Gluten Free Popsicles

Popsicles are wonderful summertime treat for anyone, especially a toddler. You have to be careful when looking for Gluten Free Popsicles, as Gluten can often be a hidden ingredient. As parents, we wanted to find a Gluten Free Popsicles that are healthy, and did not contain Corn Syrup. We often make our own but luckily, we also found a few store bought brands that lived up to our standards and below are our favorites:

So Delicious Kidz Pops
So Delicious Kidz Pops, taste great, and they are Dairy Free / Lactose Free, Soy Free, Gluten Free, Cholesterol Free, they have No Trans Fats, and they are Certified Vegan. They come in two flavors fruit pops and fudge pops. You kids will love them and can be found in a variety of supermarkets. The downside is, is that they tend to me on the expensive side.


Smooze! Fruit Ice

Yum, this is how I describe Smooze! Fruit Ice. We recently discovered these in our local Whole Foods and were pleasantly surprised at how good they are. Not only does the whole family love them; but they are small, perfect in size for little toddler hands. They are Gluten Free, made with fresh fruit puree, coconut milk and juice. They do not contain trans fat, preservatives, or cholesterol and are dairy free. The coconut milk adds a smoothie texture, which makes them really easy for kids to eat. There are 12 Smooze's per box and they currently are available in four different flavors: Mango + Coconut, Pineapple + Coconut, Passion Fruit + Coconut and Guava + Coconut. Don't worry if your local grocery store does not carry them, the great news is that you can buy Smooze's online directly from SmoozeUSA.com or from Amazon.com Smooze! are our favorite store brought Popsicles.

For whatever reason, if you would prefer to make Popsicles @ home, as we do, you can easily make your own, all you need is a good Popsicle mold. We researched Popsicle molds this summer and chose the BPA Free Tovolo brand molds. They are dishwasher safe (a must for any busy parent), easy to use, can be used again and again without any issues, and easily stand up to the roughness of a toddler. Plus, they currently offer 5 shapes and sizes: Shooting Star, Rocket Pop, Groovy Pop, Freeze Gem Popsicle Mold and Dual Layer Freezer Pop Mold. They are a little more expensive than your average Popsicle, but they will save you time and money, so they are worth it. You can purchase Tovolo Popsicle molds online from Amazon.Com



As for homemade recipes, you can find them all over the web. Or you can just drop random ingredients into a blender, spend some time experimenting. Below are some ingredients I have used in different Popsicles over the years:

Fresh organic fruit purees
Organic Baby Food - Fruit purees
Mango
Yogurt- Especially Yo Baby
Coconut Milk- Taste of Thai brand is Gluten Free and tastes great.
Organic Fruit Juices

Gluten Free Toddler Food

Our son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease (C/D) in December of 2008 at the age of 11 months, thus my journey began to find whether, there is such a thing on the market today as Gluten Free (G/F) Toddler Food? Growing up in a remote part of the country with a C/D brother, I had watched my non-celiac mother spend hours trying to create from scratch good tasting G/F food, only to see her creations be rejected, by my little brother. I don't have C/D but I am a carrier of the gene, thus when my son was diagnosed, I had visions of trying to juggle a full time job, a baby, family, and cooking from scratch all the time; but in the end I knew I would do whatever I needed to do, for my son and for my family. What I soon realized is that there is so much G/F food on the market as compared to 20 years ago.

One of the biggest things I came to understand early on is that G/F does not equate with healthy or nutritious. I have spent hours scouring the Web, local grocery stores, restaurants, etc. to find food that are nutritious and acceptable for a toddler to eat. And the next thing I learned is that it is very clear that there is not a specific brand that offers a specific G/F toddler (or infant) line of food products. However, no other families should have to spend this much time trying to find affordable, nutritious G/F toddler food, thus I created this blog in hopes that I could at least help others out there.