Our family has been "gluten and casein free" (GFCF, for short) for one week now. Why, you ask, would be embark on such a thing? Well, it's a long and headachy tale, but here's the short version:
Our second son, James, was quite a normal baby, but has had some problems as he's gotten a little older. He doesn't really talk much (as in, ever?), seems to have selective hearing when it comes to being spoken to (well, he is 2), throws huge self-destructive tantrums, and is kind of a loner when it comes to other kids. At first we thought he couldn't hear right; had that tested, turned out to be fine. Recently he's started holding his breath until he turns purple and passes out (talk about scary!) We figured these could just be stubborn 2-year old issues and hoped he'd grow out of them. We talked briefly about Autism but he never really seemed to fit the profile because all of these things were "come and go" rather than consistent. Finally, on our anniversary last week (we have been married for 5 years now, thank you very much!!) we were at a bookstore and saw a book on autsim, read through the checklist, and said "yikes...that's James" to about half the signs. So we bought the book and read through it. The doctor had a lot of good things to say about the gluten and casein (a product found in dairy) free diet, and how it could help children with autism and austistic tendencies. So we figured, ok, try it; it can't make things any worse, right?
Day 1 GFCF: James is suddenly smiling, making eye contact all the time, cheerful, and saying several words. You could have knocked us over with a feather. Not one fit; just minor fussing a few times when he didn't get his way. Can you say sold??
The week continued along the same vein. Continued cheerfulness, no breath-holding or passing out, playing nicely with brother and sister, more affectionate, and more talking every day. We went to the store and stocked up on all kinds of GFCF foods (gritting our teeth at the price! Holy rusted metal, Batman!) We figured never eating anything that tasted good again was a small price to pay for helping our son. There's been a lot of steak and salad nights! And fish (ugh, but hey, its good for all of us, even me). Some friends of my brothers who have been GF for a really long time were incredibly sweet and brought us a whole bunch of GFCF stuff, recomended good brands, and even lent me some magazines with recipes and ideas! They were awesome! And I was amazed to find out how many options they are out there now. The only thing I've had trouble finding a good replacement for is butter; let's face it, there is just no good substitute for real butter!
On to cooking without flour, milk, butter....well, that's been tough. I love to bake, and its hard to bake with no ingredients! But these magazines I was given, called Living Without, have been a huge help. Their recipes use mixtures of tapioca, rice, arrowroot, potato, sorghum, even coconut flour! I made a cherry cobbler one night, and it turned out really good. Pleased with that, I attempted a blueberry cake. It wasn't perfect but it tasted good, so I was feeling quite proud of myself. Since Saturdays were always pancake day, I decided to try to adapt my pancake recipe to the new GFCF ingredients. Oh, boy was that a mistake! A flat failure, in fact. I used the reccomended blend of GF flours, and then I used coconut and almond milk instead of regular milk. At first the batter was ridiculously thick, and the pancakes would not spread out or get done in the middle. I kept adding almond milk and water, trying to thin it out, but they would just never cook right. They tasted AWFUL! Finally in despair (because the ingredients were just too expensive to waste!) I poured all the batter into a large pan, baked it in the oven for 3 HOURS, and still the middle was all gummy. The kids seemed to like it and ate tons of it this morning, but Robert and I thought it was nasty. Sooo....pancakes = failure. Evidently you cannot convert recipes 1:1 like some books say. I might buy a GF pancake mix and try again if my courage ever returns. For now, looks like we are stuck on bacon and eggs.
Sorry for the world's longest post. My life has basically been consumed by food the last week. "Does this have gluten/casein in it?" "What on earth am I going to make for dinner?" and my favorite "I am ALWAYS hungry!!" These are the thoughts running through my head at all hours of the day and night. But so far, I would so it has TOTALLY been worth it. Even if we have to eat this way for the rest of our lives...the changes in my little boy have made all the difference.
More on my weird food adventures to come....
aking, so I put some cream in his coffee along with some brown sugar. I tasted the coffee just to make sure it was sweet enough for him (generally what is ghastly sweet in my book) and WOW! It tasted so good. I actually made myself a cup, thus betraying my lifelong devotion to pure and unsullied black coffee. I should feel ashamed. But somehow I don't, because it was soooo good. 