Gluten Free in Zurich

Hi,

it turned out that my son has Celiac disease, and he's only 2 years old.

Things are a bit complicated, especially having food outside. We see there' a massive difference in the offer between Italy for instance and Switzerland.

There's not a 100% gluten-free restaurant in Zurich, just some restaurants have 1 choice. But with a 2yrs kid, it's tricky to explain to him "you can't have this.. only that".. or "you can't have the ice cream that the other kids are having".

Anyone in the same situation?

S.

https://glutenfreeinzurich.ch/en/index.html

In most supermarkets there is a gluten free line. Most restaurants also mark on their menus which items are gluten free.

How to explain to a 2 year old why he can't have something? No idea.

I have to try to explain my 2 year old why he can't have my beer, and it results in massive, bone chilling screams... So good luck!

Supermarket are ok and restaurant definitely not good for a baby.

He's drinking wine instead of beer and happy with it, you should try the same.

S.

don't know about Zurich, but there is a really good restaurant in Rotkreuz that caters for Celiac's, they do exceptional GF bread. http://www.aparthotel-rotkreuz.ch/re...t/speis-trank/

Restaurant food is tricky, even as adult with celiac. Personally I would take your own food for your son. At this age, if you just tell the restaurant, that he cannot eat restaurant food, they should be understanding. The emergency option is a plate of fries and salad or fresh veggies. This you can get almost everywhere.

my son has coeliac... there is a lot to learn, and it can seem overwhelming for sure !

For gluten-free options I suggest looking at leshop (online Migros) and coop@home, and search for gluten free 'glutenfrei' and begin a list.

Most of what our son eats is not specifically labelled as 'glutenfrei'. Instead, it's things that are normally without gluten - rice, corn, potatoes... meat, fish, eggs, and most dairy.

In fact, you'll probably do better with simple natural foods - fruit and vegetables, staples, meat and fish, beans etc. The only things you need to avoid are 'dinkel' 'rye' and 'weizen'.

Most of the advice for Germany will fit with Switzerland. https://www.legalnomads.com/gluten-free/germany/

Also, I find the asian food markets good too.

And you need to get really really good at reading ingredient labels - one of the 'bonuses' of having things labelled in three languages is if you can't work out one language, you can switch to the others to try to translate the ingredient.

For 'fast' foods - not necessarily cheap - our son has no problem with fries (they aren't normally dusted with wheat) - omelette, rice, sushi (not soy sauce!), corn on the cob, and basically he never eats the 'kids menu' - he always has a specially prepared meal, or when he was little, we would order a variety of meals at the table and share bits that were safe from what we were having - but that may not be possible with a 2 year old who does not understand...

One other tip ? Write a list of 'yes' foods - instead of focusing on the 'no' foods.

one of the first things I did when my son was diagnosed was to go to the supermarket by myself. I spent literally 2 hours walking through every single aisle, selecting products, reading labels and looking for alternatives...

It was also much easier to eliminate almost all gluten at home. The exception was bread and some snack foods...

Gluten-free Toddler food that is cheap and easy:

all fruit and vegetables

bananas!

Rice (rice custard from the supermarket is a high carb snack).

most regular yoghurts (baby yoghurts are more likely to have wheat thickener) - usually the cheaper brands don't have wheat in them. make your own flavoured yoghurt with plain yoghurt and a tablespoon of apfelmus, jam or pureed fruit.

Rice pops from Migros (the cheap brand) are gluten-free

oat porridge (get certified gluten-free oats from the 'reformhaus'.

Potatoes

Eggs

Cheese (pretty much all gluten-free).

I could go on and on!

Even Coop has gluten free porridge oats now.

Hi! I’ve had celiac for five years now, diagnosed when I was 17. My dad, cousin and little brother have it too. Please feel free to send me a private message, or for that matter to ask any questions here! Yes it’s tough, especially in the beginning and especially with such a young child. I have a lot of recipes, etc if you’d like. I’d stay away from restaurant food for now—as an adult I can make pretty good judgments about what might or probably won’t make me sick when eating out, but with a child you really don’t know. Also, not everyone tolerates all gluten free products. Schär’s gluten free croissants made me so sick, but I can eat their bread and use their gf flour blend no problem!