Gluten free/wheat free - help with what to buy please

[IlanaK]

I am going wheat free - though not totally gluten free I think, from tonight as I am having nightmares with my 8 week old ds who is reacting violently to my milk.

I have already gone dairy, soya and egg free so I need to watch out for that too in products. I am also going nut free from today too.

So, I ran out to my local shop tonight (I am lucky enough to have a local health food shop open late across the street) and bought a gluten free cereal for the morning. I already eat spelt bread for toast anyway.

I also bought some spelt pizza bases.

What else should I look for? Dinner is usually rice, potatoes or pasta with meat and veg so I assume I can just buy spelt pasta?

So breakfast and dinner is ok I think. Lunch is harder. I usually eat a lot of pitta bread - is there a substitute? I have been making my own cakes (vegan ones) so I can just substitute spelt flour right?

Luckily, my local shop sells all sorts of gluten free biscuits too.

Any tips on products and substitutes gratefully received!

Spelt is NOT gluten free, it is an ancient form of wheat (daughters coeliac, so gluten free, & also Dairy free, so I am an expert by necessity)

you can buy rice and / or maize based pastas (sainsburys own brand is nice and cheaper than many, they even do lasagne sheets now)

are you getting any medical advice, seems you are giving up a heck of a lot when you don't really seem to have pinpointed what the prob is? perhaps dd has a prob that is NOt at all related to your diet? is she vomitting lots? could be reflux/problem with weak muscles.

giving up ALL those will be hard, as most of the GF/WF stuff contains soya

are you sure you have totally excluded dairy? as in check all ingredients for all the whey, casein etc derivatives from milk?

talk to your GP/HV!At the very least because if you are BFing and not intaking calcium in dairy or enriched soya products you are at risk of developing osteoporosis in later life.

Hi, sorry for not being more specific. I am a breastfeeding counsellor and I am sure my son's problems are from my diet. The was in SCBU for a week when born on IV antibiotics and I am sure this has created problems in his gut which has made him extra sensitive to what I eat. He developed severe colic symptoms which improved significantly when I cut out dairy. He had a severe reaction when I ate egg a while later which is why I have cut it out. He was better for a while and now it seems that the antibiotics I was on until yesterday have caused similar gut problems in him again, causing him to be even more sensitive to what I am eating. I have researched this well and I am sure this is the problem. So, for now at least, until his gut improves, I need to restrict what I eat.

I am aware that spelt is not gluten free, but it is very low gluten. I am hoping that by cutting wheat, it will be enough. If not, I will go totally gluten free.

I am sure I am not having dairy in any form - I am checking packaging carefully and am aware of what to look for.

Ah,knowing all that then, in my opinion it is very likely to be the antibiotics that are the problem, not ALL those other things. unless any family history of intolerances you are taking into account?
If you cut them ALL out, how will you know which was the problem? General advise on elimination diets is usually "one thing at a time" surely?

other simple foods like onion, leeks and grapes and melon are known to give babies colicky trouble when mum is BFing

have just re-read first post, pitta breads in free from section of tesco & sainsburys, best WF flour I have found is Doves Farm PLain flour - just adapt your usual recipes and allow a bit more fluid or will be too dry

Thanks for the reply. I know dairy is a problem as I cut that out first with good effect. I did soya at the same time as it is known to effect in the same way as dairy. I know egg is a problem due to a specific reaction. It is only nuts and wheat that I am doing at the same time. With nuts, it is just because I eat a lot of them and have been told that it is a likely allergen. So I don't think I am confusing things too much by cutting them out together. Once he is well, I will try reintroducing one at a time and see what happens.

Thanks for the info on the pitta breads - I will look out for them as they are a staple of my diet. Also the flour is useful to know. We do a lot of baking.

sorry I should have specified Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour

Sharwood's Rice Noodles, yum.

Funnily enough, I have some of those noodles in the cupboard as I made some chicken soup the other week and they are good for putting in soup.

can I just add you don't need milk to get calcium, unless you are a calf.

would echo that Spelt is wheat so if it's wheat free rather than gluten free then you should cut out the spelt and use rye breads instead.

Salute pasta from Sainsbury's is one of the better ones.

Free from english muffins sold at Sainsbury's and tesco are good toasted for breakfast or lunch.

Nature's Path Mesa Sunrise Flakes sold at Sainsbos, Tesco, independant retailers very tasty.

GF pitta breads available in most supermarket free from sections....they're not the nicest though, imo.

I would second loobeylou that you need to do this under medical supervision. Any sort of restrictive diet means your vitamin and mineral intake could be compromised. Doing all of this at once seems a bit extreme and although I appreciate that you are doing this for your DS, if not done with the advice of a nutritionist it could make you quite ill if done for a sustained period of time.

Spelt is wheat? I missed that totally. I had no idea. I have been replacing my wheat products with spelt instead. Hmmmmm.....I will need to seriously rethink that.

I know what you are saying about not doing this long term without advice. I am hoping not to do this long term but to get to a point where he is not reacting and then start adding stuff back in.

I don't think I need to go gluten free, but definately wheat free so I will have to look at alternatives to spelt. Rye bread is a good idea (not my favourite though, but I could get used to it).

I bought the Nature's path gluten free cereal - its nice. I also bought an oat one. I know it is not gluten free, but its wheat free right? I was using it to snack on instead of nuts.

Although I have a great independant health food shop across the street, they do not have acess to the livwell gluten free products as they only sell to supermarkets. And living in central london, I have no large supermarkets nearby (there is a waitrose which I checked out today but it has none of this stuff). There is a large sainsburys a bus ride away - perhaps I will go there tomorow.

We had a great day today with him being colic free after cutting all this stuff out yesterday. HOwever he has reacted to something tonight (must be my dinner). I had a spelt pasta that I bought at our farmers market (fresh pasta which said made of spelt and egg free but there is no ingredients listed obviously). As it is something I have never eaten before, I assume that must be it.

Keep the advice coming please!

some of the readily available GF breads are OK, but always seem better toasted. the big problem with them is the slices are always teeny tiny, so you need half of your £3.00 loaf to make a decent lunch. It's not a cheap way of eating unfortunately

The Ener-G bread that you can get in tesco, sainsbury's etc is allright flavour wise, but again a bit dry for sarnies.

You can get some free samples here. If you click the link it asks if you have been diagnosed coeliac, but how they would check I'm not entirely sure.

I think cutting everything out and then reintroducing one at a time would be the way a nutritionist would advise you to do it anyway, so I hope it gets you an answer and your DS's tummy gets settled soon.

Good Luck with it

I went to a big sainsburys today and looked at their special ranges. All the gluten free breads contain egg so are not good for me. I have decided to just buy 100% rye (as I am only aiming for wheat free) locally.

They did have a lovely apple cake and also some biscuits that seemed fine.

The Nairn range of oatcake biscuits are yummy too.

My friend is gluten intolerant, I emailed sainsburys a while back to find out what they sold that was gluten free, they posted me a thick A4 book with everything they sold that was gluten free, don't know whether they still send it out but might be worth emailing them

after 1 month of wheat free I have just gone gluten free and it is not much harder -

just eaten the most delicious choclate brownie (gluten and dairy free) from Asda yummmm

also made buckwheat pancakes (on suggestion of a mner no less) and was delicious

I have just given up on bread (though there are some alright ones about) and have found than trying to substitute it as I find them all a bit bleeugh. - used to eat loads but honestly am not missing it.

The problem with the gluten free stuff is that it mostly has egg in it which I can't have. I know for sure he reacts to egg. I am les sure about gluten so I think I will stick with wheat free at the moment.

Hi again, I know you were keen to do your own cooking/baking, and would add that the doves farm rice flour is very good for anything that can take being slightly grittier. Great for shortbread, crumble, steamed puddings, fruit cakes, rock buns

Lots of the GF manufacturers will send out free samples, and their websites fully list all ingredients so you can see which would be suitable to you re: WF/DF etc

You can get egg replacement stuff but we don't need that and i have no clue what its made of!

I know someone commented that you don't need milk to get calcium , (eat tinned fish with bones etc etc) but I think it would be very hard if you are having no dairy and no calcium enriched soya products either, especially given you are breast feeding, especially if you plan to do it long term. You might need a calcium supplement? (MIL has to have these because she is GF & DF and has very limited diet) As someone else said , I really advise you to see a dietitian or GP with a special interest in allergies (as most of them have no clue!)

Sorry any nice MNers who are good GPs!

instead of cutting all this out has anyone suggested ADDING things to your diet/ your child's diet? Both you and the baby can have probiotics, which will assist with any dairy problem and with restoring a healthy gut after antibiotics.

You can also have lactase enzyme to help digest the lactose in dairy and Biocare Glutenzyme Plus (or some others, but I've tried that one myself) to help digest gluten. Simpler, no need for calcium supplements and worth trying before you go free from everything. Best to get from the internet as suitable enzymes can be hard to find on the high street. Holland & Barrett do sell lactase in some branches.

I've made gluten free bread with Doves flour and rice milk, I did use egg but you could use egg replacer.

In addition to rice you can try quinoa and its possible to find buckwheat itself (not the flour) in some health shops.

-if you live in London u can buy ripe plantains. Allow them to get very ripe (softish, black and yellow). Then shallow fry very slowly. Put in flask with other stuff - chicken, corn etc.

-Corn on the cob

forget the "flask" reference above. Only applicable for school lunch/keeping warm

The Black Farmer do really tasty gluten free sausages, they've got a high meat content too. You can get them in the main supermarkets, but they are with the normal sausages, not in a special 'free from' section.

www.theblackfarmer.com