Coeliacs packed lunch.

[cherryredretrochick]

He,
I am really sorry to post this on here but my very dear friend 2cutedarlings advised me that people on here will be able to help me.

My DD 4.5yo has just been told by the doctors to go on a gluten free diet but rather than cutting out bread etc to substitue it with Gluten free alternatives.

Anyway, she is at nursery for her lunch tommorow so I shall go out and buy some things tonight, what is a good GF bread? Is the pasta OK? Is there any sausages we could get? And any other food advice you can give me would be very gratefully recieved.

I know this is not special needs and am sorry to post here but I need some advice before I go to the shops very soon.

I give my son rice cakes with honey or jam as most of the gf bread we have tried is not terribly soft or does not keep soft for long.
I think the tesco free from is OK ( but not 100% sure as DS cannot tolerate it)

Gf pasta is usually quite nice.

good quality sausage can be tricky but ask at local butchers as some will make gf ones for you and they are usually the best. Many supermarket sausages have gluten in.
Ds has provamel soya puddings as they are gf and cf ( dairy free) and DS has to be both.
You can get gf biscuits in lots of places including supermarkets but they can be pricy. Ditto cakes. ( I now mostly make my own to save money)
Obviously fruit etc , carrot sticks, raisins etc all ok.

GF bread is, in my experience, disgusting. however we also use rice cakes, and ds1 loves the GF pitta breads which can then be filled with a wide range of things.
tesco do free from sausages (if you struggle to find things in the fridge, try the freezers) and fish fingers.

If she is diagnosed coeliac, does she not get bread and biscuiots on prescription? perhaps ask?

As wella s the provamel desserts, we use those plastic tubs of fruit puree for abbies- the eldest if 8 but none of them seem to mind taking them to school.

We rotate with the different gluten free
bread and do sandwiches - refresh it in
the morning, avoid dry sandwich fillings -
and wrap in cling film. The sandwiches last
till lunch but no longer. They get dry after
that. Gluten free pitta bread (Sainsburies
free from range) has worked well for packed lunch too but again you need a moist filling. Carrot sticks, grapes, cucumber chunks always go down well. Can also send
various gluten free dips in a small container to dip them in. Then we do a yoghurt or fromage frais type thing and fruit.

Thanks,
She is not yet diagnosed, had blood test but result not back yet, been tested for many other things and they all came back Ok so doctor said to take her off gluten and if she has a positive response that would enough.
Doctor is going to refer her anyway to the gastro something or other, she has a history of allergies and failure to thrive.
I just have to get my head round it very quickly as she is a very picky eater (understatement of the century) and I must know what she can have or she will pick up on my doubts IYSWIM.
I have just got back from the shops, bought GF chocolate star cereal, Rice vegetable pasta, some GF Cookies, some GF bread rolls and lots of alpro soya yoghurts.
I find it quite difficult to make everybody eat as her little sis is dairy free and they object to being given different food.
Thanks for all the ideas, I should be off to a good start.

The GF pitta bread is the best sandwich bread I've found. The Black farmer sausages (stocked in Waitrose and Sainsburys) are really nice, and the best pasta is the Orgran Rice and Maize or Rizopia.
Theres some really good online retailers such as Lifestyle (fab for sausage rolls and pasties), Johnsons and DSDirect. Many gf things are also dairy free which might help you.

You can also get GF breadsticlks which DS1 (gluten and dairy free) loves, with dips as suggested below.

I have to go GF whilst BF this baby (due in 9 weeks) as the BIBIC nutritionist says it may reduce risk of the disability ds1 and ds3 has- NOT looking forwards to it!

If you've got time to make your own - Lakeland do two gf bread mixes - we only use the white as DS2 is allergic to the seeds in the multigrain one. You need an electric whisk but it only needs 5 mins beating. It comes out as a 'proper' loaf with a crust and a fluffy white crumb, so you can make sandwiches and it also keeps well. It's a revelation after all the other cardboard gf loaves.

Our local farm shop makes gf sausages specially for DS2 if we buy 5 kgs at a time! They also give us the left over sausage meat which I make into sausage burgers, adding a tiny bit of cooked quinoa or rice. You could add sneaky veg as well. DS2 will eat these cold.

And if you're doing homemade burgers, those lakeland burger makers are amazing- we bought one and its so nice that they eat them, yet we know whats in them exactly.

You do get used to the special diets, and it becomes second nature. Make sure you supply school with some GF food too though- depending on the teacher DS1 eitehr gets given wahtever gluten loaded crap is being given out for a birthday or denied entirely: hsi teacher now keeps a stash in his desk for that sort of occasion.

Ooh yes - we've got that burger maker. I LOVE Lakeland (there's one in Taunton now, did you know?)

I didn't know that no. Not one in newport- you'd think there would be wouldn't you?

Will have to send Mum over some time.

I think we're going to be down a bt more over the next few months so will e-mail you if we are - depending on whether I can still waddle obv!

Cheers guys, burger maker sounds great, will have a look on lakeland. Going to buy a breadmaker, I had one when dd1 was tiny as she was intolerant to dairy and soya which is in all bread. Used it so much it died.

I bought some rolls, but having read the packet it says you have to refresh them, can you do that and then make sandwiches for later?

Peachy, good look with the bf diet, i did dairy free when bf dd2 and it helped me loose my pregnancy weight so quickly. You must be so organised to hae restictive diets and dc with disabilities and be preganant, I am actually in awe.

Sphil, do you make the bread mixes in the oven or do you need special bread maker?

Ah no dont be in awe of me LOL, I am simply blessed to have a Dh who works bloody ahrd around the house and gives me a bit of time! He's the special one actually.

Poor bloke.

I'm Df anyway so used to it all to soem extent- the GF is for us ASD risk minimising / behaviour controlling, the DF is 'proper' full on food allergy.

It's so bloody complex isn't it? I have read a few things about the gluten ASD link but only in interest from the allergy side. Somebody recommended a book (sorry if it was you I can't remember) called Dangerous grains, I will have a look who it is by, sounds fasinating.

Your DH sounds like a real gem.

We are same as Peachy - dairy/egg free for allergic reasons, gf for autistic ones!

You don't need a breadmaker for the Lakeland bread - just whizz it into a sort of batter with an electric whisk, leave it to rise for 30 mins or so and then put it in oven (I think for about 30 mins but we have an Aga so it's anything from 45 - an hour and a half ). In fact, I would advise against using a breadmaker - we tried it once and the batter climbed out of the sides. Not pretty.

Peachy - let me know if you're waddling this way

friends boy and his non coeliac sister seem keen on GF hot cros buns. much to their dads dispair as they aint cheap and hes trying to only buy special stuff for the child who can;t have standard catering at events.

Hi cherry!

You can definitely get gluten free sausages in M&S, and Waitrose if I remember rightly. Also our butcher does some gluten free sausages so a local butcher might be a good place to start.

My dad was diagnosed as coeliac in the mid-1980s so we have lots of experience of a gluten free diet in our family!

If your dd is diagnosed then here are a few tips:

• Mum makes all dad's bread using special flour (by a company called Juvela) which he gets on NHS prescription because he's coeliac rather than just wheat intolerant. He also gets bread rolls, biscuits and pasta that way. So if your daughter is officially diagnosed then you should be able to arrange a regular prescription of staples like that I think. It's nowhere near as difficult as making normal bread - just mix the flour mix with water, put in tin and leave for a while, then bake I think. Certainly no kneading etc.
• I made dad a gluten free hamper last Christmas with foods I bought in Waitrose - tortilla wraps made from corn rather than wheat flour etc. - it's surprising how much stuff is gluten free, even without having the "free from" branding.
• the coeliac association always used to do a little directory for members of all sorts of branded foods that are gluten free and mum found this brilliant for doing her supermarket shopping. Lots of foods like Heinz also have the little gluten free logo on
• you need to be careful of things like MSG which is a gluten derivative so the logo is a handy way of knowing if a product is truly gluten free
• Some supermarkets will actually bake gluten free bread for you in the bakery section I believe if you give them a bit of notice - at least Sainsburys used to
• Mum and dad definitely found it easy to get into a routine after the initial few months as they got to know what they could and couldn't buy and what ingredients were 'hidden' sources of gluten.

He's lived with it for over 20 years now and is doing absolutely fine, and there is very little he can't find a substitue for as the shops have come on leaps and bounds in recent years. He's also found that when he goes on holiday no hotel (here or abroad) has ever batted an eyelid when he asks them to toast his special bread or anything so he just takes what he needs with him - so you shouldn't find that restrictive either.

Good luck! I hope a gf diet works for your daughter

Thanks again,
This is all so useful, we have got on really well today, she loved her cereal, but wouldn't eat the bread at nursery. The biscuits (choc chip cookies) have gone down a treat.

I didn't know that about MSG , we try to avoid it anyway so I guess now its a must.

I guess we will see quite quickly if it has any effect. I am feeling quite optimistic.

We are going near M&S tommorow so will see if we can get some suasages also going to take a trip to Holland and Barratt.

I have noticed that the allergy ranges have improved even from when dd1 was a baby so should be an awful lot easier than it would have been for your dad HQ.

All this info is very gratefully recieved from a complete novice so Thanks again.

Check supermarket sausages carefully - I remember someone telling me on here ages ago that many of them do contain msg even if they're labeled g/f. I checked the ones we were buying that time (from Waitrose) and they did!

I have given her hula hoops today and discovered they have MSG in. This is going to be even harder than I first thought.

Potato heads crisps?

It can be hard at first, lots of things can be stuffed with gluten- gravy, for example. But a bag of GF flour on standby can make all the difference( its amazing for thickening sauces to make blander foods more palatable).

remember that there are lots of easy kid friendly stand bys too- she can eat eggs so omelettes can be easily avried; pancakes made from GF flour are lovely; then there's gf pasta and tuna, variations on paella, jacket potatoes. Lots of normal, everyday things really.

Hi cherry red - if some things are labelled gf but still have msg you may want to check latest advice on msg because i can't see how they could be labelled gf and still have msg if that was deemed a problem. My dad was told to avoid it but as i said this was 20 years ago and maybe it has been deemed okay since then and i don't want to give you out of date info if it is now deemed okay.
definitely best thing to do would be contact coeliac society and get hold of their food directory.

MSG is fine on a GF diet. Under the food regulations now, all gluten has to be clearly stated on the label, so if theres any in an ingredient it will say.
If theres an independant health food shop near you, then they always have a much better range than Holland and Barrett. M&S do a great gf chocolate cake, and are very helpful at the deli counter with info. Their cafe does a gf muffin and fruit cake slice too.

Managed to get some real goodies yesterday,
M & S Gluten Free Cocktail Sausages, Loads of Goodies Crisps, and a selection of cereals and crisps. Also got some Quinoa so look for my thread on the cooking section asking what the hell I do with it.

Holidays Queen, you have actually reminded me that we try to avoid MSG anyway but have let it slip a little lately with all the other restrictions.

Sphil, thanks you have to read the labels so thoroughly don't you and that is not always easy with bored kids with you. The M&S ones look great though.

Peachy, we managed to make eggy bread with the gf bread last night, I thought this is going to be revolting but it actually was OK. I was trying ro avoid buying lots of cupboard stock as we are moving house in 2 weeks but I have now given in.

Cmotdibbler, I will bear the chocolate cake in mind although I am not sure how much the los would actually get

Thats great to hear. GF is a pain at first, but once you negotiate finding bread thats tolerable, and work out where to get the rest of the things, eating at home is just not that much hassle.

I was just thinking about basics-
ketchup - Heinz, beans - Heinz, gravy - Bisto Best (in jar), stock cubes - Kallo, or Marigold powder, soy sauce - Meridien, general purpose flour - Doves Farm (try the brownie recipe on the pack, its to die for).

The choc and cherry cake never lasts long here - which is not good as DH is on a diet, and DS is only 20 months.... I try to only buy single serving cakes, or things that can be frozen.