Aaah – the joy of getting tiny fists into a mass of play dough and punching it into any shape their young hearts desire – priceless! Alas – a forbidden pleasure for children severely allergic to wheat/gluten. When my little one reached the age that he could enjoy play dough, it would break my heart to see him look longingly at other kids in Gymboree play with ‘Play Doh’ in Art class. Equally important was the fine motor skill development that play doh helps with. That’s when I started researching alternative ways of making play dough and one of the recipes that worked was this one…
Gluten-Free Wonder Playdough recipe:
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. cooking oil
food coloring
1) Mix all ingredients together in saucepan, cook on low heat, stirring occassionally for at least 5 minutes or until it forms a ball.
2) Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a large bowl, add at least 1/2 cup more rice flour, and 1/2 cup more corn starch, knead until well mixed and no longer sticky. Store in airtight container.
3) If it gets to dry, add a few drops of water, If it’s too sticky add more rice flour and corn starch in equal amounts.
If making gluten-free play dough is not your cup of tea, try ‘Coloration Wheat & Gluten-Free Dough’
Enjoy seeing your little ones discover the joys of pliant dough 🙂
Allergy Foodie 
Hi anu,I recently came across ‘moon dough’ at my local Walmart and it is supposed to be wheat free.Seems to be a good alternative for my 3 year old who is allergic to wheat.(You might recall that he too,like arjun has multiple allergies-egg,peanut,soy sesame,corn,wheat are the big ones.)
Also,couple other things I’ve been wanting to mention that most people might or might not already be aware of..
1)Indian stores in houston have been keeping gluten-free chapati made by Reddy Brothers.The chief ingredient in this is soy-flour and flaxseeds.My son is allergic to soy but his soy allergy is lower than the wheat allergy so I figure this is the lesser of the 2 ‘evils’..Also since I give it to him once a week he doesnt seem break out into an allergic reaction..
2)There is a store in Houston called ‘Chandrika Masala’ which prepares gluten-free flours from scratch.They even have gluten-free chapati atta(dough) which has a variety of gluten-free multigrain ingredients.The only hitch was they use sesame(which my son is allergic to) but I have requested them to prepare a small quantity for me without it the next time they prepare a fresh batch.
Hi Pratibha,
Thank you for the really useful input. Did Chandrika Masala manage to give you a batch without sesame?
-Anu
yes,they did!And I am happy to report that I was able to prepare puris out of this too!
I love your site! There are also a few companies on etsy that sell gluten free playdough and a company called soy-yer. I also have children with multiple food allergies- milk, eggs, peanuts, treenuts, and possibly wheat and beef. I blog about their food allergies at http://tooblessed-tobestressed.blogspot.com/