I remember it well. It started when my son was just about a year old. Wheat was on my avoidance list because of my own problems with it, so my son’s first taste of a grain flour was a piece of his father’s rye cake. All the ingredients looked completely wholesome and innocent. In fact, he’d had everything that was in the bread before, without incident, except for rye.
He broke out all over his face. I took him to his doctor. One look and the doctor said, “Whatever food you last tried him on – he’s allergic.” I said, “Rye cake?” He said, “Gluten”.
That’s how our journey into full gluten avoidance started.
When you avoid gluten, you avoid a LOT of foods. Surprisingly, gluten is included in all kinds of things you’d never expect, and masquerades as flavoring and spices. Lists of foods that contain gluten always surprise me. Vitamins? Yep – vitamins can contain gluten.
Since most processed foods use gluten in one form or another, we didn’t eat much take out, fast food or junk for a long time. It turned out that it wasn’t as big a hardship as we might have expected, and frankly – we ate really healthy!
It was the treats that were hard to replace. I could make a mean gluten free cake, but what about when everyone else at the play ground is having a candy? How do you explain that to a 2 year old? To my son’s credit, he was a peach. He trusted us to have something yummy for him if everyone else was having a snack, and he genuinely liked coconut macaroons or fruit or crackers.
Recently, I stumbled upon a brand of kid’s candy which is certified gluten free. With a bit of hesitation, I decided to try it. (After all, my children have been guinea pigs for all kinds of things, and some experiments have been less successful than others.)
As someone who knows what the old-fashioned red licorice used to taste like, I can vouch that this is the closest thing to it that I’ve ever had! In fact, it might taste better. The brand is Candy Tree and the specific candies are called Corn Candies. Here’s the ingredient list: organic corn syrup, organic rice flour, organic rice starch, organic concentrated fruit juice, organic flavor, glaze: carnaubawax.
That’s it!
Frankly, here’s a candy that you can carry around in the car that will suit the needs of most allergic kids – unless they can’t have corn (another increasingly frequent allergy). These goodies also past the taste test with any non-allergic child too! (I’ve given them to my nephew, who is a real fussy eater and he wanted seconds.)
Enjoy!
