Melaine - how is the reduced gluten going?

[Ceepa]

I've been curious if you've had good results reducing the gluten in DD's diet? I know they weren't clinically diagnosed as needing diet modification and you were just testing it out. I've been thinking of doing something similar.

[Melaine]

Thanks for asking. We are on day 11 of GF. I have been really frustrated because on day 2 the girls came down with a cold that is just finally clearing up. So I felt like my "results" have not been as clear, because they have been cranky and whiney with being sick. Also had a lot of nighttime waking but I feel sure it's because of the colds.

That being said, I feel like they have been less whiney and in general a little happier. They have been going down for naps more easily. I've been writing down everything they eat and how they sleep and if they are in general moody so hopefully I'll be able to see some kind of pattern. There have been a couple things we've given in retrospect that I am afraid aren't GF so I am still perfecting the diet too.

The girls are doing fine with the diet, but I tell you I think I am going to have a fit if I don't get some pasta soon. The GF pasta we tried was AWFUL.

I'm definitely going to keep it up for another couple weeks before I would quit. But I am going to have to see more clear results to decide that we need to make a permanant change.

[Ceepa]

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear the girls are sick. I look forward to hearing more about your experiment. I bought some books a few months ago and never got around to pulling the trigger.

[Melaine]

It has not been as difficult as I thought (although I may have screwed up a few times). We just started out with tons of fresh fruit and veggies, rice, potatoes, and dairy. At 2 and a half, that pretty much satisfies my kids, ykwim? Then when I go to make a meal, I just google stuff to check if it's safe before cooking.

[stefani]

Melaine, for pasta, DH gets De Boles angel hair pasta, which is from rice, so it is gluten free. We buy it from Sprouts, but Whole Foods might also have it. The package is blue, with De Boles in yellow oval.

We are not really doing gluten free diet, but DH is allergic to wheat, so we use a lot of "rice" stuff instead of "wheat" stuff, and the rice stuff tends to be gluten free.

Good luck!

[lizajane]

PM me your addy and i will send you some trader joe's brown rice pasta!!! it is great! my DH agrees that you can't tell the difference. just make sure you follow the cooking instructions. (and i like to rinse it off before serving.)

[spanannie]

The girls are doing fine with the diet, but I tell you I think I am going to have a fit if I don't get some pasta soon. The GF pasta we tried was AWFUL.

The Ancient Harvest quinoa pasta is awesome! I order it from Amazon. Quinoa is SO good for you, too. We use the De Boles rice lasagne and I swear you can not tell the difference. I just use my regular lasagne recipe (which came from a Skinner pasta box), but use the De Boles lasagne. It's so good!

Even if you don't decide to stick with the GF diet, I think it's a great idea for just about everyone to use different pastas like these in their diet. I think that's part of the problem with so many people getting these intolerances (myself included)--it's that we don't vary our diets enough.

Good luck!

Quinoa pasta
http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Harves...7107834&sr=8-1

De Boles lasagne
http://www.amazon.com/Boles-Pasta-La...7107931&sr=1-5