Helping You Make the Transition to a Gluten Free Child – Chinese Allergy Tests
While a gluten allergy or intolerance may be one of the most common food allergies in this country, it is nevertheless hard to maintain a diet free of it. Living without gluten means avoiding all wheat, barley, and rye grains, and for some, corn and/or oats. While this is a hard diet to follow for an adult in this bread and pasta loving society, it is far harder for a young child. Yet the consequences of not following it, for someone who is showing symptoms of an allergy, are far worse. Children with this allergy risk chronic diarrhea, stunted growth, malnutrition, and terribly hurt intestines if they don’t stay away from gluten containing foods, and even one tenth of one gram of gluten is enough to irritate the system. The following is some advice to help make the transition as simple as possible while still letting the child in examine delight in many of the treats that form childhood so much fun.
Start them young, whenever possible. It’s simpler to get a toddler used to a gluten free diet than an older child, and the hurt can be more easily repaired in a young child than an older one. It’s not always simple to know that your child needs to be kept off of gluten but, as the blood tests don’t catch everyone. If you notice that your child has frequent diarrhea, is cranky or irritable, smaller for his or her age than he or she was proportionally as a baby, or is not seeming to thrive as well as they could be, a month without gluten may be a better determining factor than other diagnostic tests. Then, after a month or six weeks, try to notice any change in your child. If the symptoms have improved, it may quite likely be due to removing gluten. Chances are that your child will end up accidentally ingesting some gluten-containing food sooner or later as well; if he or she gets ill or suddenly gets severe diarrhea, you can consider that a positive identification of a gluten allergy.
Be vigilant. Small children may not know that some foods make them sick, and even if they do, it’s unlikely that they can scour ingredient marks or question appropriate questions and identify anything that might possibly have gluten. Cross-contamination is also an issue; shared fryers are a particular hazard. This is also a quandary with grains themselves. While scientists are not determined whether corn or oats should be included in the list of forbidden grains, both frequently have problems with being noxious by impress wheat particles. If your child attends school or visits other houses, accomplish sure all adults know the forbidden list, and question them not to give your child a food if they aren’t certain that it’s safe.
Learn to like home cooked alternatives. Unfortunately, many of the kid-friendly restaurants in this country are packed with the foods that your child can’t safely eat. Chicken nuggets are commonly breaded with wheat, burger buns aren’t safe, pizza crust and pasta are both wheat-based, and even burritos and soft tacos use flour tortillas. Even Chinese take out isn’t safe; many of the sauces used in their cooking have wheat in them, and nearly all soy sauces use wheat in the process. This doesn’t mean that you can never visit a restaurant again, or that your child will be forced to abstain from them for the rest of his or her life. What it does mean, though, is that you will have to be careful where you go, what you order, and be sure to question the manager to construct sure the food is safe. Our two favorite kinds of restaurants that we can take our son to are Mexican and Sushi. While cross contamination can be an issue with the corn chips, it hasn’t seemed to bother us yet. You can order quesadillas and question that they be made with corn tortillas, and you can also delight in the rice and beans. Chain Mexican restaurants tend to offer ice cream for children for dessert, and both vanilla and chocolate ice cream should be perfectly safe. Sushi restaurants are our other favorite, because both fish and rice are safe. Again, you need to be careful about the soy sauce, but it aloof tastes excellent without it.
Be willing to experiment in the kitchen. While there are gluten free alternatives to cookies and bread that are becoming more available in supermarkets, I’ve found that it’s not too hard to bake gluten free alternatives at home. It is more expensive than using wheat flour, and it takes some trial and error, but part of the joy of being a child is getting to eat cookies, cupcakes, and other treats once in a while. There are many websites online with gluten free recipes for various foods, but you can also take your accepted recipe and alter it. I would strongly recommend using a slight xanthan gum in your food when you make it, though. I use one teaspoon for a loaf of banana bread, one teaspoon in my cupcakes, and so on. Xanthan gum is a binder, much like gluten, and it helps to maintain the finished product together. This is very vital, since many of the alternative flours are lacking in this quality, and you want cookies, not crumbs. I’ve found that my favorite flours to consume for baked goods are rice flours, with a mix of either white and sweet, or brown and sweet. In either case, the sweet rice flour should be no more than one third of the total. General all-purpose gluten free flours tend to work very well, too. If the thought of baking from scratch frightens you, gluten free mixes are starting to become grand more accepted. Rob’s Mill mixes are especially excellent, because they have a lab test their products to ensure that they are, in fact, gluten free. Their gluten free bread mix tasted astonishing once it was baked, sliced perfectly, and the kids loved it. One thing you must withhold in mind, though, is that gluten free foods spoil much more quickly, and all baked goods should be kept in the refrigerator and used within a few days.
Retain childhood sweet. Kids in school gain cookies and cupcakes every now and then as part of birthday celebrations or other class festivities. Likewise, even children too young for school bag to savor going to birthday and holiday parties. It can be such a cruel temptation to see a table full of treats, and it can quickly lead to tears if you issue a child that he or she can’t have any of it, when all the other kids are indulging. This is where those baking experiments will come in handy. Question your child’s teacher to let you know in advance, when possible, before there will be treats in the classroom, and send in appropriate substitutes. The same goes for parties outside of school. One week after we started our child on a gluten free diet, we attended a birthday party for another child. Because my son’s first question about any party is “Cake? ” we were concerned that not having any would end with a tantrum and that it really wouldn’t be honest to bring him. So, with that in mind, I made a variation on my favorite cupcake recipe, using rice flour. Apart from them shrinking a small more than usual after they were cooked, they came out just fine. One warning, but; gluten free foods bake more quickly. Either cook them at a lower temperature, or watch them more carefully, until you accept used to it. The hostess of the party brought our son’s special cupcakes out right along with everyone else’s, and my son didn’t mind in the least that he didn’t have the same as everyone else, he was just pleased to have them.
As more people become aware of how common an issue celiac disease is, I expect there will be more and better gluten free products out on the market. I also hold out hope that more restaurants will offer gluten free meals for children and adults, and that it will be an simpler lifestyle. In the meantime, but, I hope these few tips help you transition your child or yourself to a diet that is healthier and, if your child has celiac disease, eminently safer.
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