considering a gluten and casein free diet, is it difficult?

Question

i am considering trying a gluten free, casein free diet for my son, has anybody else done this? how difficult was it? what were the results?

Answer 1

I put my son on a gluten free diet for the treatment of his autism spectrum disorder (had read about gluten AND casein free but decided to go with just 1 first). My major difficulty in doing this was my husband who says A>I can't DEPRIVE the child and B> I can't spend any extra money on his diet.
My solution was to come up with substitutes for their favorite foods - the really hard ones are
Spaghetti ~ use spaghetti squash
Lasagne ~ use very thinly sliced eggplant or zuchinni (sliced long way) both of those are really bland and soak up flavors from the spices and tomatoes really well.
Pizza ~ I make my own crust using a mix of soy and buckwheat flour
Breads of all sorts including sweet rolls, pancakes, and regular cakes ~ I use a mixture of potato, rice and soy flour for light ones and potato, rice and buckwheat for the darker ones.
This has worked so well that my hubby isn't even aware of why HE's losing weight or that I have changed anything at all.
The results for my son, however; have been so dramatic that within 2 weeks of going on it the school was calling me to ask what I was doing different. If he does eat something with gluten in it, watch out world, he becomes very agressive, combatative and generally a pain to be around for 2 days, so we have to really watch what is on the school lunch menus. This past week out of 10 lunch menus only 1 was suitable for his needs and he would NOT eat that 1. He has a vast improvement in areas of
concentration, communication, energy and a very good side effect healthwise is that he has lost 5 points off his previously boderline obese BMI in the past 5 months while feeling better than he ever has. The elimination of the gluten made such a drastic difference that we did not even bother going on to the casein free part of it as that would have been depriving this particular child.
A typical lunch that he takes to school is 3-5 oz of lean meat, a sack of veggie sticks with a container of yogurt for dipping, a piece of cheese, a piece of fruit and a single serve bottle of juice.
Good luck with him hun and if I can help please email me thru my profile.

Answer 2

It is not difficult at all if you are willing to really think about what we put in our bodies. So much is overly processed with all sorts of crap added that need not be. It is most important to really read the labels in detail as well. I cannot tolerate large amounts of gluten, bovine (cow) milk, but sheep and goat cheeses and yoghurts are great, tasty, and usually lower in fat as well. Don't bother with any whole milk; we are only supposed to drink fresh milk when we are babies, and then only from our own species! Gluten can be trickier. Avoid MSG, distilled vinager, and unspecified "food starch". They (and many other foods and additives) are all made from wheat. I have also had to remove oats, barley, rye and even spelt and millet from my diet. Refined sugars seem to make everything worse, so stick to honey and maple syrup, they taste better, too. Kids need carbs, so check out the many varieties of wheat free pastas at better supermarkets. For me the real key is thinking about what I am really putting into my body. Think before you bite, but then enjoy!

Answer 3

I have done it for myself to try and see if I was getting allergies from either one. My results were inconclusive. It wasn't really difficult. You just either make your own bread from flours other than wheat or buy them, don't eat barley (it has gluten), and substitute rice or soy milk for cow's milk. There is almond milk available too. You eat soy yogurt instead of cow's yogurt. Read labels because wheat is in alot of processed products. I really enjoy soy or rice dream ice cream too! I still eat them and rice milk too. Now I have just cut down on my consumption of wheat and milk.

Answer 4

Indian (south east asian) grocceries are great when you're on this diet.

They carry a great variety of non-wheat flours.....I've made pancakes from Lentil flour... not bad at all...