It's Back To School time which means a whole lot of excitement and food allergy anxiety all rolled into one.
All over the internet you can find information/recipes on coping with school and a food allergy or intolerance. But that doesn't erase many of the fears that our parents and children face when fitting into school programs that don't necessarily bend to their desires or needs and a general lack of knowledge from staff and student peers is discouraging at best. However, overcome we must. And if you take a positive "can-do" attitude, no matter what the barrier is, you and your child can accomplish more than you hoped for.
You'd think that with all the attention being given to gluten free foods and well-known people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance that most people would have heard of it by now. But it only takes one meet the teacher night to shatter all those illusions. Our daughter's new teacher, the cafeteria staff, and her guidance counselor knew absolutely nothing about it. Luckily, I had typed up a version of the letter found on Gluten Free Mom's blog: http://glutenfreemom.com/SchoolOtherActivities.html
The school nurse was very complimentary on the information it gave her (which one would think she would have known already).
We had naively bought a Bento lunch box kit thinking that she might be able to heat up left overs from dinner in a school microwave. But after talking with the lunch room staff, we found out that they would not allow her to use one, nor did they have one they used. So, I offered to purchase one. This elicited an immediate no because then they "would have to heat up every child's lunch" And this is a bad thing? Isn't it their job to make warm nutritious lunches for children? If you have watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution then you are hip to the fact that our lunch ladies don't even cook the food now. They reheat frozen or packaged food in an oven and apparently microwaves aren't allowed until middle school. So we bought 2 quality Coleman thermoses to put hot food into.
Our daughter was not daunted in the least at any of the hurdles facing her yet. Her focus remained on how excited she was to be attending school with friends. We have not let our fears of peer pressure or bullying transfer onto her because there is no sense in being paranoid. However, our tween is a very mature child for her 10 years and is strongly versed in reading labels, washing hands, and making others aware of celiac disease in a very relaxed manner. We will keep maintaining the hope that this continues through her last year in Elementary before the peer pressure really gets intense during puberty. But doesn't every parent and child have to face those fears?
One good idea is to purchase some books to share with her class like: Gluten-Free Friends: An Activity Book for Kids and Adam's Gluten Free Surprise (both can be found on Amazon). Perhaps by making those who are unaware more aware, we can lift the veil of mystery for those who do not understand and make it easier for all children newly diagnosed in the future.
You'd think that with all the attention being given to gluten free foods and well-known people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance that most people would have heard of it by now. But it only takes one meet the teacher night to shatter all those illusions. Our daughter's new teacher, the cafeteria staff, and her guidance counselor knew absolutely nothing about it. Luckily, I had typed up a version of the letter found on Gluten Free Mom's blog: http://glutenfreemom.com/SchoolOtherActivities.html
The school nurse was very complimentary on the information it gave her (which one would think she would have known already).
We had naively bought a Bento lunch box kit thinking that she might be able to heat up left overs from dinner in a school microwave. But after talking with the lunch room staff, we found out that they would not allow her to use one, nor did they have one they used. So, I offered to purchase one. This elicited an immediate no because then they "would have to heat up every child's lunch" And this is a bad thing? Isn't it their job to make warm nutritious lunches for children? If you have watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution then you are hip to the fact that our lunch ladies don't even cook the food now. They reheat frozen or packaged food in an oven and apparently microwaves aren't allowed until middle school. So we bought 2 quality Coleman thermoses to put hot food into.
Our daughter was not daunted in the least at any of the hurdles facing her yet. Her focus remained on how excited she was to be attending school with friends. We have not let our fears of peer pressure or bullying transfer onto her because there is no sense in being paranoid. However, our tween is a very mature child for her 10 years and is strongly versed in reading labels, washing hands, and making others aware of celiac disease in a very relaxed manner. We will keep maintaining the hope that this continues through her last year in Elementary before the peer pressure really gets intense during puberty. But doesn't every parent and child have to face those fears?
One good idea is to purchase some books to share with her class like: Gluten-Free Friends: An Activity Book for Kids and Adam's Gluten Free Surprise (both can be found on Amazon). Perhaps by making those who are unaware more aware, we can lift the veil of mystery for those who do not understand and make it easier for all children newly diagnosed in the future.
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