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Infant Recipe: Basic Baby Food

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

When dealing with Celiac Disease the best way to ensure the foods you eat are gluten-free is to make them yourself. This includes food for your youngest with Celiac as well. All that is required to quickly and easily prepare your baby’s meals is a blender or food processor for pureeing chopped foods.

This is not a specific recipe, rather it is a method for making basic baby food. For the youngest eater, you can make smooth, easy-to-swallow baby food. And as your child grows, you can change the consistency relatively easily. When starting your baby on solid foods remember to always introduce one food at a time, spacing a few days in between each new food. Doing this gives you the ability to take note of any adverse reactions to certain foods.

Making Homemade Baby Food

Ingredients:

  • Water, breast milk or prepared formula

Fruits:

  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Bananas
  • Papayas

Vegetables:

  • Carrots
  • Potatoes
  • Butternut squash
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Pumpkin
  • Rutabaga
  • Parsnips

Optional:

  • Rice Cereal

Directions:

  1. Choose your ingredient(s). Remember to start off using one at a time, but as your child successfully tries each ingredient you can mix and match (i.e. apple & banana or carrots & pumpkin) for new flavors.
  2. Cut your ingredient(s) into small, bite-size pieces. They will cook faster and be easier to puree.
  3. Cook your ingredient(s) by either steaming or baking until they are soft.
  4. Ripened bananas and papayas don’t require cooking, just peel and mash if using them.
  5. Once your ingredient(s) are soft, use a blender or food processor to puree them while adding water, breast milk, or formula.
  6. The consistency of the puree will depend on where your child is at regarding eating. Infants just starting out will need a thinner consistency whereas more seasoned eaters can have it thicker. Also, if you plan on adding rice cereal you will want the consistency thinner as the cereal will thicken it up.
  7. Once your food is pureed to the consistency you want, you can stir in some rice cereal if you choose to do so.

If you’d like to check out other recipe ideas, check out our gluten-free recipes page!

Is Gluten Absorbed Through Skin?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

As a quick follow-up post to my earlier post titled Do Disposable Diapers Contain Gluten, I received a comment from Nancy Lapid of About.com offering some information about the research she has done.

Over on About she answers the question, can gluten be absorbed through the skin:

Answer: No. Gluten molecules are too large to be absorbed through the skin. If you are having skin reactions to cosmetics or other products that contain gluten, it’s possible that you are having an allergic reaction to one or more of the product’s ingredients. Your doctor or a dermatologist can help you identify the cause.

Special issues in small children: Even though gluten can’t be absorbed through the skin, it’s best to avoid skin care products (or shampoos) that contain gluten if they are to be applied on a small child who might put the treated skin area or hair into his or her mouth.

Thanks Nancy for the clarification!   This is great news, as parents of children with Celiac have enough to worry about without adding diapers and skin products containing gluten to the list.

Do Disposable Baby Diapers Contain Gluten?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 7 Comments

So much focus is often placed on finding gluten-free foods, but sometimes it is the other things containing gluten that often cause problems. There are of course medications and other items that contain gluten, but for those of us with young children that have Celiac, have you ever considered those baby diapers your child uses?

Do Disposable Baby Diapers Contain Gluten?

While doing some research,  I noticed this post over at gluten-free Frugal where the author has contacted a few diaper companies to enquire about whether their diapers contain gluten.   Here are a few of the responses from the major diaper manufacturers:

White Cloud – “Our diapers do not contain gluten.” (Actually this e-mail came from Covidien.com and I had to Google around a bit to figure out WHICH diapers they were talking about. My understanding is that this corporation makes several store-brand diapers, none of which contain gluten.)

Huggies – “Kimberly-Clark consumer products do not contain wheat, rye, barley, spelt, triticale, kamut or farina. Certain Kimberly-Clark products do contain oats. The only Kimberly-Clark products containing oats are HUGGIES® Soft Skin products.”

Click over to check out the rest of their post and see their findings!

Why is Celiac Disease Different than a Food Allergy?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

People always talk about Celiac Disease and describe it as a food allergy. Though I feel this is probably a good way to describe it to the average person so that they understand the importance of you not consuming gluten, having Celiac Disease is actually a gluten intolerance.

What is the difference between a food allergy and a food intolerance?

Having a food allergy means you are allergic to food, which typically means you could get bloated, break out in hives, and/or have your throat closed up.  Obviously, this is something that will usually require emergency medical attention.   A food intolerance, on the other hand, is a little different in that your body is intolerant of the foods, and consumption of the intolerant food can cause problems to develop over time.

So, as I said above, I think that it is okay to describe Celiac Disease as a food allergy in situations where you are trying to let someone know how important it is for you to avoid it, but in truth, Celiac is gluten intolerance and typically results in a number of symptoms, including sleeping fourteen hours a day and still being tired, curling up in a ball because the stomach pains are so intense, or taking Tylenol to try and kill the almost-migraine that happens because the body is fighting itself.  In other words, consuming gluten for most Celiacs won’t involve a hospital visit, but it will cause many problems that can sometimes linger for weeks.

Celiac Disease Symptoms in Infants and Children

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 6 Comments

As Celiac Disease becomes more widely diagnosed, we are seeing a large number of infants and children that are being diagnosed with the disease.

If you are concerned your child may have Celiac disease, here are a few of the common symptoms to look for. Please keep in mind that with Celiac Disease, typically each person has many different symptoms, and they often vary based on the age of the child or adult. This list aims to cover the most commonly complained about symptoms in infants and children that lead to a Celiac Disease diagnosis.

Symptoms of Infants and Children Diagnosed with Celiac Disease

  • Infants with celiac disease commonly have abdominal pain and diarrhea (even bloody diarrhea) and may fail to grow and/or gain weight.
  • Young children may have abdominal pain with nausea and lack of appetite, anemia (not enough iron in the blood), mouth sores, and allergic dermatitis (skin rash).
  • Children with Celiac Disease are often irritable, fretful, emotionally withdrawn, or excessively dependent.
  • In the later stages of childhood, children often become malnourished, with or without vomiting and diarrhea. This would cause the child to have a large tummy, thin thigh muscles, and flat buttocks.
  • Teenagers with Celiac Disease may hit puberty late and are often short. Celiac disease might also cause some hair loss (a condition called alopecia areata).

Other Celiac Notes:

  • Lactose intolerance (problem with foods with lactose such as milk) is common in patients of all ages with Celiac Disease.
  • Dermatitis herpetiformis (an itchy, blistery skin problem) is also a common problem in people who have Celiac Disease.