I just got home with DD and she has been diagnosed with celiac, we have to begin gluten free immediately. She is nearing 6 and weighs only 32 pounds already, I can only imagine what this is going to do for her. I need some moral support, some advice, some guidance. The peds didn't give me much to work with, is going to call with more information tomorrow, but I just want to know what things you all might have found to make life easier. My biggest emotional conflict is her being in school... she barely eats as it is so I send her lunch, now her "normal" lunch won't work... and my choices of what she will eat are very few... do I pull her out of school and homeschool her? At nearly 6, she is obviously underweight, this is going to cause her to lose more weight and probably very quickly. I stay home with my DS, so homeschooling is something I could do, I just don't know what to do... PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I'm so sorry. But don't despair! Although it's not fun, it's not the worst thing ever. There are lots of websites out there that can help. Let me try to get a few for you.

Also, a lot of grocery stores are now carrying gluten-free products. I usually take frozen meals to work with me - but of course your child probably can't do that. Look for a local celiac's club - usually your state will have one. Where are you located?

You can also look up gluten free offerings at restaurants. PF Chang's has a whole gluten-free menu. Mitchell's fish market is another one, Outback steakhouse, Qdoba, and others. They aren't McDonald's - but it's something your child can eat.

Also - rice and corn are safe. So anything you can make with rice or corn - or a rice pudding, your child can eat. And they do make gluten free bread - so if you want your child to continue to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - she probably can. She can also have doughnuts and waffles and cereal. There are gluten-free cookies - and gluten free breakfast-like bars. Also all the bars from "Think" (think thin, think fruit, etc.) are gluten-free. Not the most fun kid's lunch - but it is something that doesn't have to be refrigerated and is easy to carry and eat.

http://www.glutenfreemaven.blogspot.com/
http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/
http://glutenfreegirlrecommends.blogspot.com/
http://www.glutenfreeregistry.com/gluten-free-state-search.do?state=KY
http://www.glutenfree.com/cookies-cakes/cakes-donuts/category5846
http://www.shop.123glutenfree.com/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=9

the 123 gluten free stuff is good - I've had the pan bars. I also just made Bob's red mill gluten free chocolate chip cookies and they were good too. You can get gluten free all-purpose flour, and I made cookies with that - using a regular recipe - just substituted the flour.

Indian food is fairly safe, as is Thai food. You have to stay away from soy sauce - but you can get wheat-free soy sauce.

Good luck. I'm not 100% sure that I have an allergy to wheat or gluten, but I had some stomach issues that have really been helped by eliminating wheat and gluten from my diet.

Oh and Amy's...I think it's Amy's - some kind of macaroni stuff that has bunnies on it - usually in the health food section - they have a rice pasta macaroni that's good. And there's applesauces, etc. Fruit is safe. And so is regular meat and dairy products. (Be careful about cold cuts and check the labels - they may have been injected with something like chicken stock that has wheat in it)

Feel free to contact me by e-mail if you have questions, and I'll try to help. Again, I've only been doing this a few months, but I'll try to help if I can.

Oh I just cannot imagine the challenges of living in a wheat free world, especially as a child. On the caking front, I just added an update to a post of mine from last year which featured a GF cake taste test (scratch cakes). I just made the yellow cake again last week, it was perfect. You would seriously have zero clue that it was gf (nobody at the party knew). I baked the Hershey's GF one last year too, it was also excellent. Here's the whole thread. http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=522883&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0 My taste test results are on p2.

Good luck with your challenges, in this day and age, there are at least so many more choices now for living with specific dietary constraints, that although it will be hard, you will be able to do it!

thnks ladies, you have really helped me feel a little better. I called all of the local chain grocers and none have the bread... so I will check with the local Health food store in the morning to see if they carry it. I am stressing over it I know, but when you already have a finicky eater who is tiny, its hard to imagine such a drastic change for them. Imartsy, do you know if the deli creations chicken breast chunks like you would put on a salad or fajitas are inhected or not? Supposedly the deli creations lunchmeat is all natural... what on the meat do I need to look for to throw up the red flag? I guess it is safe to assume hot dogs are out of the question? Do you know of any child friendly breakfast cereals?

I'm so familiar with this. I know the heartache involved, but it's not bad- especially knowing that your child is going to feel better! There are a lot of "kid friendly" GF cookbooks out there. Lunch shouldn't change so much. Yes, gluten free bread is different, but you can toast it a bit and it's not so bad. Most importantly, don't think of this as a hinderance. You get to experiment! Be thankful it happened now and not when your child is 35. It's much harder to get used to the diet at that age b/c of your palate. Don't be overwhelmed! There's a lot of info out there to make it such, but take it one day at a time and breathe. It's okay to cry and hate the diet. I do. There are many bloggers out there that only blog gluten free- one of my faves is glutenfreegirl.com. Just remember that you'll be looking at labels in a whole different way now- that means vanilla needs to be GF. Ham has nitrates in it- you'll want to stay away from that, but smoked turkey tastes just about the same. There is GF oatmeal! I was so excited about this. Your child will be much more anxious to try new food that's not hurting her and it'll be better for your tummy too, if you choose to put your whole family on this diet. It's a lot easier to digest. Okay, I know I've said a lot. I am very willing to share recipes, etc. with you. If you need a "cyber buddy" to talk to, feel free to PM me. I'll try to help as much as I can or you want me to.

Kid cereal - yes - 'cause I eat it too There's a cereal group Koala krispies, Gorilla crunch...they have some others. It's "Envirokids" I've had the Amazon frosted cornflakes and the Koala krispies. They also have "rice krispy" like bars. By the way - rice krispies are not safe.

As far as meats - you just want to make sure there isn't anything like chicken stock in it.... you can always look on the website of the company or e-mail or call them. A lot of products now are writing "gluten free" on their packaging - usually on the back. Amy's frozen meals have some gluten-free products, as does Glutino. Amy's organic soups also have some that are gluten free - and they mark them on the back of the soup can. Boca burger has some gluten free burgers. And I get these French rolls from Whole Foods (in the frozen section) to use as buns. As far as vanilla - the organic vanilla seems to be safe for me.

You just have to check labels. Wheat, rye, barley, flour - those are the big things I watch out for. And soy sauce. I may be missing some things - but it's seemed to work ok for me so far. Then again, I don't know that I have celiac's and not just a wheat allergy b/c I haven't been tested.

Check your local library for gluten free cookbooks. At one point we thought DS also had celiacs (turns out he doesn't), so I was looking for GF recipes. I found a ton of books at the library.

Also, ask your pediatrician to recommend a nutritionist.

Try your local whole foods they have several items available. also there are some great books out by Carol Fenster.

so who knew??? In reading a blog suggested by imartsy, I found out that Rice Chex cereal is gluten free. I clicked on the link below and found some great recipes to make desserts for my little celiac lady.... I will post on the results!

http://chex.com/Recipes/CategoryView.aspx?CategoryId=447&t=5

you seem be off to a good start.
i realize that your daughter is a finicky eater, but she probably won't lose weight at this point. she probably had a hard time gaining weight due to the fact that her body was having difficulty digesting the gluten, which caused less weight gain. now that her body won't have to deal with the gluten that it can't digest, she will hopefully start gaining weight from what she does eat.
i hope this made sense!
i'm a teacher and my student grew 3 inches within a few months of being diagnosed. his dr explained it throught the above theory.

she's lucky to have such a caring mom willing to go through such lengths to get her to eat!

Try allergygrocer.com. they have a search engine that you can type in what you need to avoid and it gives you different products that will work for your diet. I think that celiac.com also has information and bulletin boards where you can post questions. That might not be the right address, if it isn't just do a search and a bunch of sites should come up.

just wanted to let you all know that the Rice Chex recipe for the cookie pizza, was very good. My kgartner and her class loved it!!!

I plan to keep adding my finds to this in case any of you are in my boat. I went to Publix supermarket while visiting my family and found the rice flour, a different envirokids cereal, and a few other things. We spent $35 on about 9 items, so in average it wasn't bad. I have to find a cake to make as DD's birthday is coming in early april. Will try ceshells cake 1st

There's a woman near me who has been selling gluten-free baked goods through grocery stores here, and she just opened a storefront. If you want to order things from her I think that she can ship things, the website is www.3fellersbakery.com. I spoke to her, and her bakery is totally gluten-free, she has celiac deisease and she said that she's so sensitive she even reacts to some pre-packaged gluten-free mixes and other things, so she's really careful.

OMG, thanks so much! My DD is so excited. The website says she sells her cookie and cake mixes and ships them, we will be ordering tomorrow 1st thing.... thank you soooooo very much for this site!

I'm glad to help...I was experimenting with different flours last week and just wasn't happy with the results, then I saw an article in the paper about her bakery storefront opening. I called her and she's willing to make gluten free cakes for me if I have a client who needs that, so she's easy to work with. I figure it's better for me to let her do the baking since her kitchen is dedicated to that, I don't want to take a chance on making someone sick!

come to find out she took her cake mixes off the online market

Could you email her to ask if she can ship them to you?