Any tips on getting my son started on the GCF diet?

[jess_g]

His allergy docter is suggesting we start the GCF diet (and no milk or diary) and I need a good guide or book to help me get started. Something that will tell me what he can and cannot eat. I know I am going to be cooking most of his food for him but I realy need some help and ideas on getting started. Also I would love to know if there is any snack type foods in the grocery store (maybe at Whole Foods?) that he can eat on this diet (besides fruit and vegies).

thanks,

Jessica.

[ilovetivo]

Read all labels and it'll label for wheat and dairy, but not gluten. The law only requires the top 8 allergens to be listed. Do you have to avoid cross contamination? (Shared lines/shared facility). If so, you'll need to call the manufacturer for a lot of that info. The law doesn't require labeling for cross contamination.

For dairy & wheat names you can look at this list. (I assume GCF diet is gluten and casein free). I don't know how else gluten is listed, but i thought it's more than wheat. http://www.foodallergy.org/downloads/HTRLsheet.pdf

I'm positive there's parents on www.kidswithfoodallergies.org that are on that diet. They'll be a HUGE help. I'm sure there's info on their resources page that's available free to the public. For all of them, you need to be a Family Member (best $25 a year I spend, hands down) http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcesnew.php

Whole Foods has a Gluten Free section. Enjoy Life is one brand I can think of. Tinkayada pasta too. I'm not wheat/gluten free so I don't know many names. There's lots of GF books and food allergy cookbooks - here's some http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/cookbooks.html

GCF one on that list is Kids' Meals, Gluten & Dairy Free, Low Cholesterol Cooking Instruction on DVD

Check my main thread on FA's Good Info For ALL (bumped up right now in Kids Foods) for other info.

HTH!

ETA: Don't forget a "list" of safe foods is not a good idea. Formulations can change at any times, so there really are no lists available (that you should use as Fact anyway, it can be a starting point but you need to research for yourself)

[AugBaby]

My girls are both gf/cf but they're also allergic to a lot of other stuff so it pretty much cuts out all the snack foods for us. If you look in the organic section of your supermarket they should have a few brands of things your little one can eat. I believe Glutino is a brand of gf/cf stuff. Ener-g makes yummy pretzels and a pre-made pizza crust my girls really liked.

We made a great pizza dough from a recipe on the bag of Bob's Red Mill Fava Bean/Garbanzo Bean flour that was gf/cf. It might have called for milk, but we just use water instead.

I really like the Enjoy Life cookies because they're soft. They're really sweet, though. My girls are allergic to sorghum so we had to forego them :-(

Pamela's also makes some yummy gf/cf stuff. You have to read the labels, though, as some of the cookies have milk in them. The mini bagged cookies are yummier than the boxed. Although, I really like the ginger ones.

One tip - once you decide what snacks you like, you can generally order them off of amazon for much less than you'd pay in a natural food store. Oh, Kinnicki brand is another one that's gf/cf I think. We can't eat the egg they use in their stuff, but from what I've heard, most people really like their stuff.

Enjoy Life also makes chocolate chips that are dairy free - I've eaten them straight out of the bag :-) and they also make a trail mix with them.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Oh, one other thing...Gillian's makes some yummy bread crumbs. We like the Cajun ones, but they also make plain ones and Italian flavored.

Good luck and welcome to the club :-)