Just Diagnosed

[hrermgr]

Well, it's official. Our 2-1/2 yr old D daughter has Celiac. We had the biopsy done last week and got the call Monday evening. I feel relieved that we finally have a confirmation--been 2 months since her routine blood screen came back abnormal--but it's hard to get my head around it since she has no other symptoms.

So we're now in search of the best tasting gluten-free foods. We're found a couple stores near us with a lot of gluten-free items so we are hopeful that we can find good foods.

If you have any advice or helpful suggestions please let me know! I am so glad that this site exists and to know that there are people who know what we're dealing with.

[BrendaK]

I'm very sorry. That's a lot to deal with. I've been gluten free since March and I'm suprised at how little I miss gluten food and how easy it is to bake about anything you want Gluten Free.

My favorite cookbook is The Gluten Free Kitchen by Robin Ryberg. She uses cornstarch, potato starch and xanthan gum as her flour bases and the rest is just normal ingredients. I've made over half of the cookbook and it's awesome!! I love not having to get fancy, expensive ingredients.

I also like The Gluten Free Pantry Brand and Pamela's baking mixes. Enjoy Life's Snickerdoodle cookies are the best store bought cookies I've ever had (including gluten ones).

Lots of restaurants have a gluten free menu online, so it helps to go through and print out that stuff.

Good luck!!!

[aklap]

If you're looking for GF baked goodies there's a GF bakery in Eagan.

http://www.bittersweetgf.com/

Joining a local support group is good idea: http://northlandceliacs.fastmail.fm/index.html They can be a wealth of info!!

Many mainstream foods are GF - it's just a matter of knowing how to look for them. Companies like Kraft, Hormel, Unilever, ConAgra all have great labeling practices. They will not "hide" gluten. They will disclose barley, rye and oats in their ingredient list. By law wheat must be disclosed - the others are voluntary.

How to read Kraft labels (http://www.kraftfoods.com/assets/pdf/healthyLiving/gluten_free_0623031.pdf). More on reading the labels (http://tinyurl.com/etpap)

Celiac.com's Safe and Unsafe food ingredient lists (http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/). Print these lists out and take them to the store with you and check each unsure ingredient. This was my bible until I got to know the list.

[WestinsMom]

Sorry for the diagnosis, but it will get easier. The hardest part is finding what you like. I agree with Brenda. We use a lot of gluten free pantry (cake mixes especially) and pamela's pancake and baking mix (they have great recipes online). It really is not all that difficult. Eating out is more of a challenge. I imagine vacationing can't be easy either (we haven't taken a vacation in 4 years so we haven't found the best way to manage that yet...sad I know. I imagine one day we will get a motorhome to make traveling easier.)

Atleast your daughter is young. We were diagnosed with D at 2 1/2 and I wish we would have known we needed to go gluten free at that time as they are too young to complain too much.

[hrermgr]

Thanks for the advice and wisdom. I think I've read every label in the house and realized that many items we already have are in fact gluten-free. I think the biggest change will be in pasta, crackers and bread, but we've already found some fairly good pasta. We continue to look for good crackers--T loves to eat cheese and crackers. And bread should not be a big issue. We've heard about Bittersweet and plan to make a purchase or two soon. T

here is also another GF bakery in St. Paul near where I work. I stopped in yesterday and bought frozen cookie dough (for the holidays) and kid-friendly bread. I also sampled some GF brownies and man, were they good! A mom purchasing some bread for her 4 year old told me their frozen pizza crust is really good, too.

Thankfully, our day care provider is on board with the GF diet. She's been out purchasing items for T--she found the Pamela's Pancake mix and was making them for breakfast this morning!

All in all, I'm feeling much better about this. It will take us a while to feel fully comfortable with everything but I'm confident that we can do it. Thanks again!

[aklap]

Glad to hear you feeling comfortable. I took me about 3 months before I felt comfortable with my food choices. Yeah, "specialty" items like that can be hard. Bread is the toughest for most people. However over time, your tastebuds change and you get used to the GF products.

I'm sure you've done this already, but training your daycare provider on cross contamination issues will be important. They can't use the same utensils [if you're doing GF and NGF cooking at the same time]. No double dipping in the mayo, jam, peanut butter jar. Toasters are a huge source of CC! Wooden spoons should be replaced. Cutting boards, sponges, etc. It's even recommended that you not share teflon coated pans. If you want to see more CC trouble spots, click here (http://forums.glutenfree.com/viewtopic.php?t=494).

Keep up the good work!

Pasta

Some pasta tips:

1) Never leave the pasta pot - unless you don't get easily distracted by discussion boards while cooking dinner ;) Stand there and stir it and test it. I find around 6 min. for cooking time (give or take a min.) BUT, I like my pasta aldente'. Do not overcook - it turns to mush in a hurry!!!!!

2) Use PLENTY of water.

My favorite pastas:

Tinkyada website.... http://www.tinkyada.com/. This is my "everyday" pasta.

Bi-Aglut's... http://www.biaglut.co.uk/home/index.shtml This is hard to tell from wheat pasta. It's very good and also expensive, this is my "special occasions" pasta. I don't get much of this any more. I used to get it exclusively when I 1st went GF.

DeBoles.... http://www.deboles.com/products/index.php. I use their lasagna noodles. They work very nicely.

I recently tried some Trader Joe's Branded GF spaghetti. It was a gift someone had given me. I'd get it again.


For crackers, my wife just picked up some from Schaer (http://www.schaer.com/en/products/snack/detail/364.html). I liked them!