Gluten free trial for 12 month old

[LCF2021]

Looking for some tips for meals and snacks (when out and about) for my 12 month old who is possibly gluten intolerant. She’s breastfed so I’m also removing gluten from my diet. Due to coeliac disease in the family she was tested for it but luckily it came back negative but the paediatrician suggested trialling 3-4 weeks of GF to see if it can clear up her chronic constipation.
We have already trialled totally dairy and soya free for 7 weeks which didn’t help so have ruled out CMPA.
Any advice on what we can eat? Is there actually a decent GF bread available? Kiddo loves her sandwiches and so convenient to take when we go out.
I actually found dairy free easier than stopping gluten.

And also, what’s the definitive answer on oats being GF? She has a bowl of porridge every morning, as do I.

You need to buy oats that are indicated as gluten free. They pick gluten up from other crops rather than containing it themselves but it’s gluten however it gets there.

I've yet to find gluten free bread I genuinely want to eat in this country (though I can recommend options overseas!). If you can find some that's made fresh locally that's probably your best bet, though it's pricey. I only went gluten free about 3 years ago, so I can remember what real bread tastes like!

I tend to have cereal for breakfast, a hot main meal and the some form of leftovers for the third meal. I find taking a picnic anywhere a bit of a challenge, but hot meals, if you cook from scratch, are fairly straightforward. Quick meals could include pancakes (Doves Farm gluten free flour works well for me), omelettes and pastry free quiche - again, assuming you are somewhere with a kitchen.

Snacks: fruit, obviously (fresh and dried), chocolate (you did ask, though possibly not for a baby) or have a look at the free from section in your local supermarket. Rice cakes are gluten (and taste) free, and it might be worth looking at some of the organix snacks.

Schar or Warburton's are your best bet for gluten free bread (coeliac here!)
As PP said make sure you are buying gluten free oats not normal oats.
Toasting the bread always helps make it feel more "normal tasting" but these two are the best not toasted too.

Pretty much anything you'd eat could be made gluten free but be sure to look out for the sneaky gluten ingredients like barley, spelt, rye etc as well as the obvious gluten and wheat.

Thank you for your replies. All of our meals are made from scratch so I think we could make some easy swaps and hopefully my 3 year old won’t notice 😬
It’s mainly trying to find foods that transport easily for baby and that she actually enjoys as anything bready is a winner with her when we go out at weekends that’s troubling me.

I like Promise bread. Best size too, a lot of the other ones are tiny. I personally can't eat oats, even GF oats. Some coeliacs can't due to the avenin protein. They give me awful cramps but not the same reaction as gluten would.

TBH, I'd just stick to natural GF foods - all meat, fish fruit veg dairy potatoes rice corn etc. Please do read up about cross contamination and hidden gluten in things like soy sauce, processed foods etc. Oddly, I've found Aldi to be the best for GF foods among their normal range. Many of their chilled & frozen things have corn/rice instead of wheat in crumb coatings. You'll have to start reading labels carefully!

Oh and look up Becky Excell on Instagram. She's great for replicating most foods and baked items.

Have you heard of dosa? We wash, soak, grind and ferment rice and lentils into a batter. This batter can be poured into the nonstick pan to make spongy flatbread that are easily digestible. The batter can be stored in the fridge for 5 days easily. I spread honey and cheese on it and fold ever. Eat it like a wrap/bread. My daughter stays gluten free.

You can use gluten free oats , grind them to oat flour and make muffins. Transportable.

You actually are advised not to have oats for the first six months of removing gluten from your diet. After that gradually reintroduce and check for symptoms. 1:8 coeliacs also react to the protein in Oats in our family I react but neither of my DC do

As an alternative you can get gf rice flakes and cook much like porridge

My DD really likes the Warburton's Tiger loaf for sandwiches. It's the closest thing to real bread that we've found.

Rice cakes are GF and can be taken out and about.

Was she previously on a diet with lots of high fibre grains eg brown rice, brown bread, weetabix. A lot of people aren't aware that many children struggle to digest these. They absorb a lot of water from the intestines, enlarge the stool, slow it down and make it hard to pass. Certainly they have this effect on me as an adult.

Schar breadsticks are good. Close to gluten breadsticks

Also the M&S gluten free range - especially the flat bread isn’t too bad at all.

@MauisLeftNipple Not especially. We eat basmati rice, which she loves, Best of Both bread, lots of fruit, veg (when I can sneak it in!). She’s always been very keen on solids, right from the off so at first I put it down to her just eating so much but it continued for so long.
We’re 2.5 weeks in and I haven’t seen much improvement so I’m not convinced gluten is the issue.

Check out th webpage
www.glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk by Becky EXcell.
She's on social media too. Has fab recipes both on her page and books.
My daughter was gf from 1, now 10. Supermarkets are so much better, plus The Europe is good too.

We had to remove gluten, dairy and soya and slowly reintroduce one by one. Took 8 y to tolerate dairy, soya was no issue, still gf 10y later

My favourite bread is the M&S free from brown bloomer slices.

My son is allergic to wheat and oats! It's been surprisingly easy, he's almost 2 now. Supermarkets like ASDA and Sainsbury's have really good free from aisles.

Mostly he eats a lot of fruit and veg, he loves cheese, chicken, we buy gluten free pasta and bread especially for him. Omelette he's a big fan of and there are quite a few snacks that are gluten free, veggie straws and the like.
Oats have to be specifically labelled gluten free but he won't eat them anyway - for a long time we bought Heinz creamy banana baby porridge and he loved that.

Seabrook crisps (and quite a few others) are gluten free and he loves them, I have to give him my crumbs to keep him happy!

Not an expert but I think I've heard that with things like gluten it takes a while to leave the system and for it to start to recover so that might be why you're not seeing an improvement yet