Alternative diet...anyone?

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Evy

New member
Hi all! New to the site, 1st post in the forums. Our daughter is nearly 9 months old and man, does she love to eat! My husband and I have chosen to follow a mostly gluten, grain, and dairy free diet and have been feeding Makenna the same so far. I'm kind of intensely passionate about nutrition! Anyway, I'm interested to see what other families opt for this diet and I'd like to see what your children's weight gains have been. She eats fruits, vegetables, meats, and quinoa. I use the flakes because it makes a porridge like consistency, which I mix into her fruit and veggies to give them a bit more heft. I recently found quinoa pasta!! She eats cultured coconut milk yogurt instead of milk yogurt.

I firmly believe that eating clean and having a healthy gut will lessen her complications. Makenna has yet to have any respiratory infections, her belly is never distended or tender and her stools are always normal. Her Dr. remarks all the time about how healthy she is. However, she is a bit on the light side, just over 16lbs. I'm aware that if she doesn't gain weight, we'll have to make some changes, but I'd like to plump her up as GG&D free as possible. We're open to suggestions!!

Thanks!!
 
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ethandley

Guest
Hey Evy,

I'm so glad you posted this. We are working on the same sort of diet for our son as well...close to a Pale sort of diet. He is 7 months old and we'd like to have a good grasp on ways to keep him gaining weight and eating nutritionally beneficial foods to avoid excess mucus production, inflammation and the issues with gluten to keep his immune system strong. We have been trying to add fat to his fruits, veggies and brown rice cereal to give him extra calories. The CF clinic will tell you butter or canola oil...we are currently using grape seed oil and he likes that so far...plus it has a lot of vitamin E. I would like to also add flax seed oil soon...trying to increase the Omega-3's. We also have just started putting milled flax in his food. This is a HUGE topic for us too. I am hoping to find a nutritionist that has some knowledge of CF issues and can give us recommendations. Our clinic dietician was not very supportive when we told her about the GF/DF plans. They want us to start him on whole milk at one year and I always hear them say stuff like "pizza, lots of cheese, high calorie milk shakes, tons of ice cream, flavored syrups, etc..." in regards to ways to "fatten them up". I am a firm believer that diet may minimize CF related issues and strengthen the immune system as well as minimize inflammation. I have read about an issue with the American diet being out of whack in Omega3/6 ratio too. Please let me know if you have any specific things you can share or find a nutritional expert. Take care.
 
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Evy

New member
Sounds like we're definitely on the same page. Our dietitian says the same type of things!!

I will have to try the grape seed and flax; We currently add coconut oil, olive oil, or mashed avocado for fats.

This is a fantastic article I came across:
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/cystic-fibrosis-000045.htm

We also use this resource to try and stay away from inflammatory foods. Type in the name of a food, choose how you've prepared it or the brand, and it gives you a complete nutritional workup of the food. We stay away from any foods that have an inflammatory property, like bananas and black/red beans.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Keep in touch as you come across anything. I'll do the same!!
 
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mamaScarlett

Active member
I have been off dairy for 3 months now and I feel an improvement. Its not that hard for me to avoid it either-gradually switched over to soy and almond milk, slowly weaned myself. The only thing that is hard for me is my coffee and at times I will put a splash (and only a splash) of milk in that.
Basically I just stick to a common sense diet. High in good fiber and good carbs. I juice 3x a week. Take flax, coconut, almond and nut butters for fat. And try to avoid overly processed foods.
My daily musts are steel cut oats, fruit, green tea, almonds, granola and healthy fats.
We do not like high processed food, and for me, fried anything is a NEVER.
 
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jshet

New member
My son has cf, celiac disease, and autism. He is on a gluten free diet. He also has allergies to milk, dairy, soy and rice. He has always struggled with his weight and because of everything, he will be getting a gj tube. But when he was younger we used different supplement drinks. Have you considered maybe just an 8 oz glass of neocate jr. It comes in different flavors and fits in perfectly with the diet you have her on now. It can be expensive but since it is considered a medical food it is usually covered by insurance. Also another one is made by boost and it is called boost breeze. It is more like a juice and tastes like juice also. It is pretty good. I wish you all the luck and hope this helps. Jshet
 
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ehtansky21

New member
We are gluten free, soy free and only do raw cheese and yogurt. When both my boys turned 1 I started them on a smoothie made with coconut milk, coconut oil, hemp protein and brown rice protein. Check out my blog and see if anything intrigues you :)
chasing-truth.blogspot.com
Would love to be of support if needed. We have found so far that we can't go completely grain free, as the carbs are the only way I can keep the weight on the boys.
Watch the addition of flax seed/oil. I have tried it multiple times and each time, the boys bowel movements get oily. We do give a supplement of omega 3's though.
Check out my post on Magnesium. When I added that and started the boys gluten free, their health really peaked!!!

blessings,
missa
 
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Helenlight

New member
Hi there,

Our daughter turned one recently and we have her on a dairy-free, low gluten diet. Many of my family members suffer from excess mucus, wheezing and eczema as a result of dairy consumption, so we are definitely avoiding it for our little one at the moment. She loves rice porridge, we give her a lot of avocado and coconut cream, and high carbo vegetables like kumara (sweet potato), pumpkin and potato. We use rice milk with coconut cream and spirulina as a high cal, nutritious drink. We also use nut butters (when we can afford them!), and she eats meat too. I have found that she does well digestively, and her weight is mostly fine if she is well and enjoying her solids. If her coughing gets worse or if she gets ill, her weight drops (often she goes off solids if she's not feeling well), so the doctor has recently given us Polycal (maltodextrin powder) to give to her to keep her calories up. She gained 300gm in just one week of adding this to her diet, and her energy is great. It has really been an eye opener just how important those calories are, and for those of us who choose to (or have to) avoid dairy, it's REALLY important that we find ways to supplement those easy calories that dairy otherwise offers.

I'm interested in your coconut yoghurt- do you make it yourself or can you buy it from somewhere?

When adding the extra oils they do need extra enzymes because of all the fat- otherwise you will get the oily, smelly poos :)

Good luck, I'm always really interested to see how people go with different diets, I'm sure there is something in the paleo and the anti-inflammatory approach (as I have read from other adults wCF too). Just keep up those calories... really important!

Happy to keep in touch if your interested.
 
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Evy

New member
Thanks for this info. I just looked into the Neocate Nutra, as our little one just turned 9 months. 472 calories!! Yes please!! Going to call the dietitian tomorrow and see what she has to say.
 
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