Replacing breakfast cereals and school lunches with gluten-free options... any ideas?

My DS1 has suspected coeliac's disease and I'm trying a gluten-free diet (fortunately with the support of his father!) for him, as he is having fairly major behavioural difficulties at school which may well be related to diet.

I know there's a whole heap of gluten free breakfast cereals, but they mostly seem to be very high in sugar, which I'm also trying to avoid. Anyone have any suggestions?

School lunches might also be an issue, particularly as sandwiches etc will be a no go.

I'm borrowing a breadmaker to make gluten free bread, any particular recipes which are good/no go?

Thanks in advance!

If you look up recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, GAPS or paleo these are generally excellent. You can heal the gut using GAPS/SCD, rather than just attempting to manage symptoms with a GF diet. GF diets used to be pretty good because they meant you had to make good, basic food from scratch. These days they can often be full of just as much processed food given the amount of GF products available- and as you have noticed, very high in sugar.

We are on the SCD and for breakfast we have eggs, avocado, sauerkraut and homemade pork sausage patties (I make up a weeks worth every weekend).

Good snacks and lunches include homemade beef jerky, baked chicken legs, meatballs, cheese crackers made with coconut flour & cheese, a piece of fruit, vegetable fritters with veggies and eggs, fish cakes and coconut flour pancakes. The pecanbread website has a list of SCD recipes for kids and there are many other good blogs such as The Well Fed Homestead and Mommypotamus.

We arent just GF but some of what we have found related to the gluten side is;

Breakfast - Freedom Foods have a rice bubbles that contain less or on par sugar to the big brand counterpart. Otherwise we just use the cerals we can find in the health food isle being either norganic or freedom foods brand and whatever he will eat. You could also try GF yougurt with fruit (though we keep this as our lunch/snack reserve lol).

Bread - My eldest likes the Orgran wholemeal bread mix (no need for a bread maker for that one). A friend also uses a different brand one that she also just oven bakes that's apparently quite nice, not sure of the brand as we are also limited by soy and we just had the discussion that hers contains soy lol. As a treat I also make Macro brand banana bread which is actually quite nice. We havent resorted to a bread maker yet but then Im not limited for time or anything either.

Lunches - For school we make savoury muffins with gluten free flour etc, they seem to be a hit and you can tweak them to most things. We also take advantage of fresh fruit and vegies where we can, carrot sticks etc with yougurt. When he will eat them we also have rice cakes as a bread alternative. Otherwise I make some bread and he can take a sandwich like everyone else. We started young though so he doesnt really know what fluffy white bread is like lol!!

Hey Divvy, my mum is coeliac. She was diagnosed about 15 years ago and we have seen a huge increase in the amount of GF foods available and general awareness of coeliac in that time.

Mum eats a GF muesli for brekky some days with some yoghurt and milk. She gets it form the supermarket, in the health food aisle, but I can't remember what brand it is. She is a big label reader and I'm sure it will be acceptably low in salt and sugars for her! I can ask her the brand if you think your DS would eat muesli. Mum's a big brekky eater (most important meal of the day apparently!) so she often has bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushies... as well.

Lunch is usually salad, with some leftover roast meat or the like. You can buy GF wraps at the supermarket, they're not bad and would be good for school lunches. Rice and corn cakes are generally GF. I like the corn better than the rice, but it's personal preference! They're good topped with avocado and tomato...

We tried making our own bread for years, but we just couldn't get the recipe right. I stumbled across a bakery which makes gluten free bread about 10 years ago and mum has been getting her bread from there every since. It tastes pretty good and they make several varieties (sunflower, fruit...). It's not as crumbly as most GF breads and doesn't have that 'wet dog' smell that most of them do! What state are you in? If you're in Vic I can give you the name of the bakery and you might like to try them. Even if it is a bit if a hike for you, mum usually orders about 10 loaves then freezes them when she picks them up. The bakery also does a large array of GF pies and cakes and stuff. GF is not cheap, I think it's about $6 for a loaf of bread.

Dinners are easy, you can make GF just about anything!

Thanks for all that - will look them up when I get home.

I should also add that we're nut free due to allergies too!

I was going to suggest smoothies for breakfast, frittatas and the likes for lunch. check out the naturopaths kitchen and janella Purcell. They do alot of gluten free recipes and janella is doing some lunchbox ideas ATM.

Hi there,

I'm coeliac and was diagnosed when I was 10 years old so have lived through childhood with the disease, which informs my perspective I guess. I tend to just buy from the health food section in the supermarket, but I haven't checked out the sugar content. I think there maybe some more plainer things like puffed rice cereal.

In terms of the bread, it is an acquired taste. Try a few recipes or different brands (if you can get different brands). I found starting out with using it as toast was better than launching into the taste via a sandwich. The bread also tends to crumble really easily so it can get a bit messy. I found it a bit embarrassing when i was a kid that my sandwich would break up in my bag or large sections of crumbs would drop. I think the idea of frittata or something like that might be a good option. At school I found it was about trying to fit in with my food so I probably wouldn't have wanted to deviate too much from what other kids were eating.

These days most products have a replacement or equivalent in the health food isle which is a social life saver as a child.

I feel for you and your son as I'm coeliac and my son also holds the gene but so far hasn't acquired it.

I would look at moving away from breads and cereals. there are some ok options - especially if you can make your own - but on the whole they aren't very good.
Eggs, baked beans, dinner leftovers (yes!) work for a more filling breakfast. Also, GF savoury muffins are an option for something bready - just keep them in the freezer if you have extra.

I can't help with food ideas, I can help where to go. There is a shop called Gluten Free in Ormond, you can order online. They have a heap of gluten free breads and so on. Another place is in Werribee called Absolutely Gluten Free.

HTH

I'm also GF and have been eating the Basco GF breakfast cereals. I also make my own bircher muesli. I'm having other issues though and have finally bought the GAPS Diet books, including the recipe book. There are nut free options. I'm thankful I have a TMX, as it makes things easier and also cheaper - I can make my own flour, for example.

You can make things like egg & bacon fritatta muffins and freeze them. I eat corn thins or rice cakes for sandwiches or make my own GF bread. I'll PM you the links. Otherwise google Bread in 5 Gluten-Free Crusty Boule.

I'll also dig out a grain free, nut free pancake recipe for you.

I highly recommend you investigating the GAPS Diet.

My SIL has a sister & bil who coeliac's disease and she said she uses normal recipes and just changes the flour and marg etc.
Coles also has a bread mix that they said was the best one they have found and not that hard to make.