wheat/egg/dairy/fish/soya/sesame/nut free diet!help!

[arin247]

My dd has had eczema since she was 2 mths old now 16 mths and her blood allergy results suggested that she ia highly allergic to wheat,egg,dairy,fish,soya,sesame seed and nuts!At the moment she is living on my breast milk,rice,veg,potatoes and some fruit.Need help with diet!I am trying to follow the same diet but very hard!Any ideas/recipes would be great
thanx Nola

Wheat, egg, dairy, fish, soya, sesame seed & nuts! Poor you Have you seen a dietician? A lot of 'free from' foods have soya in them, so they won't be much help.

Have you seen the gluten & dairy free cookbook? There are a few similar titles on Amazon that might help you with ideas.

Barley couscous and pearl barley give you some more cereal choices.

Also, you can get pasta made from maize.

You can get pasta made from spelt as well, but it is a variety of wheat, so not sure if that would be OK or not.

Can she have goats milk and sheeps milk, because that would make your lives a lot easier (butter, yoghurt, cheese etc also available)?

Dove Farm do a replacement flour, but Im not sure if it has soya in.

You dont mention meat in your list of things that she eats now? With such a restricted diet, it is a good source of nutrients surely?

Does barley not contain gluten (which might need to be avoided if avoiding wheat?) It would be great if not, as I've been avoiding giving ds (gluten intolerant) fruit and barley squash.

We get rice and vegetable pasta from Tescos, which ds seems to really like. For breakfast we give him porridge made from a mixture of rice flakes and millet flakes. We make it with goats milk and fruit puree, but it is fine with rice milk (which I think you could probably have?)

Laura, I think it depends on the allergy. Barley was OK for me - not sure if it contains gluten or not. I used to be allergic to wheat, but not intolerant to gluten.

Barley and Pearl Barley do contain gluten, as does couscous as it's made from 50% wheat! I know this as my DH is gluten intolerant.

For breakfast you could make porridge - we use Quakers and then mix in Organix fruit puree to sweeten it. It tastes yum - it's even my favourite breakfast now!!

for other meals, how about a tasty risotto, plus if you don't have it, have a look at Annabel Karmels baby and toddler cook book. I use that loads for all my family and substitute wheat based ingredients when necessary.

I'd also look on Amazon and / or a good bookshop to see what other children's cookbooks they have. At least in a bookshop you could check out the recipes first before buying.

I've just remembered, "Quinoa" is a recent addition to our cupboards. It's a really tasty alternative to pasta, rice or potatoes. You can buy it in your normal supermarket.

Another tasty meal we have at home is spag bolognaise. We use corn spaghetti, (beef mince) and Bertolli sauces which are delicious and are not full of rubbish ingredients. For example, their grilled vegetable sauce contains: tomatoes, tomatoe puree, yellow peppers, red peppers, water, courgettes, green pepers, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sugar, salt basil, parsley and oregano.

They are more expensive than other brands (about £1.70 a jar) but in my opinion welll worth it for the taste and quality of ingredients.

If you haven't already done so, have a search for "wheat free bread" as they'll be a lot of companies who you can order it on mail order. Wheat free is not necessarily the same as gluten free bread as some GF breads can still contain wheat with the gluten extracted. Plus of course check out your supermarket too. Asda and Tesco's both have a range of GF foods.

Nottsmum

couscous is made from 100% wheat. But there is a traditional variety made from 100% barley, which you can buy in some north African shops in UK.

Obviously neither suitable for your family

I'd second the recommendation for Bertolli sauces, they're great for ds. We also like the Lloyd Grossman (probably spelt wrong!) sauces, as they're always very clearly labelled as gluten and lactose free where appropriate.

Nottsmum - I didn't know that about gluten gree bread, which is worrying. But would it be OK anyway if the gluten had been removed? I thought the difference between a gluten intolerance and a wheat intolerance was that gluten was a reaction to any amount of gluten, whereas wheat contains quite a large amount of gluten, so is a reaction to that larger amount. I think DS is gluten intolerant as he can't even tolerate a quarter of a nairns oatcake,which are pure oats, so have very little gluten in them. Anybody else know about this? Is there a wheat intolerance that isn't due to gluten? Sorry to go off topic arin247

most traditional pakistani food doesnt contain any of this stuff.

try polenta, quinoa, millet, buckwheat (despite the name it doesn't contain wheat). All of those are gluten free although it may only be wheat she has aproblem with, not gluten? She may be able to have oats as some gluten sensitive people can eat them. Meat and pulses would give more protein.

this site has some recipes www.purr.demon.co.uk/Food/Wheatfree.html

(note not all are suitable)

and I once posted a site where you could search for recipes excluding your allergies.

arin247- sorry to hear that your dd is allergic to so many things. Could you tell me what/where/how you got the allergy tests. My son just had RAST tests at hospital but they only tested for wheat, egg and dairy. We would like more comprehensive tests done but not sure how to go about it. My hospital says they dont do any other testing. TIA

polenta sometimes has parmesan in, ie dairy.
'Pure' do a dairy free spread with sunflower oil, but I don't have any in to check other ingredients. From the website here it seems ok, so would be good if you find some suitable bread to spread it on! I also use it for cooking and baking.
I'm not sure that the link is working - its purespreads.com, anyway

Corn cruskits or corn/rice thins are good. My ds lived on those from about 8 months.
Home made custard with rice milk?? You can get everything free custard powder.
Can she have chicken/beef/lamb?? Risotto with arborio rice/chicken or veg stock/chicken is lovely and easy.
Jelly??
Sultanas.

You have lost me a bit - my ds was wheat, egg, dairy, fish and nut free but could have soya and sesame. Soya cuts out quite a lot of choices that I know of. Sorry can't help much more.

keresley - I saw a SHO to get the RAST tests for my ds. She just wrote RAST tests on the form, and they had to query which ones as there were 'hundreds of different things they can test for'. It seems strange that your hospital will only test for those three things. I'd have thought nuts at least would be a common one.

No ideas about other testing locations though, sorry.

arin247 - Try getting a copy of the gluten, wheat and dairy free cook book by antoinette savil ISBN0-7225-4027-2. I found it really useful. Another good book was the everday wheat-free & gluten free cookbook we just found accepatble substitutes for any dairy products they suggested in this book.

hi all!,thankyou all so much for your ideas.She is able to have all meats and was told she has no allergy to gluten.As i am still breastfeeding,its been really hard for me as well!!Trying to wean her onto rice milk but she doesn't like it!have also tried goats milk.(same result)She does like the veg rice pasta from Tesco made by Orgran.To Keresley..her blood allergy tests were done by the specialist allergy clinic(paediatric dept) at St Marys hosp,Paddington,London via referral from our GP(on my insistance!)I have seen the dietician at the hospital but have been given so many leaflets to read!I'm hoping that she grows out of the allergies very soon!

i think if ever there was a good case for extended breastfeeding, yours is it.
dont bother tryingg to wean her onto any other sort of milk. stick with breastmilk, or ebm if you need a break.
steamed veg with rice? meat with rice? etc.

Hi Laura

In answer to your Q, a wheat intolerance is completely different to a gluten intolerance. There's a really good explaination of it
here:

Re your DS, it's hard to say. He'd have to be tested. Were the Nairns oatcakes the gluten free ones? (I don't want to be rude but DH has bought the wrong packet before without realising?)

Go for a 1950s meat two veg and potatoes meal at every sitting and you will be fine. Roast chicken is great because you get leftovers.

Cornflakes or rice crispies for breakfast if she doesn't have a gluten issue, she will probably have rice milk on those, and you only need a dot anyway.

Ds was persuaded onto rice milk by getting the chocolate variety - you can't be too fussy about sugar when there is so much she can't eat.

Probiotics and flax seed oil for her would help to heal her gut and also provide the Omegas that she is missing by not eating eggs and fish.

Once you get used to meat and 3 veg, it's very filling and satisfying and avoids spending ages making a meal to taste like a poor relation of the one you really wanted. It also avoids expensive replacements.

another website for wheat/ gluten free recipes but you'll have to check other ingredients

www.recipes4us.co.uk/Specials%20and%20Holidays/Special%20Diets%20Allergies/Gluten%20Free%20Recipes.htm

Rice milk is very low in nutrients, really need to keep breastfeeding if you can and hope she grows out of some of the allergies. Probiotics/ flaxseed oil may speed that up.

Was in a chinese supermarket and noticed they had rice flour, coconut flour and maize flour, didn't check them for other allergens though. Although your child has a problem with nut coconut rarely causes problems even for those allergic to peanut and tree nuts.

Arin? are you still around? I have just seen this.

DS has almost the same mix of allergies as your DD (he is not allergic to wheat but he can't have it very often either), it has took us several months but we have finally found a way/system to feed him well (and several free-from-all the list products!).

If you are still around, send me a CAT, and I will send you the information. Hope things are looking a bit better now, but if you still need help, here I am

hi chandra,
yes i'm still here!can you tell me what a CAT is?!I'm not very compu savvy!

OK, to start with, the things that you have to watch for are the following:

Egg. Not that difficult as most things that contain it have glutten/wheat which you are already avoiding. Sometimes is hidden as Albumen. Replace with Organ No Egg (egg replacer)

Soya. The omnipresent allergen if you ask me, Possibly present in flours and every pre-packaged food. Hidden as hidrolysed oil/vegetable protein, lecithin (E322). Sadly, most alternatives to dairy are soya based.

Milk. Possibly present in bread, biscuits, and some frozen vegetables, and in sandwich fillers like ham, sausages,etc.

Sesame. Avid humus in particular, beware of oils, bread and biscuits, otherwise not so difficult to spot.

Fish. Watch out for Worcestire sauce (it contains it) and most products containing Omega 3.

Nuts. Avoid everything that contains the word nut in its name, with exception of coconut and nutmeg.

I have a list of products DS can have, but as glutten is not in the list of things I actively watch for, I'm not quite sure they don't contain glutten.

As for recipes, don't panic, get a good book to cook rice/risotos. Most recipes in them can be easily adapted to avoid the things your child can't eat. Or, even one for pasta is good as long as you substitute the pasta with rice or use the intended sauces as jacket potato fillers.

Many recipes in Gina Ford's "The Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning" are totally safe:
Chicken Peach Casserole (p.11), Lamb and Vegetable Casserole (p.107), Chicken w/sweet peppers (p 113), Chicken and Mushroom stir fry (p.115), Chicken and vegetable oat crumble (p.117), Mixed root medley (p.78). Chicken casserole (p.75), Corn Chowder (p.81), Thick courgette and leek soup (p.74). You can cook these and serve them with rice or potatoes, or, if your child is not good at eating her vegetables, you can puree the casseroles and used them as sauces for the rice.

Be sure to include, proteins, two vegetables (at leats) and carbohidrates both at dinner and lunch times. A helping of red meat a day it's important to keep the levels of iron OK.

I noticed that while I was cooking a separate free-from version of what we ate for DS, he was not getting, most of the times, a well balanced and tasty meal which made feeding him somewhat more difficult. We decided to eat all the same food and since then he is eating better (probably because we ouldn't serve him any more things that we would hate to eat (like the rice bread) and since then we all are having a more healthy and balanced diet.

In terms of bread, you can bake your own, Spelt flour is also glutten free and tastes much much better than the rice bread they sell for allergic people.

HTH. Any questions, please ask

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