We have a six year old who was diagnosed with celiac disease when he was 2. once we switch him over to gluten free foods all symtoms reside with exception to a few slip ups along the journey. Which brings me to your question. It was hard at first to discover the new world of reading every ingredient on the back of everything i purchased. However, I found that in time this would become much easier than i thought. Many grociers offer a gluten free product listing if you ask them for it. You can sometimes get it on their websites as well. Some restaurants offer this also. While your baby is still really young this may come in handy in the future. Your best bet is to stick to rice based items. If you have a "Wild Oats" or A Whole Foods" near you this is an awesome source for getting started on this journey of selective foods. I have also foud them to be extremely knowledgeable of gluten free foods. Even the young employees. So don't write them off.

Practically speaking for your child I would stick to friuts and veggies for now because they are so easy. You can look for some soft and chewy breakfast bars for him to gnaw on.

These websites may help and sometimes these products can also be found in the local grocier..

http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/

http://www.celiac.com/

Dont' freak out! It may cost a little more than you might expect but once you learn how to implement naturally gluten free foods into the mix your bill will go back down.

One last thing. Realize that because your son will grow up knowing what he can and can't eat this will be far easier than those that have been diagnosed at an older age...

My son (20 months old) is allergic to egg, milk, soy, peanut, wheat, oat, barley, rice, corn, and quinoa.  Talk about a feeding nightmare.  Watch out for the soy products. Lots of female hormones in it.  My son originally tested ok for soy so we had him on soy toddler formula...then he became very allergic to it.  Anyway, we are giving him Neocate (a hypoallergenic "formula").  It's extremely expensive, but it's saving our son.  I have resigned myself to the fact that there is practically nothing in the way of prepared food that I can buy for him....I have to cook it all from scratch.  I'm feeding him potatoes (mashed potatoes would be good to start with).  He also gets applesauce, other fruits & veggies that are cooked, chicken, and turkey.  I had to give up on ham....every brand I've checked is cured with soy or corn derivatives.  I've had to experiment with alternative grains: i.e. buckwheat (actually a fruit, not a grain), amaranth, & quinoa (pseudo-grains).  You can buy cream of buckwheat cereal.  I'm still experimenting.  Looking at exotic tubers now (malanga, cassava, taro, water chestnut).  If you haven't done so already, find a good allergist - my sons allergist has been a Godsend. 

Corn is in just about everything.  I've recently put together a list of all the "scientific" names for corn and all it's derivatives.  Did you know that ascorbic acid can be made from corn?  And Gerber products use corn derived ascorbic acid?  And Crayola washable crayons/markers/etc are made with corn?  Anyway, with all my sons allergies, my list of alternative food names to check on labels is about 20 pages long.  It's easier and quicker to cook from scratch than read a food label.

Here are some websites you can check out for products:

http://www.specialfoods.com/

http://www.allergygrocer.com/

Check out your local health food and natural food stores for products.  And beware of eating out in restaurants.  Many commercially prepared foods are going to have soy or corn or wheat or something else added to it.  For example, prepared potatoes - french fries, hash browns, etc. all have soy added to them - why?  I seriously don't know why you'd add soy to potatoes.

I hope this helps a bit.  I wish you the best of luck. 

nick

4/29/09 5:07pm

I no how you feel my son is now 8 he is allergic to milk, all dairy eggs, fish, wheat, gluten, soya, nuts, corn and maize!!!!  well we have made it through 8 years with lots of tears and pain on my sons behalf.  he still takes neocate advance and believe me i agree it is a god send my son was 1year old when he first got it, he had reached a point he was failure to thrive and we had not slept a half night never mind a whole night since he was born!

 

things do get better once you resign your self to the fact that you have to cook everything from scratch and even becarefull where you get your meat from. my son can not eat beef when the cows have been fed corn, and corn fed chicken.

 

Basic homemade food makes the family life easier. 

 

hope this helps

nick

Anonymous

6/13/09 2:55pm

I want to give you all a GREAT website for gluten free recipes...she isn't corn free so you have to adjust the recipes, which means using guar gum not xanthan, using Hains feather weight baking powder, she's now egg free but some of her older recipes call for eggs which if you're allergic to eggs you need to adjust...we've found her recipes to be a godsend...everything we've made has been as good as a recipe with gluten, corn, eggs, dairy, soy.

Google Gluten Free Goddess:  http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

Sharon

10/28/09 5:28pm

Hi, I totally agree with you regarding simple basic family cooking. My husband and I have no allergies but my son 3 and my daughter 15 months are allergic to:wheat, gluten, dairy, egg, soya, nuts, fish, bananas, apples, corn, quinoa, tomatoes and onions. They are both on neocate formulas but my daughter wont take it so I have to disguise it in her food.  I recommend trying amazake (rice and millet dessert), using chicken stock for gravy and to flavour meals and Energy have tapioca bread which is quite palatable. I suggest trying old fashioned butchers shops for meat preserved with salt petre and salt. I hope this helps.