8 year old celiac disease

[Laur1990]

Hi everyone, Im new here. Just wondering if anyone has any tips regarding children with gluten free diets. I have the worlds fussiest child who has just turned 8 years old. Day after he turned 8 hes been diagnosed with celiac disease. So ive changed the obvious staples like bread to gluten free but any ideas for packed lunch/ tea would be muchly appreciated. X

[nellie237]

Hi Laur1990.

Welcome to the forum, and sorry to hear that your son has not been well. I hope that he is on the road to recovery. I'm sure that you will get lots of good ideas.

If you are looking for something quick for tea, I've found...........

M&S Free from chicken goujons (chilled), or fish fingers are OK. Schar pizza (asda, waitrose or ocado) if he's a pizza freak, which most 8yr old boys are, aren't they? I've also found Schar white frozen rolls quite handy to keep for when I've run out of bread. They're a bit like part baked bread...ie pop in the oven for 10mins.

McCain Naked Fries seem to be available anywhere.

I'm afraid that kid's lunchboxes are beyond me. I saw that a school had banned meat the other day??????????

Have you been seen by a dietician yet?

[Laur1990 in reply to nellie237]

Thank you for your reply. I will have a look in M & S , no hes not been seen by a dietician just yet, hes awaiting several appointments though. Yeah he does love his pizza haha. Hes most upset he cant have mini cheddars in his packed lunch anymore . yeah i think packed lunches at schools can be quite strict. Im lucky my childs school is being really nice with him. (Hes been poorly for about 10 months and after multiple doctor's and hospital finally got told hes celiac)

[nellie237 in reply to Laur1990]

Ooh mini cheddars is a tough one to substitute............or maybe not.....

groceries.asda.com/product/...

I know exactly how you are feeling. ❤️ My daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10.......that took months of me taking her to the GP too (no family history of it). The 1st day I took her to school after dx, I got about 5yds and had to run to the car 'cos the flooding tears just appeared from nowhere.

[Edit: I was a fussy eater when I was a kid. I think the only veg I ate was peas. I grew out of it in my late teens]

[Laur1990 in reply to nellie237]

Thanks so much, ill buy them. Aww bless, hope shes good now. Yeah it very hard to diagnose my child (like u there is no family history) .

[Ailsa72 in reply to nellie237]

Banned meat!

[Saba82]

Hi Laur,

The Republic of Tea sells 100% different types of GF teas. You can google it and buy it online. If you don’t mind can I ask what was his symptoms? I’ve been diagnosed with celiac 6 months ago and wondering if my son has it. He is 4 years old and very thin,his weight is in 10 percentile. Back in December we checked his antibodies and it was negative,but planning to see pediatric GI…

[Laur1990 in reply to Saba82]

Hi, he wasnt well for roughly 10 months . he was sick a lot and started going to the toliet about 6 times a day. Then he became anaemic. So hes on iron 15ml a day. He seemed to improve, but then had bouts of being sick again. Started going to the toliet alot of times again. He was pale and wasnt gaining weight. He was only losing weight. I spoke to alot of doctors about him (it very hard to get a doctor to see him face to face for ages) which wasnt fair. They kept saying at first it was iron related due to him neing low in it then it was a tummy bug. I even had to take him to a & e. But at first one no one took me serious that he was unwell. But eventually a stool sample came back which he had to do with very inflamed in his gut. So it showed something wasnt right. I hope your little one is ok and gets better soon. Maybe provide a stool sample? That seemed to get things moving along for my child

[glutenfreemumuk in reply to Laur1990]

Hi,

I'm glad your son finally has a diagnosis. The biggest tip I can give you is to always carry food he can eat, so you don't lose all spontaneity in life.

Although not specifically for coeliacs I've found the cook book by Alice Sherwood 'Allergy free Cookbook published by DK, isbn 978-1-4053-1260-8 is so helpful. It addresses both the practical issues like separate toasters or toasties bags, parties for children, contamination and has healthy, easy recipes AND the emotional issues of a tricky diet.

As you may have found out already, a lot of shop gf food is not especially healthy and may have a certain level of gluten contamination from the processing so your son doesn't recover properly. Fresh food is best. Good luck with everything.

[Saba82 in reply to Laur1990]

Poor baby.. I hope he gets better soon🙏

[Laur1990 in reply to Saba82]

Thankyou

[Hidden in reply to Saba82]

Is normal tea not gluten free?

This is an interesting trans-atlantic use of the word 'tea'. In parts of the UK the evening meal is referred to as 'tea' as people normally had tea with their evening meal, and perhaps had their actual main meal (dinner) in the middle of the day. Tea (as an evening meal) tends to be used more in the north of England.

[Laur1990 in reply to Hidden]

Yeah when i said tea i mean evening meal

[Saba82 in reply to Hidden]

Wow:)). I didn’t know. Thank you for explanation ☺️

[Hidden in reply to Saba82]

More than coeliac info on this forum!

[cranberryt]

I don’t have a GF child but I think most adapt well. We have Whisps here which are basiclly little crispy pieces of cheese. If he can tolerate dairy (some celiacs cannot) that might be worth a try since they taste cheesy and are crunchy. I did see that Annie’s makes some GF cinnamon crackers… def not goldfish but crunchy and small and might help.

[Laur1990 in reply to cranberryt]

Yeah luckily he can have dairy. Thanks for your reply

[Hidden]

I'm not an expert on child experience with coeliac, but fussy eating can also be down to coeliac in part. I've read that kids will naturally have an aversion to gluten products as their body is telling them what is ok and not ok. It can also impact on appetite. Some of the fussiness may disappear when the damage from coeliac fixes.

[Laur1990 in reply to Hidden]

Oh really that's interesting, yeah hopefully.

[Anthea55]

Have you found Coeliac UK at coeliac.org.uk/home/

Had a quick look and there's a section with ideas for children and young adults.

I had a really good recipe book, but someone hasn't returned it. gr... If I remember what it was I'll post it here.

[Anthea55]

Me again - found that recipe book and some notes I made about gluten free eating a few years ago - so here it is. It doesn't have to be 'cooking', just good ideas.

Raid your local library - they can get books if they don't have them.

My favourite at present is "Gluten-free Cooking" by Lyndel Costain & Joanna Farrow - the first 40 pages have a helpful introduction to the subject.. The recipe for 'Lemony Polenta Cake' is excellent.

Also from them - spiced apple porridge - make porridge with rice flakes/millet flakes and use apple juice for the liquid (I like half juice, half water), plus spice to taste - mixed spice or cinnamon or whatever. Serve with yoghurt. Can do this with the packets of gluten free porridge mix, which is usually a mix of rice and millet flakes and something else.

You can also make a quick rice pudding with rice flakes - 10 minutes at most.

The Coeliac Society have a web site which should be useful.

Dove’s Farm web site also has recipes.

[Laur1990 in reply to Anthea55]

Thanks for your reply. Ill take a look

[Anthea55]

Then there's Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake which she invented for friends who were wheat and dairy free. Cut into squares and freeze so you can just grab a piece for the lunch box.

nigella.com/recipes/chocola...

Good luck.

[Laur1990 in reply to Anthea55]

Thats a good idea, thankyou

[liver-bird]

Sorry your son has been suffering. Thinking of his lunch box or tea, Warburtons tiger bread and their soft square rolls are nice. He might like little squares of cheese with grapes. You can get gf sausage rolls. I make simple cakes using gf flour which are tasty. Soup is another option either home made or shop bought but you will have to check ingredients. All Bisto Best gravy granules in glass jar are gf. All Knorr stock cubes are gf. Hope this helps

[Laur1990 in reply to liver-bird]

Thankyou. Yeah ive been looking for GF saus rolls as he used to like the normal ones. Ill keep looking.

[Narwhal10]

Hi Laur1990,

Sorry to hear about your son. I agree with Benjamin123 with fussiness. It’s quite common that people with coeliacs/non coeliac gluten sensitivity and wheat intolerance are sent to psychiatrists because we can’t actually pinpoint that it is food which is making us ill but our ‘behaviour is avoidant’ This hopefully will settle down as healing takes place.

Others have given good ideas.

Best wishes

[Laur1990 in reply to Narwhal10]

Thankyou, thats interesting to know.

[ravenmoonstone]

hi, I too have this. I found loads of library books which helped a lot, Sainsburys have quite a variety but do google search as well as it brings up quite a few others. I also found a lot of good recipes on Pinterest.com.

[Farrugia]

I found the River Cottage Gluten Free book by Naomi Devlin at my local library and I liked it so much I bought a copy. It has a lot of information on how to avoid gluten as well as nutritional advice and lots of really good recipes. I think she tests her recipes really thoroughly because I've found they work well for me and this hasn't been the case with some other recipe books. She also has a website with information and recipes on it.

I haven't liked a lot of gluten free products that I've bought but some of the M&S ones are good eg chicken goujons in batter and their GF bread. I'm not so keen on their pasta but that might be personal taste!

I don't know what you could substitute for mini cheddars, maybe Mrs Crimbles gf cheese crackers? Nairns make a cheesy oatcake but that might be too dissimilar in texture.

Good luck, I hope you find some things he enjoys.

[Researchfan]

Hi Laur1990.

You’ve had lots of good replies already. Just thought I’d add that things like the Eat Natural bars (many different flavours) are coeliac society certified gluten free and handy for lunch boxes. Or any fruit and nut bar labelled gluten free. Though depends on what your son likes. It’s hard when fussy but like others have said part of that might be food anxiety that’s understandable. Hopefully it gets better as heals and can start enjoying food.

Try and concentrate on fresh food as possible for healing? And fresh fruit like bananas, clementines, grapes, raspberries, and there’s mini chocolate rice cakes, raisins, nut butters on gluten free crackers that are handy for packed lunches. Some of the gluten free biscuit ranges come in handy individual packs great for packed lunches. One brand is Nairns gluten free range (many flavours available).

X

[Ailsa72 in reply to Researchfan]

I imagine no nuts permitted at school

[Researchfan in reply to Ailsa72]

Good point. Though suppose depends on the school. A shame schools don’t extend the same rule in care of coeliac children regards wheat, barley, rye and dairy.

[Laur1990 in reply to Researchfan]

Thankyou for your reply. Yeah ill check them out. Ive actually started giving him Nairns in his packed. Ive found tesco quite helpfull as they do free from biscuits too. Its just hard as hes extremely fussy! He is allowed nuts in school but doesnt like nuts or anything like it :/

[Researchfan in reply to Laur1990]

Another idea I find handy for packed lunches is cold sausages? An alternative to sausage rolls. All the major supermarkets do gluten free sausages. Tesco finest range are labelled gluten free. Can be cooked the night before and eaten cold the next day if that’s a possibility for you? Same with chicken drumsticks? Anything like that might like?I’ve also rolled slices of ham or salami up buttered or with soft cheese in the middle before and quite tastey. Maybe a little tub of gluten free Heinz tomato ketchup for dipping?

😋

[Anthea55]

Another addition to your recipe book. A few years ago I decided that I would experiment with gluten free pastry. I started with the basic thought that gluten free flour doesn't contain gluten, so we don't need to treat it as though it does. (Are you still with me?)

Here's the extract from my gf notes. I've posted it in the ThyroidUK forum a while back and may have copied it elsewhere. I used it to make a big batch of mince pies for my choral society's Christmas concert and nobody noticed the difference.

Gluten free pastry

Forget everything you’ve heard about keeping pastry cool, putting it in the fridge and leaving to rest. That applies to mixtures with gluten and this hasn’t got any gluten.

The best I've made was using the standard proportions, 4oz flour, 2 oz butter, 2 tbsp water.

I used Dove's Farm bread flour but plain flour seems to work as well). Butter best if at room temperature, not cold from the fridge.

Mix flour & butter then add water, then squeeze it all together by hand, working in the last crumbs of dry mix - don't be tempted to add extra water. You can use it straight away, but I think it’s even better if it’s left overnight (still at room temperature, wrapped in cling film) – probably gives time for the grains to soften. I made a large batch using a 250gm pack of butter, 500gm flour and 8 tbsp water - I also added about a level tsp gluten free baking powder and ½ tsp salt, but doubt it made much difference. This produced a crisp pastry (for mince pies) which didn't fall apart.

I find that gluten free pastry doesn't brown like normal pastry, although it browned better when I cooked it in the non-fan oven rather than the fan oven.

Leftover pastry - add handfuls of grated cheese to taste - roll out thickly and cut into strips to make cheesy biscuits / cheese straws.

I haven't made this recently since I discovered that I'm sensitive to potatoes as well as wheat and oats and many gf foods contain potato flour.

I've just looked at the Dove's Farm website - they seem to have changed their products since I last looked at them. The gf products are now called 'Freee' so make sure you use that.

[Laur1990 in reply to Anthea55]

Thank you

[Ailsa72]

This may also be if use. apps.apple.com/gb/app/glute...

Gluten free food checker