How do you keep your special diet completely frugal?

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-21-2009, 02:43 PM

We've been closely monitoring what DS11 is eating during the day and if that's a contributing factor to his unexpected and sudden tantrums. This stems from a doctor's visit on Monday that has us looking at triggers and what not. Autistic children have two forms of tantrums: instigated and spontaneous.

So anyways, I thought that in order for us to pinpoint even more what may be the cause of his tantrums, we'd monitor what he eats to see if he may have an intolerance to certain things like gluten or casein. Most autistic kids go through a GFCF diet but we've been holding out to see if that's absolutely necessary. I decided to give it a shot this time around when we go to the store tomorrow:

A gluten-free diet.

I gave him ice cream that had cow's milk in it and he seemed perfectly fine. He did complain an hour later that his stomach hurt, which made me think that he may either be intolerant to casein or lactose all together. Even if I give him soy products, he still has the spontaneous tantrums so I'm starting to think that he may be tolerant to casein but not lactose. So I'm thinking that starting with isolating the gluten part might be a good idea.

How can you cut the costs of a gluten-free diet without cutting the nutritional value?

**G'MaDebbie** · 08-21-2009, 03:06 PM

I dont know anything about this topic, so i googled it and came up with this for you:
http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/o...ffoodcosts.htm

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-21-2009, 03:09 PM

That's a great link. Ty so much.

**G'MaDebbie** · 08-21-2009, 03:33 PM

Your Very Welcome!~

**CouponShelle** · 08-21-2009, 03:54 PM

It's not easy keeping it frugal if you want to give him things that require gluten free flour, etc or if you want to give him things like pasta. If you cook using only fresh ingredients and stick to meat, veggies and fruit, you can cut costs. It's when you head into the speciality section of the grocery store for gluten free pancake mix, etc that being frugal is an issue.

For me, I have to think about the cost of my health. I KNOW I have a gluten issue and I KNOW I have issues with sugar (systemic candida). Do I want to be uncomfortable, have mood swings (oh yeah, i get them too), have issues with concentration and vision just to say some $$? No.

But I think it would be harder to tell that to a child who can't have gluten

Tough call...

I have posted this in another thread but if you wanted more recipe examples or are trying an Elimination type diet, google Elimination Diet Dax Moy and he has a free diet pdf you can download.

And anything else I can do to help, feel free to PM me too

Shelle

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-21-2009, 04:22 PM

Thx

I did manage to find a website that branched off of the one that Debbie posted and it's here:

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/g...tonArticle.pdf

I combed through a lot of the .pdf file and the information in it is just fantastic. The weekly meal plan that they give is something that I can live with and make a few adjustments to. He really doesn't like vegetables at all, which I can then just substitute fruit if the vegetable is a side dish type of thing. If it's included in the main dish, I'd have to omit it and substitute something else.

I think he'd really love the idea of eating corn bread, corn tortillas, etc as long as it's tasty to him.

Getting him adjusted to not eating regular bread and hamburger buns will be tough. I can just cut up a hot dog and put it on the plate for him as a way to omit hot dog buns as well. It's just going to take some creative planning and I think we'll be fine.

**CouponShelle** · 08-21-2009, 05:45 PM

Here is another link I use: http://www.gluten.net/recipes/

I'll likely find more, I'm trying to schedule with the naturopath for CD testing to see where I stand now.

**shoiji** · 08-21-2009, 05:56 PM

Check the asian asile in your supermarket. You can find bean noodles and rice noodles (check ingredients first). If you have an asian market that is even better since the prices are usually cheaper.

**Grainlady** · 08-21-2009, 05:57 PM

Whole foods, as CouponShelle mentioned, is a key to keeping cost as low as possible.

Going gluten-free means you will also need a separate toaster because you will get cross-contamination from bread containing gluten from the toaster. Use a separate cutting board or plastic cutting sheets JUST for gluten-free food use. I use a separate mill for GF grains/seeds/beans I use in GF recipe development.

Personally, I'd also avoid soy milk AND soy products. Soy is just as big an allergen as eggs and dairy. You can save some money and make your own rice milk or nut milks. Almond milk is a good source of calcium. I'd suggest the book, Not Milk...NUT MILKS! by Candia Lea Cole for dairy-free milk recipes.

I've develop GF recipes for a sorghum mill outside of town - cookies are my speciality. My mother was gluten-intolerant, so I made foods for her to fill her freezer - pancakes, waffles, etc. You will find GF cookbooks at your local library, or have them get some through Inter-Library Loan. There are soooooo many more GF foods/ingredients available these days, that it makes it easy to make GF foods at home.

The only commercial "ice cream" my mother could eat that was GF was McDonald's soft serve. Not all ice cream products are GF! There are hidden gluten-containing ingredients is sooooooo many commercial foods, which is why whole foods are best for avoiding the "unknown".

You can save money and make your own rice flour, and other GF grain flours, in a spice/coffee mill. FRESH is always BEST (and least expensive)! Use medium- or short-grain rice for rice flour used in baked goods. Long-grain rice is best used for dredging or as a thickener - not baked goods, while short- and medium-grain rice are all-purpose and best for dredging and thickening, but also baked goods.

One GF commercial mix I highly recommend is Bob's Red Mill Baking Mix (a Bisquick substitute). You can use this mixture like you would Bisquick - great in all those Bisquick Impossible Pie recipes - http://www.recipegoldmine.com/pieimp/pieimp.html. You can also make your own GF baking mixes. You can use them to make GF biscuits - which can be used to cover a hot dog for a "Pig-in-a-Blanket".

We used the GF baking mix in Impossible Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving for my mother and used a lactose-free whey-based milk substitute for the lactose-intolerant family members (making the 1st and Best Whey Milk double-strength to substitute for evaporated milk - http://www.wheymilkusa.com/ - click on the "happy kids" to enter the web site). I bet the Impossible Pumpkin Pie recipe would also work with a non-dairy substitute - like rice or almond milk.

Another tip for lactose intolerance, the higher a product is in dairy fat, the lower the lactose. So butter is low in lactose, as is whipping cream, etc. I've known friends who could use Half and Half on their cereal, but low-fat milk would make them have tummy upset.

I make homemade kefir with real kefir grains, and due to the long fermentation, the lactose "sugars" are consumed, so there is little lactose left in the kefir. I use my homemade kefir as a substitute for buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese, and plain yogurt.

I'm not sure if lectin intolerance would be something else you may want to check as well? http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html#Plain%20English My daughter is a school psychologist and she has mentioned having autistic children tested for lectin intolerance - which goes beyond gluten intolerance.

It's also not uncommon for people who are gluten intolerant to also have a lot of problems with dairy products.

When doing an elimination diet, in order not to dispare, just remember all the foods you CAN eat. Then think of good substitutions for those things you CAN'T.

Good luck!

**dmarie** · 08-21-2009, 07:08 PM

I just started gluten free diet on sunday and i feel great but what i'm doing is just keeping it fresh no processed stuff. Just fresh fruits and veggies and animal protien. My family is loving it right now since everything they enjoy is in season so i can buy extra watermelon or grapes, in the fall not sure how this is going to work out but for the time being fresh fruits and veggies are working enjoyable and also it's cheaper on me saved 20 bucks last week compare to buying bread flour and sugar and things for pancakes and sandwiches.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-22-2009, 11:42 AM

So I spent the majority of yesterday/last night going over a menu for this gluten-free trial period. I think I did pretty well. The issue that I'm having is with lunches and well, I think our best move with that is to get some GF sandwich bread mix and make my own bread. I could go with corn tortillas but with a PB&J sandwich, I'm not sure that's such a good idea.

DS11 is going to be mad that he can't have bologna and cheese because well, I never know what's in bologna. I guess we can count out hot dogs as well.

But I was surprised at the sheer amount of recipes out there that are GF. Of course, he won't eat the ones with veggies in it but I think we'll be ok with what we have.

I'll have to check out the GF section of Superstore today and see what they have. I'll make a list of the items and then if the diet thing goes well, I'll start shopping there.

**zakity** · 08-23-2009, 01:09 AM

Hey, the Tightwad Gazette books had a recipe for a shredded potato crust. I tried it for a quiche once and it was pretty nummy.

I also suggested it for a lady who wanted pizza. She baked the shredded potato crust and then put the pizza toppings on top and heated it up a minute to melt the cheese. She said that it wasn't quite the same, but it was edible.

**2ndGenGranola** · 08-23-2009, 04:17 AM

I have 2 autistic and have done the GFCF diet with them. We worked with a nutritionist who specializes in autistic kids. She suggested nutritional therapy to heal the gut while doing GFCF.

You will want to do GF and CF at the same time. The reason you see them together is that the proteins are very similar and have the same effect on the autistic brain. If you have issues with 1, you will have issues with the other but not always to the same degree. People with casein issues often have issues with soy protein as well.

For autism, you do not need to have separate toaster and grinders. That is more for those with Celiac issues. Oatmeal is also OK for the autistic GFCF diet where is usually is not for celiacs. The cross contamination risk is not the threat to the autistic GF as it is to the celiac. We ground oats into a flour. It is easier to work with than some of the other flours and tastes more "normal".

Use caution with any subs. The autistic/GFCF families I talk with have as many issues with those as they do regular G and C foods - even scratch.

These same families also have issues with corn syrup, artificial colors, chemicals (tide, downey and glade seems to be the worst and most mentioned)

Good luck.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-23-2009, 01:49 PM

So we ventured to the store yesterday and got some GF cereal, which we'll do half cereal and half fruit in his bowl to help make up for the full bowl of cereal. The cereal was soooo expensive, and I learned a lesson yesterday:

Never buy it anywheres other than the warehouse store or you'll pay $3 more.

I took a look at Superstore's inventory of GF products and I was amazed! They had so much stuff and even had things like Xantham Gum, which made me a little happy woman.

The prices were a bit outrageous, so I think we're going to try some slight modifications and make the diet still be healthy but cost-cutting at the same time. I did pick him up some rice flour and vermicelli noodles that were made completely out of vegetables, so those will serve as my spaghetti noodles. The rice flour will make an excellent coating for things like oven baked chicken and I can get some GF spaghetti sauce for the noodles.

The bread mix was $12.19 and it makes six loaves, which works out to being $2.03 per loaf. With the price of even regular bread being just about the same, I'd say we do pretty well buying our own mix.

I've already seen a marked improvement in DS11 and it's only been 24 hours since we started the diet. Of course, this may be a fluke and it'll take probably more of at least six months before there's a constant improvement in his behavior.

**Maine Girl** · 08-23-2009, 03:05 PM

my diet i use Almond milk with is $2.29 a quart but i use it for cooking and cereal. At Whole foods you can get a half gallon for around $4.00. For cereal i buy rice chex type of cereal and i have a smaller bowl i use for portion size to stretch it. I am able to have spelt for breads which some gf people can digest with out a problem.