Gluten, oats, and baby food

[BarbecueMom]

DS is six months old and starting on a few solid foods, like mashed up table food and fruit in those mesh chewing things. I haven't started cereals yet, and I'm not sure where to start with grains for him. DS4 and I are gluten intolerant (did not test for celiac, I don't think I could handle eating gluten for that long to test) and have also become very ill from eating GF oats. I was also quite sick after using Aveeno hand lotion, so I'm pretty sensitive.

 

Although he has eczema (which has not been helped by dairy elimination), I'm not as concerned about him reacting to gluten as much as the mess of a baby eating gluten-containing foods contaminating everything else. The only gluten in our house is the frozen, prepackaged food that DH takes to work.

 

I can try rice cereal first, but I know at some point I need to let him try wheat and oats. I'm just curious as to what other GF moms have done with baby foods.

[wendyroo]

My second son is allergic to wheat so we have very few wheat foods in the house.  My third son is now 6 months old and I am simply not feeding him anything with wheat yet at home.  He has had wheat; my mom shared some of her malt o meal when we were visiting and gave him some of the regular spaghetti instead of the gluten free spaghetti she had for DS2.

 

I'm glad DS3 has been exposed to wheat, but I don't think he (or any of us) are missing anything by not eating it on a regular basis.  In fact, I skipped baby cereals completely with all my kids simply because I don't think they have much nutritional value.  We did/do a baby led weaning approach and focus primarily on fats, proteins, veggies and fruits.

 

DS3 does eat some grains when that is what the rest of the family is eating - quinoa, brown rice and GF steel cut oats (which DS2 does just fine with).

 

Oh, and if you decide to give your DS baby oatmeal, you will probably want to look for one that is GF.  Gerber labels their baby oatmeal as single grain, but that isn't completely true...(from their website) Ingredients: WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR AND OAT FLOUR (CONTAINS WHEAT)

 

Wendy

[kbutton]

Why does he need to try wheat and oats?

 

I would focus on fruits, veggies, and fats, and not worry about grains for now. When you do, use regular GF oats, regular brown rice, etc. These cereals are pushed because they are fortified, easy to make, etc. They aren't necessary.

 

I do not physically handle any wheat anymore (other than picking it up at the store in it's container). I don't bake, I don't clean it up, I don't make sandwiches. If I had been GF when my kids were babies, I would have pushed very strongly to not ever give them gluten at home. The sensitivity comes from both sides of the family (mine and DH's), so I would just eliminate it entirely. My hubby is not on board with that right now, but we are testing the kids intermittently via the blood test. (No one else in the family has been tested--we all discovered accidentally and would be too miserable going back to gluten just for a silly test that has many false negatives.) In addition, some other family health issues have come up recently that often correlate with gluten problems. Other family members have felt better radically reducing gluten. I think the rest of the family members that display issues have their heads in the sand about this, but I also know that I would not have EVER planned to go GF if it hadn't been accidental (I did an elimination diet for other reasons).

 

So, I am militant; you might not be. Ymmv. ;-)

[Pamela H in Texas]

I don't think you need to expose him to gluten/oats.  If you want to, you could do so later (like school-age?  LOL) when he is able to eat more neatly.  I wouldn't dream of worrying about it now. 

 

BTW, my daughter is GF and also reacts strongly to most exposure.  We have not fed our foster babies wheat or oatmeal.  And then we cut out rice when The Baby was allergic to it and many fruits also.  It really was no big deal.  By 8 months, they still have a pretty varied diet once everything doesn't need to be pureed.

[BarbecueMom]

Why does he need to try wheat and oats?

 

I would focus on fruits, veggies, and fats, and not worry about grains for now. When you do, use regular GF oats, regular brown rice, etc. These cereals are pushed because they are fortified, easy to make, etc. They aren't necessary.

 

I do not physically handle any wheat anymore (other than picking it up at the store in it's container). I don't bake, I don't clean it up, I don't make sandwiches. If I had been GF when my kids were babies, I would have pushed very strongly to not ever give them gluten at home. The sensitivity comes from both sides of the family (mine and DH's), so I would just eliminate it entirely. My hubby is not on board with that right now, but we are testing the kids intermittently via the blood test. (No one else in the family has been tested--we all discovered accidentally and would be too miserable going back to gluten just for a silly test that has many false negatives.) In addition, some other family health issues have come up recently that often correlate with gluten problems. Other family members have felt better radically reducing gluten. I think the rest of the family members that display issues have their heads in the sand about this, but I also know that I would not have EVER planned to go GF if it hadn't been accidental (I did an elimination diet for other reasons).

 

So, I am militant; you might not be. Ymmv. ;-)

I don't handle wheat, either. I only allow prepackaged things with gluten in the house for the working people to take to work and prepare. My oven's been broken for over a year so not much baking anyway.

 

DS5 is unaffected by gluten, so he's allowed to have wheat when not at home. I would like to know before going to family barbecues and restaurants how careful we need to be with the little one once he's toddling and has access to the cheese and cracker plate (and food-peddling relatives).

 

I know what you mean about the heads in the sand. The gluten intolerance comes from my mom's side of the family, and my uncle (mom's brother) is so sick all the time and in such denial. He says stuff like, "I don't believe in gluten-free," but he also doesn't believe in the Internet or ATMs or foreign cars, so I doubt he'll ever figure it out.

[Unicorn.]

I would just tell my relatives that we don't allow our children to have wheat or oats.  No biggie.  At least wait until age 2 or 3. jmho

[carriede]

I'd wait, especially since you're not serving gluten stuff to the rest of your family. My babies seem to have a gluten (and casein and nut and tomato) sensitivity until they're about 1 yo anyway...