Special Foods – Wheat

Fig.   23.-This  papular  eruption  was  entirely   due  to   the   ingestion   of   wheat.     There   was   no “eczema on  any other part  of the body.     It can  be compared  to  a  fixed  drug eruption.

Wheat.-Wheat   sensitivity   is   im­portant in many eczematous babies, and in not a few older children. A positive scratch test is usually signifi­cant. Wheat is not easy to deal with, for the year-old child is a great cracker eater, and the older child de­pends so much on all sorts of wheat-containing foods. It is important to explain to the mother exactly what wheat flour is, and what articles of diet contain it. This statement may sound superfluous, but it is by no means so. Some women do not even know that bread is made of wheat, others think that the only wheat-con­taining bread is whole wheat bread, many women do not know that graham crackers are made from wheat, and so on ad nauseam. For babies the “Happy Tappy”* crackers are ex­cellent.

They contain tapioca flour, apple juice, and dried milk. The trouble with them is that they are no good for babies who are sensitive to milk as well as to wheat. “Ry-Krisp” wafers serve the same purpose. They are swallowed better if they are spread with butter and apple jelly. Practi­cally all rye breads contain wheat. For the older child, the mother can learn to make corn cake, biscuits from rice flour, or sweetened cookies from either of these or from soybean flour. I have been trying for years to induce one of the largest manufacturers of infant foods to supply sweetened crackers made from rice, oat, barley, and corn flour, with no luck at all. There is need for such crackers.