So this is all new to me. Madeleine had a milk allergy but no one has had anything like this. Poor Sarah has been congested since 2 weeks old. She has woken up coughing and choking after every feeding at night. She has an "arsenic hour" every night (You either want to give it or take it!) She had a red "sandpaper" rash on her face and neck and head. So first I gave up dairy. Her rash completely disappeared - yay! She seemed happier too. But still couldn't breathe. I took her to the doc. He said he thought reflux but since she is gaining weight and not terribly fussy, it wasn't bad enough to treat. He said the meds treat the acid and not the mucus production. I took her to the chiropractor. She (and my ibclc) said give up gluten.
Sigh.
I've been dreading this for years, thinking someone someday was gonna have a problem with it and I'd have to do it. I LOVE bread. I eat bread every day. I make it from scratch. LOVE it. Seems like every food that's easy to eat and readily available has gluten.
So I'm on day 4 of gluten free. Sarah is much better. Nose is clear, didn't wake up coughing once last night, not even fussy at all today. Her feeling better is totally worth it, even though it is going to be hard!
GF people - what do you eat when you go out to eat? When you go to people's houses? Parties etc? What do you buy that is easy to grab and eat at home?
Oh, and on a fabulous side note, I've lost 5 lbs in 4 days ;)
13 comments:
Lurker here... many great restaurants have GF menus. Ask whenever you go out. (I know some national chains like Red Robin, Outback Steakhouse, etc have GF menus and the list seems to grow every day). I enjoy steaks a lot. :) With veggies and potatoes. Regarding quick things... Mexican dishes like nachos or tortilla chips and dip are great. GF pasta gives me my Italian fix. Breakfast and dinner seem to be easier than lunch (bacon, eggs, fruit, hash browns, meat-veggie combos). Also, grocery stores seem to be carrying tons more GF products. Udi's brand muffins are some my favorite GF baked goods if you just can't stand it and have to have a baked good. It really isn't so bad... focus on what you can eat instead of what you can't - that makes it easier.
I sooooo feel for you. :-( I bring food for Eliot pretty much to any social event, or call ahead to find out what's on the menu to see how I can complete it with things for him. Sometimes, the host can just switch to cornstarch or something instead of flour in sauces, etc. I keep a stock of GF cupcakes in the freezer so I can just pop one out when necessary for a party. Ice cream is almost always a safe dessert!
I personally worry less about contamination than some. You'll have to see how sensitive Sarah is, but Eliot, for example, can eat food that has been fried in the same oil as breaded food. So if we go to McDonalds (rarely) he just eats french fries.
I just made some awesome GF chocolate roll-out cookies... so there is hope that you will find recipes that are ok. Pizza dough? Forget it. I've tried EVERYTHING. They all taste like cardboard to me. But Eliot loves them!
Generally speaking homemade GF stuff is better than store-bought. Mixes for pancakes are good, and most stuff is good served hot out of the oven and slathered in butter... oh wait, no butter for you either. :-(
If it were for me, I would make a big quinoa salad at the beginning of the week for an easy meal. I'd keep GF crackers on hand to eat with tuna salad and stuff for easy meals. Most corn tortillas are GF, so there'd be a lot more Mexican food going on in our lives. You probably live in a place that actually has tortillas... sigh.
Email me with any questions or if you want to see what we eat on a weekly basis. You really do get used to it. We are all GF at home and then we can eat what we want when we're out and about.
I wish I had advice for you but all I can offer are prayers! You are so very in my prayers!!
Welcome to Paleo :)
Take your own food and rarely eat out because what you can eat out is gross compared to what you make.
I grill up chicken breast and throw them in the fridge. I keep frozen peas on hand for a quick boil with coconut oil. Peas and CCO SO GOOD!!!
You just can't eat junk because it's a pita to make and keep. Oh and expensive. CCM smoothies are good...
You can get a loaf of $500 udis bread from whole foods keep in freezer and pull out for a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Eggs...Fruit....avocado....banana...
Wheat is the devil!
Oh i'm on a cod fettish now...
I made a ccm white wine cream sauce with old bay, make a lot to last a few days.
Defrost a cod piece real quick, fry it at lunch. So good!
I am both so happy and so sad for you at the same time. That's awesome that it cleared up that quickly! Hannah had mucus in her stool until I gave up wheat-I didn't make the connection with Sarah and her mucus.
I was only GF for about 7-8 months before Hannah weaned, but honestly-it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be (granted, I didn't have other kids....). My best advice is to just STOP eating the things you used to. Don't try to replace them with fancy flours and expensive alternatives. Just eat different stuff.
Paleo really is very filling and easy. Meat and veggies-it's pretty much as simple as that. I found a lot of paleo desserts that I'm still making even though I can have dairy and wheat again.
Perhaps if you focus on making good paleo dinners and make just enough leftovers for yourself? Then you can continue to give the kids normal lunches-but you'll have a quick GF lunch ready to go.
And when it comes to eating out and going to friend's houses-it just sucks. I'm sorry. People try to help and say "oh there's gluten in here!" but when you press harder you realize they use a can of whatever or a box of so and so which, yes, has gluten. So you just can't trust people to get it right.
Burrito places are great for allergies-like Qdoba, Moes, Chipotle. They have their allergen menu readily available and you can have delicious meals that are very satisfying there. I actually ate Qdoba for my Christmas dinner at Ted's family's Christmas last year because his sister made a "gluten and dairy free" meatloaf that was neither. :)
I don't have time to read everyone's comments, but I had to go GF for Simeon for 5 months. It's easier because it's only you! Once you get over the hump the first few days, it will get easier.
SO, can you have dairy now? Because that was my backup--loved dairy, yogurt, cheese, Kefir---drank Kefir a lot! (Grocery stores sell it, drinkable--high protein, drinkable yogurt)
For that bready texture that you will crave, I tried some GF Bagels, toasted--they worked for a while, I'd have them with strawberry cream cheese for lunch, I did get kind of tired of them though.
Lots of veggies, Baked potatoes, rice, tacos!! chili!!! (every week)
Get GF oatmeal and make Monster cookies for that cookie texture--I have a recipe that does not use flour.
Eating out? Taco Bell's Tostada's are GF. The Tostada is not on the menu, but if you ask for it, they have it (at least that's the way it was here) They are the only fast food I found I could have...went out of my way to get it.
Godfather's pizza has a gluten free pizza that is really good (for GF)We went there every other week, I'd take home the leftovers and eat it for lunch the next day.
Oh, if you eat out, bring your own dressing for salad....Hillshire Farms Ranch is GF. I'd pack it in a smaller container and bring it with in my purse. Or just use vineager and oil.
Gosh, give me a call if you want to, it gets easier....I didn't bake GF (except the monster cookies) because it was only me, and I made normal food for everyone else and just grabbed quick for me.
You will start to feel so good, good to the core. It's hard to explain, but I had more energy and just did not get that "full" feeling or icky stuffed feeling ever.
By June, I was able to go back to normal, and found it so hard to stay on the GF diet, when I didn't HAVE to. It's easy when doing it for the baby, but when he didn't need me to do it anymore, it was harder. SO I'm not GF anymore.
OH, yeah, and popcorn!! HOmemade popcorn--not microwave. filling, I'd have it for a meal quite often...with a couple cheesesticks!
Gluten-free is much easier than I though it would be! You can have meat, potatoes, veggies, fruit! There are so many things you CAN have :). Tons of restaurants have gf options (all the major chains).
I've found, like Sew, that the Paleo way of eating is just easier and makes me feel better :). Instead of replacing everything with gf versions, just learning to look at food differently made a big difference.
Good luck!
Paleo food is super yummy. And corn chips. Lots of them. Rice. GF pasta is pretty good too. Is there a Trader Joes near you? They have good stuff.
UGH, sorry about this, but thats good that Sarah is doing better!
I so called it!!! Glad it helped!!
I ate gluten free for 6 months and I didn't replace grains, I just skipped all grains. I ate veggies and meat and eggs...cause I could not have sugar of dairy either
Good luck
So many excellent comments here already! I echo much of what Kaitlin said, esp about making grain free suppers for all and saving out leftovers for your lunch the next day (scoop it out BEFORE you put it on the table!). We don't try to replace things too much, just serve meat and one or two veggies - and lots of good fat (butter, lard, coconut oil, olive oil). We do almond flour biscuits for Simon when we have soup (which is kind of a lot). I have only tried a few grainfree treat recipes, mostly because I'm stingy with my expensive honey! Peanut butter blondies, frozen, are my treat right now, even though they're supposed to be for Simon!
Eating out is tricky. Maybe salads with oil and vinegar and meat/nuts/veggies?
Great, now I'm hungry...
Thanks so much everyone! This is so helpful!!
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