GFCF... What the F?

I received medical results this weekend that showed that my Luca has some "very high" food allergies. We will be eliminating wheat (gluten), dairy (casein), and eggs from his diet. Although he shown many of the signs of food allergies, I have to admit that I was stunned and had a range of emotions upon reading the results. GUILT... I have been feeding my baby these foods for the past three years! So many of his illnesses could have been easily prevented! MORE GUILT... Oh no! His favorite foods are over. No more Sunchips, Cheerios, Fiber One Bars, our homemade cookies we bake together! He is so little and won't understand! Hope... maybe this new diet will help with some of the health and behavioral issues we have been dealing with over the past three plus years. Confusion... What am I going to feed this child??? In case you don't know.... GLUTEN, CASEIN, AND EGGS ARE IN JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING.

Unless otherwise noted gluten, casein and eggs are found in... just to name a few....

* all baked goods... cookies, cakes
* all chips, pretzels, crackers
* all breads, bagels, muffins, doughnuts, tortillas
* all cereals, oatmeal, breakfast bars, waffles, pancakes, syrup
* many lunch meats
* pastas
* most condiments, seasonings, spice mixes and breading
* candy, artificial colors, artificial flavors, cake decorations and frosting, CHOCOLATE
* cheeses, yogurts, butter, milk, pudding, marshmallow cream, chewing gum

It is even used in play-doh, glue, and on envelopes and stamps!


Soooooo, being that I have no GFCF (Gluten Free Casein Free... cool new lingo I am learning) food in my home, I fed him a nice big bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and we left for the grocery store. I am somewhat familiar with the GFCF diet because my amazingly adorable, beautiful, funny, nephew Carson (Curing Carson) IS ALSO ALLERGIC TO WHEAT, DAIRY, AND EGGS. He is on the diet. What exactly was in the water when my sister and I were pregnant??????

Our first stop was a Trader Joe's. They had a good selection of GFCF crackers and chips as well as some brownie and pancakes mixes. It was a bit confusing though because although the Gluten free foods were well labeled they were not clearly labeled "Casein Free" or "Egg Free" which meant I had to take some time reading many packages. I easily found GFCF lunch meats and pastas though. The price there were GREAT! Although the packages were smaller, the prices were less than I would pay for our usual brand. I couldn't find GFCF ice-cream, butter, "Rice Dream" brand milk, any cereal, or bread that looked edible so we checked out Vince & Joe's. I was able to find all of these items and more at this store but they were VERY expensive.

$5.99 for 1/2 loaf of GFCF bread... the pieces are also about 1/2 the size of a 'normal' piece of bread
$6.59 for GFCF Apple Granola bars
$5.79 for GFCF cereal
$3.79 for a very small bag of Tapioca flour
$3.99 for "Rice Dream" milk.... 32 oz!!!!!
$4.49 for GFCF butter


Holy Moly. This sucks.