Families with Autism Helping Families with Autism

So, you’ve chosen to start your child on the diet but wondering which bank you will have to rob to be able to pay for the special foods now, right? Before you get out your ski mask, here are some hints that might help.

There are several approaches to diet –

$$$ - This is when you buy everything pre-made.

$$ - This is when you buy mixes and such but bake the products yourself.

$ - This is the easy and cheap “grandma’s method."

$$$ - Let’s start with the expensive method. There are so many places where you can buy everything pre-made for you nowadays. 10 years ago when I started the diet with my son, there was almost nothing. Now, you can find companies that deliver all pre-made meals, and online retailers like GlutenFreeMall.com that carries products from a wide variety of manufacturers, pre-made and mixes. If you can afford to purchase all pre-made foods, this article is not for you.

$$ - This is the category most people fall into. You don’t have time or the recipes to make all your own breads, muffins, cakes, pie crusts, etc. so you buy mixes and some pre-made things like cookies or sandwich bread, pasta and hot dogs. You spend a good chunk of time comparison shopping and making sure all the products fit your child’s allergies.

$ - This is the “Grandma” method. I’m going to take you back in time for this one. Think about the way your great-grandmother used to cook before food came in boxes and was heated in microwaves. She made a meat, a vegetable and a starch, that was it. No muss, no fuss. It’s a healthy, simplification of cooking that uses no pre-made ingredients. That’s the whole process and you’ll find meal ideas and more in the Meal Plans page on our site. I found this method actually even saved me money compared to the way I used to cook before GFCF because I wasn’t paying $5 a box for his favorite pre-made junk food that he ate 3 boxes a day of because he was addicted to them.

While I could tell you to move to the country, plant a huge organic garden and start your new career in animal husbandry, I’ll spare you having to learn how to de-worm cows and when to flip your compost pile. I think it will be much more helpful to give you a bunch of time-tested tips that I’ve learned from over the years.

 

What is GFCFSF?

Gluten is more than just wheat – it’s grains like wheat, barley, oats and rye. Casein is the protein found in all things dairy – more specifically, anything juiced from a mammal – including cow’s milk, sheep, goat and human breast milk. Soy needs to be removed too. Labels that say “wheat-free” do not necessarily mean gluten-free and certainly not GFCF. Dairy-free isn’t casein-free. Lactose is milk sugar. Lactose-free isn’t casein-free either. Organic doesn’t mean GFCF. Organic milk still comes from a cow and organic wheat is still wheat. Reading labels and understanding the difference is crucial. Gluten-free also includes things that do not have gluten in them but are either grown near them or processed in a facility with them, contaminating them, such as millet and oats.

What is organic?

Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified. Nitrate/Nitrite fertilizers are also linked to increases in death rate from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes. Read more in the Toxins In Food and Envirnoment article.

Here are websites that you can find local farmers and growers with organic products:

www.localharvest.org (they have a co-op too)
www.buylocalfood.com
www.farmfresh.org
diamondorganics.com
www.cowboyfreerangemeat.com
www.wildforsalmon.com
www.desertsweetshrimp.com

 

TIP: Cut out the middleman. Buy direct from farmers rather than through a retailer/reseller who marks up the product.

 

Learn to read ingredient labels

Learning to read labels will save you so much time and effort and then means you can go anywhere. If a store or restaurant sells a food, they must be able to provide you with the exact ingredients list for each food so you can determine if it meets your child’s allergy issues or not. Know that manufacturers can change ingredients without any special alert, so always check the labels. When in doubt, call the manufacturer.

Hidden Sources of Gluten, Casein and Soy
Ingredients & Substitutions
Beginning the GFCFSF Diet

 

TIP: In a hurry? Cook everything in big batches and freeze in individual servings so when you need a quick meal, you just grab and go.

 

Where can you buy GFCFSF products?

There are many great stores, retail and online, now to choose from. Please note that most places also sell things that are NOT GFCF, so please read the ingredients before you buy. This is just a small sampling of the online retailers:

www.amazon.com
www.kinnikinnick.com
www.naturalfeast.com
www.glutenfreemall.com
www.glutenfreepantry.com
www.foodallergygourmet.com
www.bobsredmill.com
www.ener-g.com
www.auntcandicefoods.com
www.reallygreatfoods.com

 

TIP: Buy in bulk quantities. For meats, you can buy half or whole animals (you can join with other families if needed) and have them processed. Or if a store has meat sales, you can stock up the freezer.

 

Health Food Store Finder:

www.allstays.com/c/health-food-store-locations.htm
www.greenpeople.org/healthfood.htm
www.organicconsumers.org/foodcoops.htm

 

TIP: Share the load. Get a few families together to cook multiple dishes in big batches and swap dishes so everyone goes home with many complete meals.

 

Your local grocery store. You can buy a lot of GFCF items in your local grocery store. And remember, if there is something you would like your local store to carry, ask the store manager to see if s/he can order it in for you.

A Foodlist of GFCFSF products:

Foodlist

 

TIP: Stock up! Get a big stand-alone freezer so you can buy and cook in bulk.

 

TIP: Join a (or start your own) co-op. If you can join in with a few other families and buy food in bulk, you can save considerable amounts of money. You can do this with meats if you buy whole animals (the farmers will still process them) too.

 

Co-ops are groups who use their purchasing power to get lower prices.

www.coopdirectory.org/
www.organicconsumers.org/foodcoops.htm
www.cooperativegrocer.coop/coops/
www.sustainabletable.org/shop/co-ops/

 

TIP: Frequent Buyers. Ask if a store has loyalty or bulk discounts, or participates in local co-ops that you might join. If your store has a Senior Citizen discount, take Grandma shopping too.

Meal plans help you save money

If you have a list of recipes and the ingredients you need, then you are less apt to buy things you don’t need.

Click here for great meal plans to help you plan your shopping trips.

 

TIP: Invest in a good vacuum food sealer. Package food into individual servings to save yourself time when you need a meal fast, so you can just grab and go.

 

Recipes – get free recipes off the web. Here are just a few great sites for free recipes.

health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFrecipes
health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFKids
www.danasview.net/recipe.htm
gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com
www.geocities.com/arnfl/diet.html
www.woggle-bug.com/recipes
gfcfrecipes.tripod.com
www.pecanbread.com

TIP: Make your own mixes. Order flours in bulk quantities and mix up all the dry ingredients for multiple mixes at a time and seal. Then when you need a mix, you just grab it off the shelf and add the wet ingredients.

 

School Days - If your child is in public school, federal law says the public schools must provide nutritional meals that fit the diet while the children are on campus, at NO additional cost to the families! All you have to do is get your doctor to write a letter that states your child’s allergies and include it in the IEP in the medical section. The school must create meals to accommodate those allergies. While you may assist them if you wish, you do not have to provide the food or help the school shop in any way. You can learn more at these sites:

Tami Giles Autism One 2006 Power Point presentation
Must the School Provide GFCF Foods if Parents Request It?
USDA Accommodating Children with Food and Nutrition Service: Special Dietary Needs in the School Nutrition Programs
An Essential Handout For Teachers & Aides

 

TIP: Need dedicated appliances? If you need a second toaster due to cross contamination issues, a separate freezer or a bread machine (for foolproof bread), make sure you check your local Goodwill or other second-hand store. A lot of the appliances are in great condition and the price is right.

 

Alternative Ways to get your biomed funded

Grants (foundation and corporate); Fundraisers (car washes, bake sales, Kiwanis, etc.); Family gifts (birthday and Christmas gifts etc.); Bank loans (home equity, etc.); Medical expense (health) savings account; Autism Association and support groups grants; Bartering services with doctors; Medicaid waiver loopholes (CDC budgets.)

For more budgeting tips for Biomedical Treatment, read the Autism on a Budget article and the Try Before You Apply article.

TIP: Track your purchases. Get and use one credit card for all things treatment. I buy all my kid’s food, books related to autism and special diets, book medical-related travel such as trips to the out-of-state doctor, office co-pays, therapy equipment, vitamins, etc. all on the same card so when tax-time comes, all I have to do is hand my tax preparer the credit card statements.

 

TIP: The special foods required for your child are partially tax-deductible. Save all your food receipts. The write-off is the difference in cost between regular and diet – i.e., if a regular loaf of bread costs $1 and your diet bread costs $4, then you can write off $3 per loaf.

 

Babies, Babies, Babies!

Want to take the whole household GFCF but have an infant? See our formula page.

 

TIP: Hungry for more?

There are some great places on the web to watch FREE nutritional seminars and presentations from the best in the field.

www.autismmedia.org
www.autism.com/danwebcast/index.htm
www.autismone.org and www.autismone.org/radio