No dairy, low wheat, low sugar ... Help me cope with this special diet!

[LivininaBox]

My DS has allergies plus an irritated bowel. He's seen a specialist doctor and it's been advised that we put him on a diet involving no dairy, no soya, reduced wheat and no high sugar foods.

I am a bit at a loss to think what he is going to eat.

And I don't know what "low wheat" actually means. I've not been given any advice on the actual amount of wheat that is ok for him.

Has anyone followed a similar diet, I would be very grateful for advice.

I'm thinking I will need to replace bread with perhaps rye bread, but I am not sure if that still contains wheat?

Breakfast could be porridge or rice crispies so that's ok.

Main meals I suppose will have to involve potatoes or rice instead of pasta/bread.

The no dairy thing is easier as he has been off dairy for some time.

Any advice or meal ideas would be most appreciated!

Did they refer you to a dietitian? You need their input with this.

I know screaming, there is a 6 month waiting list. I went private to see the doctor but don't really want to pay privately for a dietician too if I can avoid it

Not sure about Low wheat- it’s too vague. If they suspect celiac then they need to properly diagnose this with a biopsy but you have to be eating wheat to see. Low wheat I wouldn’t be happy with this.
My DD was told no dairy and then the consultant said stop soya too with no dietitian help- that’s when we went private and started again.
You’ll have to cook fresh for everything for a while, a lot that is dairy free has soya. It’s hard.

Potatoes, rice for carbs.

How old is your DS, and is he adventurous in his tastes? If he likes Indian food there's a lot of vegetarian choice there, gram flour is wheat free, Mexican food has lots of pulses and cornmeal dishes to pick from.

Indian food uses ghee which is dairy.

Low wheat I guess means you can put a spoonful of flour in a sauce to thicken it, but avoid giving him a plate of reguar pasta. There are lots of rice based/pea/bean based pastas out there now, so you can just swap those in. Your issue is going to be if he likes a lot of bread, but there are substitutes for that too. Sweet potato when he is fed up of regular potato, lots of veg, perhaps rice noodles as well, if he likes Indian food, you can just use oil to cook, not ghee. Have a look at the Deliciously Ella website, loads of wheat free and dairy free recipes on there, and Angela Liddon's oh she glows website too. I have a good friend who has these dietary restrictions who comes to stay regularly, so I have given it some thought and there are more options than you would think. She does bring her own special cereal though. Good luck!

Does he like eggs. Oatly oat milk is nice too.

Thanks for the ideas, Indian is a good idea. He is not that adventurous but he is going to have to try new things.

He has been tested for coeliac but we don't have the results yet

Can anyone suggest a bread alternative?

Mexican is a good idea, I will have a look at tacos and maybe some burritos are made of corn rather than wheat.

I used to do this. I found it easier to stick to very simple, old-fashioned British dinners to begin with until I got into it. So that would be meat, potatoes and lots of veg. Stews. Cottage pie. Grilled fish with chips. Fishcakes. I got an old Mrs Beaton-type cookery book for ideas. I had a bag of Dove wheat-free flour to make gravy with. You can use lentils or oats to thicken stews. Also think of simple things like baked potato with dahl or tuna & veg in tomato sauce. Rice & beans with chicken or fish. Spicy rice with prawns. Then I started looking for dishes from other cuisines - I found Turkish and Indian very helpful. Ghee is low-dairy but you could use another oil. Rye is still wheat. I buy very good quality sourdough bread and spelt & just have it occasionally. I sometimes do pancakes or flatbread with gram flour (chickpea). I have porridge and put quite a lot of things in it so it's sustaining: e.g. chopped banana, ground nuts & seeds, frozen berries, dried fruit, coconut cream drizzled on the top.

For a bread alternative, I found the best thing was to go to local farmer's markets & cafes to find someone who could supply homemade wheat-free bread for me to freeze sliced. The ingredients in the commercial ones seemed so unhealthy I couldn't see the point.

Be careful as a lot of tortillas labelled as corn actually contain wheat - although Old El Paso now does some gluten free ones - Tesco sells them in the Free From section
In terms of bread, look for a brand called BFree - they have a wide range of bakery products and are sold in most supermarkets

You will need to be vigilant at checking packets of things like ready made sauces, packet mixes etc as many contain one of the ingredients he has been told to avoid

Ooh more ideas, thanks. @millicentsnitch those are great meal suggestions, they are things the whole family will eat. I like the idea of making my own flatbread with gram flour too!

Yeah, chickpea flatbread is actually something I'd make whether or not I was avoiding wheat. It's lovely when you get it right. If you search for socca you'll find recipes for versions you do in the oven, which is easiest. And you can put toppings on it to make it a bit pizza-ish.

My DD was wheat and dairy free for a while. Things I used to put in her lunch box were: rice cakes, popcorn, cocktail sausages, mini frittatas and later on we discovered here wraps www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/293672920
Most supermarkets sell red lentil pasta www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/297484755

Warning - this might be long.

Dairy - you've said that this isn't a problem so I won't waffle on. I drink unsweetened Alpro Almond Milk because it has natural sweetness. Be aware that many non dairy products do have lots of sugar and/or sweeteners to make up for the lack of taste.

Low wheat - obviously you need clarification on what 'low' means. Tesco and some independent shops do Rye bread made by a company called Biona. These breads have no wheat or yeast in and come in just rye, pumpkin seeds added, quinoa added and a few others that I can't remember (give it a Google.) The bread isn't suitable for sandwiches - it's hard but it toasts well and carries things like scrambled egg, grilled tomatoes that kind of thing without being soggy. Do find a local bakery and ask about specialist breads but be aware of the whole added sugar thing and yes some do add wheat to their breads. Biona don't.
Napolina do some nice dried pasta made from pea protein. It's actually very nice and doesn't fall to bits like some non-wheat pastas.

Re sugar - I lived on a no yeast, no sugar diet for years so I know how hard it can be to find stuff that doesn't have it hidden in. M&S have some pasta sauces with no sugar added. They're tucked away in their fancy foods aisle so you'll have to hunt for them. You can use passata to make sauces too. I had to avoid anything ending in -ose - lactose, fructose, sucrose so you should check labels.

I'd keep a food diary of what you're feeding him and note his moods, energy levels and bowel habits after eating these foods. This could be the key to getting him better (you might already be doing this of course).

One word on processed gluten-free stuff - it often has a lot of sugar/sweeteners in to give it flavour. Do read the labels.

I hope he recovers soon and if you want any additional info, PM me.

Great, thanks everyone. @ricekrispie22 those lunchbox ideas are fab, I was wondering what I might do for a wheat free packed lunch. To add to my woes, he is not allowed peanut butter or houmous in his lunch due to other children's allergies.

@handslikecowstits I will definitely check out that pasta, and might PM you later once I have explored some of these ideas

So grateful for all this help!

“he is not allowed peanut butter or houmous in his lunch due to other children's allergies.”

Nut allergies? Because hummus without tahini is a doddle to make, you have to add a bit of extra flavour, but it’s still good.

Ok one further question can anyone suggest a low sugar dessert I could provide for nursery? It needs to be something they can store, eg in freezer.

The only ideas I can think of would be a dairy free butcher or a coconut based yogurt alternative, but neither of those would freeze. I know there are dairy free ice creams available but I think they may be too sugary. Any thoughts?

• Bircher that should say! Not butcher

Homemade houmous could be an idea, if nursery will trust me that it is sesame free!

The autoimmune protocol book may help you.

Lucinda Miller has bought out a book called The Good Stuff. Its superb and will give you lots of recipes

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/fruity-frozen-yoghurt/
I didn't watch the Jamie episode that had the above recipe, but my mum did and recommended it. Maybe whip up a batch of this? Apparently it's pretty easy and all done in a blender then chucked into a tub and into the freezer.

You can buy coconut ice cream - I'm not sure what it's like from a sugar perspective - and you could make banana "ice cream"

Maybe check out Amelia Freer - she has some good recipes which are wheat /dairy free and are on the lower sugar spectrum

Has anything been mentioned about him having calcium supplements if he isn't having dairy?

My dd has lots of bowel issues, and is wheat/dairy free atm.
She can tolerate sheep's and goats milk yoghurt, and also the lacto-free milk (which tastes 10000x better than oat, rice, almond etc milk!)
Sheep and goat milk yoghurt is plain, so it's v low in sugar (3.4% I think, off the top of my head).
Cornflour can be used to thicken soups, stews, sauces etc. Also, you could make low-sugar custard in pots for nursery, if you add cornflour to the custard powder it will 'set' nicely in the fridge.
There are sugar-free jellies available, but they're so full of additives we haven't used them.
DD has GF cinnamon bagels (Genius make, from Sainsbury's or Waitrose) which are good for filling her up. They're 9.5g of sugar per 100g.
Genius also make Reasonable fruit bread, but that's 17g of sugar per 100.
She hasn't liked any of the GF breads really, Schar seem to do the best (the frozen rolls are like Viennese bread rolls, and are about the best). She doesn't like any of the wraps either, so her lunches are hot meals (chili, bolognaise, stew, etc) or salads with tuna, chicken, ham etc and sliced new potatoes or rice.
She can tolerate cornflakes and rice Krispies, and likes porridge when we've time.
I agree with the previous poster about meat and vegetables meals being good- we have more roasts than we used to, mainly as I can just make one meal then.
I also make batches of her food and freeze in DD-sized portions so that there's always a decent variety of something she can eat in.
Good luck! You may find that as he's so young he'll take to it well, as he won't be so entrenched in his tastes.
If it was my DS that had all these issues I'd be screwed, because he barely eats anything as it is!(ASD)
Thankfully DD has a pretty broad palate.

You can make an ice cream just from coconut milk and mango - there are different recipes online.