Can Gluten Free Be Expensive....

any time you adjust diet for any reason (including food allergies) there is definitely a learning curve. You have to find what works for you and your family. I STRONGLY suggest cutting out processed foods and fake dyes. Get a good gluten free cookbook and expect to eat more healthfully - turkey rolls in lettuce instead of a sandwich with bread, etc. Ask other moms in your area too - I know chattanooga is alot more health conscious than my local area. We live in smalltown, USA and have a health food store, major chains that carry allergy friendly and organic foods, as well as Whole Foods, trader Joe's and others only 20 minutes away. Typically things are boldly marked, but if you do have to read packaging, I suggest signing up with FAAN for their gluten recall alerts on foods containing gluten that aren't marked as such. Finally, may I suggest signing up with a local organic farm CSA? While it costs more initially, since we've gone organic, our medical expenses have plummeted. We used to be in the dr's office every week with at least one family member. In the last three years that has decreased to once a year for my DH and DS, about 4 times a year for me, twice a year for my DD, and the baby has been only hitting her well check visits (since we got her food allergies worked out).

Mostly, going gluten-free will mean a huge lifestyle change, and that you make almost every meal at home. The expense is minimal.

It can be expensive. It really depends on what you are use to buying and if your son is the only one who will be eating gluten free or the whole family. Here are some examples: I like Udi's gluten free bread which is around $5.00 for a very small loaf, regular bread I buy is $1-$2 for a much larger loaf, Glutino family size bag of gluten free pretzels $7, Synders regular pretzels $2.50, Gluten free pasta $2.50 a box and regular pasta .89. Chex cereal is gluten free so I stock up on it when it is on sale and I have coupons. I try to sign up for coupons whenever possible for gluten free foods. As for taste some of it is really good, some not so great. You will just have to try it and see what your son likes. I am the only one who eats gluten free so that helps with the cost. As for eating out, you can still do that. Just go to the restaurant's web page and look at allergy information before going and be sure to tell your waiter before ordering. Gluten Free for Dummies is a great book to read when first starting out. There are so many great websites also.

It *can* be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. A lot of what we eat is gf already: rice, vegetables, fruit, meat. You will have to look at labels. I would recommend the Idiot's Guide to Gluten Free. It lists places that gluten hides, and teaches you how to read labels for that information. We really like the quinoa pasta, but only serve it to our gf children. My husband even likes it, and has said that he would be happy having it served to him also. I make our own gf bread. I have a grain mill, that I purchased only for gf grains, so I mill our rice into flour (and millet, and whatever other grain I want to use). Yes, it is an expensive initial investment, but it saves a lot of money in the purchase of bread. If you do decide to buy bread, Udi's and Rudi's are the best brands that we have found. I still like our homemade better though. My entire family likes the homemade, so it goes way too quickly. Most of what we eat is gf as a family. I do occasionally make two different meals, or portions of meals for the little ones. You might try your local library to borrow some gf cookbooks. I would say that if you want to try this, you have to go full force. You cannot do it halfway, or some of the time. It can take a couple of weeks to heal the gut from gluten. So, any introduction of gluten negates any good you are trying with some things being gf. PM me if you have any other questions.

It can be expensive if you eat a lot of processed gluten-free foods, but if you eat a whole foods diet - then it is not expensive imo. marksdailyapple.com has gluten-free recipes. Most of the primal diets are gluten free. You can go to glutenology.net and sign up for their emails and they have recipes too. Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit are not more expensive on the gluten-free diet.

There are some gluteen free frugal foodie/mom type blogs out there, the two that comee to mind first are:

http://lynnskitchenadventures.com/lra/

http://www.foodallergiesonabudget.com/

From there you can follow links or do some googling, you'll get tons of ideas and recipes. Gluten free is like any other food-- made from scratch is cheaper than convenience....