Prescription food for a wheat allergic baby?

[ariadnestar]

Hi there - I've had some excellent advice and help on this board in the past and I've got another question I wonder if anyone can help with.

DD is 14 months and was diagnosed as allergic to wheat, egg and peanut at 8 months old. Things are fine, she's thriving and getting on great. However, when I mention her allergies to people, I always get people asking if she gets her bread etc. on prescription. I wasn't too worried about it, but I thought I might as well ask the doctor.

Went to the GP today (a locum but he took the time to read over her hospital notes) and he said that the food they prescribe is for people with coeliac disease, and that DD would still be allergic to it. He was basically saying that it was de-glutenised wheat that is in prescription products (and her allergy is to wheat not gluten). I asked if the bread etc. that can be prescribed is different to supermarket gluten free (which in most cases is rice/corn etc. based and is ok for DD as long as it's egg free too) and he was non-committal. He looked up 'wheat' in his prescription database and nothing came up then looked up 'gluten' and lots of stuff came up, but again he said that DD would still be allergic to it.

Now, I really do want to trust that he knows what he's talking about but it just seems a bit strange that prescription bread is de-glutenised wheat when surely other grain based bread would be cheaper and easier and just as safe for people with coeliac? I googled prescription bread and found a list of prescription products including the brand that I already use with DD.

Does anyone have any experience in this area?

Thanks for reading :)

Hi ariadnestar.

My DD also has a wheat allergy which we discovered at 6.5 months. She's also allergic to lots of other foods and has hayfever.

I recently heard from someone that they had managed to get a prescription for GF food her DS's wheat allergy so I asked our GP about this. He wrote to DD's allergist who basically wrote back saying no as DD is allergic but not celiac. It's a bit frustrating as it seems to be down to GP's how they handle this. I feel my GP really did try and help us with this as he said that he didn't think it was possible but if there was anything he could do to 'bend the rules' that he would. I think he thought DD's allergist might be more sympathetic. Anyway, we didn't have much success with this so still have to but our small loaves of ener-g gluten free bread at £2.99 each. It has about 12 slices in it, so we spend quite alot on this on a monthly basis.

I think there is talk of GF prescriptions being removed as they cost the alot. I guess there are so many GF foods readily available now in supermarkets that they're not as difficult to get hold of any more. I'm guessing that may be one of the reasons that prescription GF food may soon be a thing of the past. Which is a shame as although stuff is available it so so expensive.

I hope your real (i.e. non locum) GP is more understanding and agrees to give you a prescription while he/she can.

take care

AFAIK you only get food on prescription for coeliac disease.

yes it's only for people with coeliac disease, so if she doesn't have that she won't get it even if it's suitable for her.

i think it's grossly unfair, but hey ho!

Thanks so much for the responses! I actually expected to be told by the GP that no-one got prescription bread (cost-cutting) so I was surprised that people with coeliac disease did. mumat39 I think I will speak to our real GP if I can - although we have a named GP at the practice appointments are given on a first-come-first-served basis, but I could try to request our doctor. We use the DS white bread which doesn't have egg, and it's about the same price. I see a lot of potato and rice in DD's future!

Thanks trixy and thisis - I suppose that makes sense as to why he wouldn't give it, but it really did seem like he was unaware of the content of the food. I may speak to the allergist at DD's next hospital appointment and see what she says.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the responses!

Officially, only coeliacs are entitled to gluten free food on prescription (although in some parts of the UK, even this is under threat due to cuts). However, it is up to the discretion of the doctor and my DS's dietician prescribed 1 loaf of bread and a box of pasta per month (he's allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, nuts). My DD is coeliac and gets quite a lot of stuff on prescription and I've always thought how unfair it is given that it's much easier to find food that she can eat than it is for my DS but there you go!

Your GP was half right about 'de-glutenised' food products in that some of the products available on prescription contain Codex wheat starch which has had the gluten removed so is supposedly OK for coeliacs but not for those allergic to wheat. However, the majority of the products available are in fact wheat free. The problem is, the computer system the GPs use does not have a list of ingredients for each product so I had to do the research myself to find a loaf of bread available on prescription that didn't contain wheat, milk or egg and then took the PIP code into the surgery so that they could order the right product (Dietary Specials or Glutafin sliced white loaf).