Wheat allergy

[Anonymous]

My nephew was just diagnosed with a wheat allergy. SIL is looking for good resources, websites, recipes etc. for healthy foods an almost 3 yo will like. His birthday is coming up so suggestions on what to do instead of a cake are appreciated as well. TIA!

[Anonymous]

My 3 yo son has Celiac Disease so can't have wheat/gluten. I would check out the book Nearly Normal Cooking by Jules Shepard - I like her flour mix and she gives a lot of advice for avoiding gluten. Also check out the Celiac Disease and Gluten Free Forum, where there is a section on children with celiac.

Your son can still eat lots of stuff, you just have to modify some things. And watch for cross-contamination, because it can be tricky in the kitchen. We bake GF bread, we use GF pasta and we make home-made fish sticks and chicken nuggets. You are lucky because if he is only allergic to wheat and not all gluten, foods will all list if they contain wheat because it is one of the major allergens, unlike gluten. So just check things like chicken broth, soup, etc. to make sure they don't contain wheat (many soups do unfortuntely).

Also, Betty Crocker just came out with gluten free cake mixes in vanilla and chocolate. We buy them at our Giant here. I also like Pamela's and Amy's products (like frozen rice mac and cheese), which are available at Whole Foods and some other stores. We buy GF pizza crusts at Giant too, or use corn tortillas as the base.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. Your post is very helpful.

[Anonymous]

I have used a flour mix called Better Batter, you can order it online and just swap it out cup for cup for regular flour in anything. I second Pamela's brand mixes, and whole foods has a lot of gluten free treats

[Anonymous]

DD was allergic to wheat until recently. So we were all about rice and rice-based products in our house. It's amazing what they have now:

- rice pasta (tastes great!),
- rice bread (in freezer section at WholeFoods, tastes best with some extra olive oil to soften it)
- rice crackers
-- wheat-free cookies (tons at WholeFoods -- often marked Gluten Free)

As for cakes, definitely make Rice Crispy Treats!! We've used all sorts of molds to create cupcakes, flat cakes (like a cookie cake) and even tierd cakes.

http://www.ricekrispies.com/recipes/the-original-treats.aspx#/recipes/the-original-treats

Finally, if you want to eat out, Mexican is probably the easiest and safest bet. Again, lots of rice, corn chips and corn tortillas.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Be careful about chips- most restaurants inclde wheat in their chips to make them lighter.