps are often not GF, are very often a 'may contain'.
Cornflakes will normally need to be the special GF ones as mainstream ones often have barley in some form and are a may contain.
People who react to gluten often react to oats so I would steer clear of those too.

this Barilla GF spaghetti is really tasty. I haven’t tried the other Barilla GF pastas but assume they are made from the same stuff so would taste the same? I’ve tried rice-only pasta and it tastes of nothing IMO

Snacks are tricky

Pom Bears and Golden Wonder are GF, so are Pop Chips and Hippeas
Rice cakes mostly are GF, but check labels
Nuts are GF unless coated with something
Dried fruit and fruit based snacks generally ok

Check cereal labels carefully, if it says barley then it’s not GF (Corn flakes and rice krispies both have barley). Tbh very hard to find GF cereal except for the GF specific ones. Yoghurt for breakfast might be easier

I've been gluten free for ten years and find it very easy. Any supermarket brand gf pasta is good, they taste the same as regular wheat pasta, and not much more expensive. The bread is expensive and isn't great but the best I've found are schar rolls or Warburton's tiger bread. Apart from that, I'm struggling to think what else is different about being gluten free. Buy a bag of Doves Farm gf flour and you can make any white sauce. It acts the same as wheat flour. Any tomato based sauce is fine. Gf lasagne sheets or spaghetti taste the same as wheat versions. I'd just get some gf pasta and serve to the whole family.

A great pizza dough recipe I've found is 250g greek yoghurt and 250g self raising gf flour. Mixed together, rolled out and baked, then add toppings.

Home bargains do really nice GF rice cakes.we like the paprika ones but the salt and vinegar are good too.
You can make your own banana pancakes (two mashed ripe bananas, 2eggs, 100g GF self raising flour, 100ml soy milk, soy choc chips). I batch these and keep them in the fridge for snacking.
Babybels. We go through mountains of these.
Pop chips are GF, as are most popcorns.
If she has a sweet tooth, haribo is fine but not the liquorice or the fizzy laces. Avoid dairy milk because it now has a "may contain" warning. Wispas are fine though, as are Snickers
Meal wise, we stick largely to fish, potatoes and rice with all the veg. Watch your sauces.
I don't tend to bother than much with GF bread but the Schar loaves are probably the best (they do really good GF pretzels and fake pringles too). Watch your cross contamination (do under the grill, not the toaster) and make sure there's different butter available.

Dove Farm's brown rice pasta is the nicest IMHO.

Try to ask gp to order the coel8ac blood test before cutting.

Promise do a very nice gf loaf . We use the Tesco own brand pasta and it’s perfectly ok . M&S do some nice gf ready meals and the garlic bread and pizza is ok , although they have just changed the recipe .

Steer clear of sausages and burgers during the week as these often have breadcrumbs as a binding agent

All of Sainsbury's "good" sausages are gluten free. As are Heck and Jolly Hog.

Good luck sorting your DD’s eczema. My dd has severe eczema from quite a young age so I know how hard it can be for her but also the whole family.

Like you, we kept trying to be proactive eg with diet, and things within our control. Like you, we also kept going back to doctors who would give us more steroid cream.

Ultimately, what really worked for dd was getting under care of the dermatology team at the local hospital. I would push and keep pushing for that with your gp. Ultimately, my dd only got there via A and E after her eczema turned into a horrible staph infection. I would just keep advocating for your dd to get on the waiting list.

Eczema is a condition that we feel like we should be able to control ourselves. It feels only a step or two away from a skin care regime. But the reality is that it’s an auto- immune condition and severe cases need to be treated as such.

I'm told that the GF chocolate hobnobs are perfectly acceptable.

the proper potato waffles are GF but Sainsbury's own brand are not (cross contamination I think rather than containing it)

Make the free from aisle your hang out place! But watch out as vegan creep has happened and that's often in FF but not necessarily GF.
Scan all labels for wheat, spelt,barley,rye and "May contain" statements. For coeliac you have to avoid May contains - for gluten intolerance I think you can be a bit freer.
Eating out check for cross contamination- ie are chips fried in a separate fryer to anything containing GF. For instance our local Chippy does GF fish but it's fried in the same oil as gluten contains items therefore cross contaminated.
Loads of own brand sausages and burgers are GF. Birds Eye do GF fish fingers and chicken nuggets.