New to gluten free

[mirander66]

I'm hoping to put my son who is autistic on a gluten free diet ..he loves eating dry oats....is there any substitute .I could swap too. .??

[Hidden]

Hi mirander66, now it may interest you to know that you can get certified gf oats, these are oats that are tested to be below codex as they've been grown/rolled and packaged free from contamination from wheat and barley.

What you have to bear in mind with oats is that they are a sub member of the wheat family and not all coeliac can tolerate 'pure' oats and we are told not to introduce oats until our villi has recovered and then not to consume more than 50g per day for adults and 15g for children. However as your son is not a diagnosed coeliac and he loves oats, it could be worth seeing how he gets on with pure oats found in the free from section.

Here's a link that may interest you:

caffeinatedautismmom.com/20...

Just bear in mind that even pure oats contain a gluten like protein and the reason that we are told to restrict the amount that we eat is so that we do not eat too much of this protein.

As a substitute you can get flaked rice, flaked quinoa and flaked millet.

And good luck to you and your son and I hope that he responds to a gf diet and let us know how you get on and for any tips on gf you're in good company on here.

[Fruitandnutcase]

I've got GF porridge oats at the moment, I've been buying Bob's Red Mill GF oat bran from Amazon to make my oat bran breakfast muffins and they accidentally sent me GF porridge oats, it was a product that couldnt be returned so they replaced them with the oatbran I wanted and left me with the oats. Like Jerry says some people are ok with oats so it might be worth trying. I used to love dry oats when I was a child, I was always stealing handfuls from the larder.

[AGFL_Magazine]

Hi Mirander66,

Oats are certainly a hot topic when it comes to following a gluten-free diet and the answer also depends on what country you live in. Here in Australia, oats are not considered to be gluten-free. Even those labelled and marked as such in the US and other countries.

Here's a link to a story we published about oats that might help you decide whether you want your sons gluten-free diet to also be oat-free.

agfl.com.au/the-great-oat-d...

If you're looking for alternatives to oat you can try rice or quinoa flakes. If you son is eating them dry (as in uncooked) the rice flakes might be a little hard on his teeth, so the quinoa flakes may be preferable.

[Thurgolady]

Hi Miranda - gluten free granola which doesnt contain oats might be good although I guess you would have to watch the sugar. Puffed rice might be a suitable alternative, the ones without sugar. I would avoid oats for at least 6 months if you can.

I think a gluten free diet for your son with autism is a great idea - there are a couple of groups that might be helpful, sorry I dont have websites to hand:

Gluten free dairy free kids of America - they seem well set up with alternatives and recipes for kids.

Allergy Induced Autism (AIA UK I think) - a UK based similar group.

regards,

Gill

[judburke]

Sainsburys do gluten free oats in their "free from" section that say "suitable for coeliacs"