What's the score with wheat?

[BikeRunSki]

DS not weaned yet, but will be in the next few weeks.

HV said no wheat until he is one. Fine. The the booklets she gave me said that bread sticks, toast fingers, chappatis and cold cooked pasta made ideal first finger foods. All of which contain wheat!

Please help a confused first time mum.

have you wheat / gluten allergies and/or coeliac disease in the family?

if not wheat is fine from 6m and HV is a loon

goodness me your HV is talking rubbish, wheat is fine from 6 months, as MrsB said. Good luck with weaning anyway - you'll find better advice on MN than from your HV!

I think it is medically fine but some can find it hard to digest so we only have it once a day - so if we have toast/sandwiches for lunch then we dont have pasta for dinner.

Cold cooked pasta/rice for example has more fibre than hot - so can cause more digestion difficulties.

Thanks ladies. The "no wheat" thing is also in my NCT weaning book too - along with recommendations of pasta, so I am guessing it maybe means really heavily wheaty stuff like Weetabix and wholemeal bread?

DH's grandfather, uncle and cousin (ie: father, son and grandson) have/had coelliac disease and I am dairy intolerant, so Iam hangingout for 26 weeks as hard as I can! DS is 22w 3d, so not long, I just need to fend of my mother!

I would tread carefully with that history tbh - and wait til later and then only a small amount at a time in a controlled way - ie wheat being the only new thing that day.

We use lots of rice and quinoa instead as well as some corn pasta on occasion.

hmm, with a history of coeliac like that I might go a bit more carefully than otheriwse

I'd go carefully with a history of coeliac, tbh.

We have dairy and gluten intolerance on our family, and dd2 is still gluten and dairy free (2 next week). Ours is quite an extreme situation though.

I actually did wait until a year to introduce wheat - there are plenty of alternatives to try first With your history it is probably best to be cautious. I think a safe option is to introduce things like rice and oats first anyway because they are gentler and easier to digest and see how he responds - but really there is no need to rush into wheat.

AGree with that history i'd wait.

You can get really nice gluten free breadsticks in Sainsburys and Asda, btw, ds4 is gluten fre and loves them; also naan breads, pasta, pitta (in fingers toasted) but skip the fake bread: really its not worth bothering with GF bread unless you made it that day fresh.

We're dairy/egg/wheat free at least until one year and it doesn't have to a hassle. Sure, I occasionally wish I could just feed him yoghurt or toast or whatever but there are ways around it. You can try unsalted rice cakes as a first finger food. I make little potato cakes which go down well. Rice and potato can masquerade as all kinds of things - for example, I make spaghetti bolognaise with rice pasta. If you're energetic, get some rice flour and make stuff. Also the organix corn finger snacks are great. There's no shortage of non-wheat finger foods, but you do need to look a bit further than the baby shelf at the supermarket.

We've been avoiding wheat for five months now and I hardly even notice it, unless out with other babies who are munching on their toast.