DD is 2.5 yrs old, celiac panel was positive and endoscopy is later this month. I'm trying to prepare in the event her biopsy is positive. She loves graham crackers, goldfish crackers, Cheerios, and Raisin Bran. Do you know of good substitutes for these? She's eats very little variety, so I'm hoping I can find some good substitutes to ease her into the gluten free diet...and then hopefully she'll be feeling better and will increase the variety. Thank you

Welcome! I know you probably won't believe me, but you're daughter may be much more willing to expand her diet once she goes gluten free! Prior to my son's diagnosis the only foods he would eat were poultry, gluten, dairy and bananas--that's it. Now he eats all kinds of meats and other things, but we're still working on the veggies.

Perky-O's and Glutino makes cheerio type cereals. I would try Glutino first. I don't know of a raisin brand substitute, but I would try the honey sweetened corn flakes by Health Valley (?) and add your own raisins. As for gold fish, I just found cheese crackers this weekend! They can be found at outsidethebreadbox.com. They're great.

We definitely liked the cheerio type cereal made by Glutino better than the Perky-o's. I tried to feed the Perky-o's to our chickens and even they wouldn't eat them. Envirokidz makes some great kid-friendly cereals They aren't exactly like the ones on your list, but I'd be surprised if your DD didn't like them. There really isn't a flake-type cereal that is like raisin bran. Probably the closest one I know if is the flaked cereals by Arrowhead Mills. They have one or 2 that are made without gluten ingredients. Health Valley makes a rice bran cracker that is the closest I have found to a graham cracker, but my kid's don't care for them that much. I have definitely had good luck with baking gluten-free "graham crackers", though.

Good luck, and keep asking questions. I know it seems overwhelming now, but in 6 months you are going to be an expert.

I had picked up some kinnikini (or however thats spelled) animal crackers, and my boys fought over them. I also picked up some rice valley crunch-ems (like chex, kinda) and my very picky 4 yo cleaned his breakfast bowl for the first time in a long time! You may not find exact copies of what she eats, but if you can get her to try them (often easier said than done - for me I used to force the older one to lick things, but with the younger one, i just leave foods near him and he'll eventually try it). anywyas, she might like things that arent exact substitutes, if they are similar type of food and taste good.

Thank you for all of your suggestions...I'm keeping a list of tips I find on this forum.

cruelshoes...would you mind sharing a recipe for the homemade "graham crackers?"

Thanks again

Here are 2 we like:

http://tinyurl.com/24gnff

http://tinyurl.com/2gz8n8