GF/CF diet - how do you start with a 20 month old picky eater?

[katendmom]

I am reading up a lot about the diet and am very committed to do it. However, if there is anybody out there with a real life experience of starting on the GFCF diet (I read everywhere that starting is the hardest part and gradually it gets better), especially with little kids (toddlers) - please share your wisdom.

I am doing GFCF with my toddler but we are not that far in Im sure there are people with much more knowledge on the subject. The theory is that when you do the GFCF that the child will eventually spread their food interests. However some have said it doesn't always work that way. My son is quite picky-he got very picky at one stage - no protein very few veg etc. We actually found that enzymes increased his appetite.

Anyway make sure you check all the different terms for gluten and casein and get a good recipe book to give you ideas on what to cook. There are good sites to discuss the GFCF diet.

I am doing GFCF with my toddler but we are not that far in Im sure there are people with much more knowledge on the subject. The theory is that when you do the GFCF that the child will eventually spread their food interests. However some have said it doesn't always work that way. My son is quite picky-he got very picky at one stage - no protein very few veg etc. We actually found that enzymes increased his appetite.

Anyway make sure you check all the different terms for gluten and casein and get a good recipe book to give you ideas on what to cook. There are good sites to discuss the GFCF diet.

oops

thank you, staryeyed, do you have a favorite site for GFCF diet that you use? There are a lot (I think I am going cross-eyed looking at them all).

Also, did you stop diary first? And then phased out gluten?

Thank you

yes Katendmom we did stop dairy first because we found it easiest to do it that way. We just substituted all cows milk for soya in recipes and double checked all ingredients in bread etc.
We did start by cutting down gluten but then when we had to cut it out completely we had some very bad tantrums. I was told to expect that though.

A good place to start is to get urine tested to show if the diet is likely to have any effect. Did I read that you aren't in the UK? We use Sunderland University over here I dont know your equivalent.

We found that taking out Casein has stopped the red check and ear and excessive sweating that ds used to get and maybe helped with his sticky eye. With gluten there were no clear benefits (maybe less tantrums) however we reintroduced 6 weeks ago to get a celiac test done (just to be safe)so it hasn't been long enough to really tell yet. To be honest we dont know how much is down to the diet and how much down to other interventions- we haven't been at all scientific.

The websites that I use are generally autism specific. I did have a look at some of the GF/CF forums at the beginning but I cant remember where they are. IF you think the autism sites are relevant I will put some links up.

hi,
I went cold turkey with my DS. No choice really as by the time I realised that he was restricting he only had a few foods all of which were gluten and dairy. If i tried to gradually withdraw he would simply stop eatingthe gfcf food and eat more of the stuff with gluten etc in.
When i started I used AiA who are pretty hard core so can be a bit demoralising.(finding out many supermarket gfcf products are actually a problem was a shoot yourself moment for me !) I would say though that Marilyn le Breton has done the best cookbook by far and i still use my old knackered copy ( the AiA cookbook).
There is a site (wholesome house) who sell GFCF products including flours etc for baking. I resisted baking for ages but frankly i can bake stuff better than the shop stuff and for half the price ( I am actually pretty good now but can't make ordinary cakes anymore ).
AiA is autismmedical.com and their welcome pack is pretty informative.
Enzymes didn't help my son but i would recommend trying as they can make life much easier. Yahoo have some enzyme support groups and some gfcf support groups and they are free.
HTH's