Gluten-free Cooking for Kids

An incident at school a few weeks ago has got me thinking. What do you do when you find out your child has been experimenting with no-go foods? How should you react? How should you broach the subject and what tactics should you employ to get them back on the straight and narrow?

I have been discussing this with one of the mum’s in my daughter’s school. Both our daughters have to follow special diets, although her little girl has several other food groups that must be excluded too. It appears that the girls have been sharing their “break” knowing full well that what they are doing is not allowed. When we found out, we were both completely shocked. First there is the fear that they are doing themselves harm and then there is the frustration of knowing that what they do in school, is out of our control. With symptoms that may not be immediately apparent, it is possible for them to get away with it until someone snitches or they get caught with their hand in the biscuit tin.

The discovery that they are cheating means we are approaching a new milestone. Controlling their diet is no longer the issue. Getting them to take responsibility for their diet is what’s on the agenda today. So what do we do? Empathy is high on my list. We need to acknowledge that having a restricted diet is very difficult especially when temptation is everywhere. We must accept that this will happen periodically and that the best we can do as parents is to explain both the benefits of keeping to their diet and the consequences of not sticking to it. Many studies have been done about which groups of children are most likely to break their diet. The evidence seems to point towards those where there is a perceived social pressure to appear “normal”, That means that any situation which makes a child stand out, or appear different from other children is more likely to cause that child to cheat. It is actually less about the food and more about being invisible. And if we stand back as parents and examine this statement we realise how much work needs to be done.

This brings me to my second point which I bang on and on about, and that is, the need to integrate eating and socializing where ever possible so that children on special diets don’t feel excluded.  This can be almost impossible especially where multiple allergies or intolerances are involved.  First on the list of grievances for parents are cooking activities in school. These are a great source of anxiety for parents and pupils who follow special diets. My view on this is that with a little research on the internet, (there are thousands of sites listing recipes for every possible allergy or intolerance), some imagination and some parental pressure, you can improve the situation. If you can persuade, cajole, bribe, whoever is in charge of cooking at school, to integrate your child’s special needs into this type of activity, you will be amazed at the positive effect it will have on your child.

Eating the same food as a family also presents difficulties. For some, this just isn’t an option. Where it really isn’t an option, then I would limit when and where you eat “forbidden” foods. I would urge that wherever possible you support your child by eating what they eat. If you want your child to stick to their diet, then you must remove temptation. Eating a slice of pepperoni pizza in front of your kid, while they munch on some celery or a carrot stick does not send the right message. I am sure many of you will argue with this and I do appreciate how difficult it might be, but if you must eat that slice of chocolate cake, do it where they won’t see you!

Eating out, is another hurdle. Parents often talk about staying in “The Bubble” where everyone feels safe, but I don’t think this strategy is beneficial in the long run. Eating out is part of everyday life and we have to find strategies to make gluten free food more widely accessible. We need to campaign for more normal gluten free food. Not the stuff that has gluten free plastered all over it, but food that tastes good and that everyone wants to eat and we need to get restaurant owners, restaurant chains, cafes, student canteens, hospitals, nurseries etc to come on board and pave the way for better gluten free food. This is not an impossible task, but one that requires constant pushing and prodding.

I’d love to hear of your views. Any tips or advice you have for other parents facing similar situations, will be greatly appreciated.