to ask what you would feed a toddler on this restricted diet?

[Callistone]

2.5yo DS is already almost entirely milk and egg free anyway due to intolerances - he can handle them baked in products but not on their own.

We've now been told we need to go soy and wheat (not gluten, full wheat) free for a few weeks before slowly reintroducing them.

If this was an adult I'd be less stressed, but a toddler who is already in the throws of usual toddler food fun?

That's a month without many of his favourite foods and regular staples - no bread products, no pasta, no breaded fish or meat, no crackers or similar, none of the soy replacements.

I can think of meals, obviously, there is meat and rice and potatoes but I suspect they mean exclude all the other wheats like couscous, barley etc, and fruit and veg ("but not too much fruit", said the consultant helpfully...) but it's such a radical change from for a toddler who is currently not a fan of anything that resembles a meal. Plus no eggs or cheese anyway. It's so repetitive, for three meals a day, plus snacks, when half the replacements I can think of - hummus, rice noodles, chickpea and lentil curries etc - are things he is not too fond of anyway.

Any suggestions or advice gratefully received!!!

A lot of gluten free alternatives are made from chickpeas, rice and corn
I can't really follow the logic of your consultant being happy for him to eat a bowl of rice, or some hummous, but not being rice noodles or chickpea pasta..!
Oats are wheat free but not gluten free, so maybe you can introduce those to keep the consultant happy?

You have mentioned a number of possible exclusions your paediatrician mentioned. Can you list it all so we can help you properly?

There is information out there and people happy to help.
This is one group UK based www.facebook.com/groups/380347182034474/?ref=bookmarks
These may help, too. A lot of us here have to exclude fruit and vegetables. Read the pinned post at the top of the page first.

www.facebook.com/groups/128458328536/

Thanks sand.

At the moment he is egg and diary restricted, and the consultant wants to remove soy and wheat too, for gradual reintroduction.

Plus he's allergic to some white fish too

Fish pie (homemade)

Homemade soup.

Stir fried chicken with rice noodles

Kedgeree style dish of rice and fish

Roast chicken dinner, (make the gravy with cornflour)

You should be OK to use barley and oats, just check how they have been processed.

You can make anything that you’d normally do in bread crumbs with crumbled up rice crispies. You can use gram flour for quite a lots of things too, including baking.

It would be worth while checking out recipes used for Passover (Jewish) as they will usually be wheat free and often dairy free. Some will contain eggs but not all. Ground almonds, potato flour and desiccated coconut feature heavily as flour substitutes.

Maybe introduce him to tinned beans of all shapes and sizes, for variety? He might like the fact that you can pick them out one by one, plus I assume (!?) that they are safe....

Can you google charities who may be able to help? Some have helplines where you can speak to a dietitian.
Good luck with it all.

Oh no, just seen he is allergic to some white fish, can he eat salmon?

Thanks for all the recipes and tips - I had forgotten about rice crispies and cornflakes as a coating, we can make those. And the passover recipes is a great tip!

Yep, salmon, tuna and cod are fine, thank god!

Polenta is a good coating (it's cornflour) and you can use rice milk or oat milk (my favourite) to bind it to the chicken/fish etc
Or to veg- we coat and oven bake par boiled carrots and eat with ketchup.
Tesco and M&S (!) Do too wheat, dairy and egg free stuff as well.

How good are you with baking? you can get oat, or rye flower and bake bread?

Wheat is wheat, most normal flours, cake mixes, flours, breads, pastries.

You can use oats, barley, rye, triticale before going gf. Read every label. Gluten is gluey so holds stuff together. soy is a natural emulsifier so does much the same thing so gets used a lot in gf cooking.

And keep reiterating that you are trying to fix his sore tummy (or whatever it is). The doctor is helping and you have to do some finding out at home etc etc.

I would do some baking with him to make it more fun. Rice crispy cakes are good with little kids and you can make cereal bars with oats and raisins and dairy free chocolate chips

And gram flour is brilliant - you can get it in Indian food section in most supermarkets - it's also called besan flour (it's made from chickpeas). It's got a slightly bitter taste though. Polenta is a really good idea for making your own crispy coating

How is he for spices? The Ella’s kitchen book has a brilliantly easy recipe for spiced lentil soup. Easy, nutritious and tasty (could use water if wheat free stock etc is too hard to find).

Also chilli and rice would be good (if he’ll eat it).

@callistone If you list the meals he usually eats, I'm happy to suggest how you can adapt then to fit your restrictions - I have plenty of practice as both myself and my children have food allergies - between us we can't have your combo of restrictions (plus some others too!)

With regard to pasta - Tesco free from pasta is good and doesn't contain any of your allegens.

For those saying maybe gluten free will also be wheat free, it will. Gluten free is always wheat free, but wheat free isn't always gluten free (oats/oat flour not gluten free unless specifically processed to be)

My DD enjoyed coconut yoghurt (KoKo) when she was dairy free (nearly off the milk ladder now!). I didn't want her having too much soy so the coconut yoghurt made a good change. Also, Sainsburys did a very nice dairy free vanilla ice-cream that was coconut based but definitely didn't taste like it at all - I really liked it! I couldn't swear there was no soy in it, though, because we weren't excluding that but it's worth checking. For own brand stuff, I've found that Tesco are great but much of it does have soy

I am both soy and wheat free and can find good bread and pasta alternatives.

Birds Eye do fishfingers
Knorr and Kallo for stock
Ms Mollys for chocolate
Also flakes
Warburtons bread
Jus Roll gluten free puff pastry
Heck sausages
Covent Garden Soup
BFree Pizza bases
Tesco Hash Browns
Schar rich tea biscuits

NOT Schar bread...SOYA!

Tesco Free From Fusilli or Lasagne Sheets
Tesco Free from Vanilla Sponge Mix
Tesco Free From Korma

Anything in particular you are looking for pm me.

Remember Cornflour is fine!

Here it is and it's everything free!! www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=44&productId=1167544&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxYLoBRCxARIsAEf16-vnm5rT2Wterz35aq4fXV5OVnzbBecBDzmKDIeDYFZBYu_lj-gfEc4aAh8UEALw_wcB&storeId=10151&krypto=4LcpkEBgf7k6Z%2BWx%2FwutIO%2FrRMUXUx3dd%2F9ky%2Fypes9z4qd9VAH6hK%2FT5m1Bgdlj6rKTZpaKMSOocN4rBuieZUZIh44ZQLHDuSeGhFePg1gJts4YdeQLkqN42e0juw%2F7VfL8gM0b2WjQYBImwYAcCJm48Hqvy0FM9BSw2o0LSmWXna0dMXef%2Ffq57QvkwtQG%2FQuez4ux%2BcPZnYp%2F%2BcainC79ju4CjWEW6TjUEwLdD3eikHLRQvzUr0LCZ3iVxjf%2BQ42UD%2FFRt4BaP0F0sBwTQKJehvfIMGsD8v2NgamhJkY1lX0n1u5N1fDaLydBCmlsXIgrXkg5EdI7h%2FYSFgW%2FyA91d%2Fds85jLPKaut9fqOtI%3D

These are brilliant, thank you all so much, I'm feeling a lot calmer now

He dislikes most things like look like a full meal, so chilli, stew, spag bol etc are currently rarely entertained. I suspect we could do with making some improvement on that first before excluding stuff. He eats a lot of pasta in sauce with meat, risotto, fish fingers or chicken nuggets for dinner. All of which I'm feeling better can be adapted!

Beware that some Gluten free items contain wheat starch so do check the labels. Wheat is just wheat, so other grains containing gluten will be fine e.g. rye, barley. soy is harder to cut out and there is some debate as to whether soy lecithin needs to be excluded- maybe check with the consultant? or if you have access to a paediatric dietitian they may be able to clarify. If you can cook then sticking to homemade means you can control food much more easily. Stir fries, casseroles, jacket potatoes, mild curries are all easy meals.

I think maybe what the doctor was saying is that gluten free products may still have some wheat in them because in order to be classed as gluten free the product needs to have

I feel for you, that was my life 16 years ago. I will try and wrack my brain for how we fed him, it was from a little baby though so he never knew any different. First meal we had as a family was salmon, rice and peas, I'll never forget it! Rice cakes were my saviour and he must be the only teenager who stocks up on armfuls of them even now when we go to the supermarket. The dark chocolate coated ones were soya/dairy free back then not sure if that's changed. Good luck and it is possible to grow out of it, he's not the most adventurous eater and still has a bit of what the paediatrician has called IBS but eventually he grew and can eat normally. Plus my 'failure to thrive' baby is now nearly 6 foot which I find so shocking when he was teeny tiny for so long!

I can burn salad but DH will enjoy this news when he comes home!

I have asked for a dietitian referral so if it's within six months I think I'll wait for that first

And thank you, ExCwmbranDweller, it's all a bit overwhelming at the moment as we don't have any other allergies or intolerances in the family so that's very nice to hear!