14 Month Old Allergic to Wheat and Corn

I share your pain, as I also avoid the wheat and corn (and dairy and many other things). Enjoy life makes a line of products which are mostly free of corn - I just checked a few in my pantry. You can find them at Sprouts, FM specialty (in Flower Mound), Delicious-n-fit (in Plano), Healthy Approach (in Grapevine/Colleyville area). Their bread products are found in the frozen food section. Ener-g products also makes quite a few items that are free of corn. We use the tapioca bread. Also, tapioca flour and or potato starch (starch not flour) are both excellent substitutes for corn starch, which is quite often found in gluten-free (gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, barley and most oats) foods. There is a forum for gluten-free kids ( www.dallasrock.org ) that has good info - it is geared towards celiac disease, but MANY of those kids have other food allergies, as well. Whole foods has a line of rice crackers that have no corn. I was feeding my whole family the rice pasta (Tinkyada brand is the best) when I was first GF (it is a genetic thing and we later found both my kids and husband also need to be on a GF diet). And, truly be thankful that she can tolerate dairy, as although, there are substitues, nothing can quite replace that flavor and mouthfeel. The biggest thing that you have to learn is to read all labels. If a product is labeled gluten-free, it is automatically wheat free. It does get easier over time as you find a set of products that your daughter will eat. Also, once you do, check for the availability on Amazon.com - they offer fairly significant discounts when you order by the case (usually 6 or more). You may also find it easier for others in the house to share many of the same foods - it makes it easier to avoid cross-contamination issues for your daughter and as she gets older, she will feel less left out and far less likely to eat something she shouldn't.

My son went through a stage of being allergic to wheat and eggs while my daughter was allergic to baker's yeast...food was an adventure for awhile....you can order some great mixes at your health food store and Kroger used to carry some of them that will make your life much easier - breads, pizza dough, cakes - Bob's Red Mill...you will have to check on the corn content as I did not have to preclude that.....it was amazing to me all the things that contained wheat...........good luck to you and I hope this helps some..........btw, the bread is awesome....I did make a lot of things from scratch as well......

You should look for a gluten free support group. Gluten is one of the main ingredients in wheat. My dad is allergic to wheat and this has helped him greatly. Hopefully she might grow out of the corn allergy.

After finding out my son has a nut and dairy allergy, along with a slight soy and wheat allergy, it's been a struggle!! There are a lot of websites out there with some good recipes. I dont know about you, but i dont have time to bake my son his own special meal. I found a lot of foods at Whole Foods and CM, like others.
CherryBrookKitchen.com has some great things! They are very resonably priced (for allerine-free food!)There isn't a wide selection, but we love their stuff! I've actually found this brand at Kroger.

Good luck, i know it's hard, but it gets better once you know what brands are safe!

L., trust me its not that bad. Once you get through the "oh, why me, why us" thing, then you'll see there's lots of options out there. One other person suggest the Asian section and I would have to agree. Since your dt is only 14 months this is the best time and you should consider yourself very lucky that you had a Ped that actually tested you early enough b4 you continued down a path that you had no clue what was going on. My dt vomitted consistantly from 2-3, and had several ear infections in her first year. Come to find out during her 3rd year of life that she was highly allergic to milk, wheat,and eggs. I too felt the helplessness that wheat is in everything. And rest assure you are not the only one, and more than likely your child will grow out of it.
If your dt is just starting baby food and or finger food, try buying tofu. It may not be in your diet or would be, but a 14 month old's tastebuds and likes and dislikes has not and should not have been developed yet. They will eat what you present to them and does not have the excessive ability to disagree. Try not to impose your judgement and or tastebuds on the food that you present to her. You can buy packages of tofu in the produce section of most markets. Buy the firm or extra firm kind. Cut it up into small cubes, this is great for thier pinching development of their fingers and easy to disburse for you. Once opened, place the left over block of tofu in a plastic container. Everytime you use it change the water. Also if you are looking for snack food, there are a bunch of rice cakes and crackers that you can gravitate towards. But you'll have to becarful, most asian food are flavored with soy which is made from wheat flour. You can get wheat free soy in the health food section. If you do not have an HEB or Whole foods near you, talk to your local market and they will supply it for you. Start looking into asian cookbooks especially Thai cookbooks bc Thais uses fish sauce and not soy sauce to cook their foods. Fish sauce does not have wheat but will render great flavors. The rice base pastas are pretty nasty if you ask me, but my dt does not know any better. She's never been expose to the wheat flour pastas. You need to focus on the things that she can eat as oppose to the things she cant. She's not going to be able to eat sandwiches, but why not feed her grilled chicken breast with honey mustard dipping sauce. She's not going to be able to eat speghetti, but why not rice noodle stir fry with a meat and great veggies.

If you need more food suggestions, I can go on and on. I teach Thai cooking, so having my dt diagnosed with these allergies did not bother me at all. I just needed to change up a few things. Also, look into the magazine Living Without. You can email me directly at ____@____.com and I will be glad to share more ideas and answer any questions you may have. But listen, it really is not that bad.

Hi L.,

I can sympathize a lot. My daughter and I both are allergic to wheat and corn, and my husband is allergic to wheat. I was allergic to both before she was born, so I'd been through a great deal of trial and error.

I started having this problem about ten years ago... And let me tell you, the breads available then were terrible, especially rice bread. It tasted like dry cardboard. Most people allergic to wheat use spelt flour. You'll also find that it's hard to find good spelt bread. However, Central Market makes it in their bakery. It's very good. Although it's about $4.00 a loaf, it's worth it for the hassle of making it yourself. They also make spelt pizza crusts, tortillas, hamburger buns, hot dog buns, and rolls (on special request). We usually buy six loaves at a time and refrigerate anything we get from the bakery because it doesn't have any preservatives. They also have different forms of non-wheat pasta at CM on the shelves and lots of baby foods without wheat.

Unfortunately, this is not a cheap problem to have, as I'm sure you've discovered. However, it makes a great deal of difference to the person who has this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if you or your husband was allergic to these items and just aren't aware of it because you've lived with it for so long.

You probably know to watch this too, but really keep a close eye on juices for corn syrup. Some just say on the lable: juice concentrate. I've watched my daughter react to some of those... She bounces off the walls! I like the R.W. Knudsen brand. They have a wide variety.

I'm sure there are things I'm not thinking about, so feel free to contact me via email at ____@____.com

Best,
L.

Go to the Asian foods section where you can find many rice based pastas and flour.