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A Gluten Free Christmas: How to Make it Happy for Your Celiac Child at School

For the celiac child, Christmas can be a difficult time. It’s easier to manage at home, but making it a gluten free Christmas at school can be a tricky one. There are parties, students - and teachers- bringing in Christmas treats (few of which will be gluten free) and all sorts of challenges for the celiac child to find their way through.

You want your child to have fun, to not feel ‘different’ from the others, but in reality they are different in terms of their gluten free diet, and it is important to find ways to help them stick to the gluten free diet while still enjoying the treats of Christmas.

It is really important to get the class teacher on side for this. They will be up to their eyes in tinsel and school plays (believe me - I’ve done it!) and probably will not really want something extra to think about at this time of year, but a quick phone call, or chat in the playground at the end of the day, asking how you can help them to help your celiac child is necessary.

The three main danger areas I can think of (and it’s our first gluten free Christmas so if I’ve missed anything vital please comment) are:-

Parties

There is always a Christmas party. It is always a highlight. There will always be lots of delicious-looking gluteny food which your celiac child has to say no to.

Find out when it is early so you can get prepared!

Ask if the school would mind having a color coding system on plates of food: gluten free on holly plates, forbidden on Santa plates (or something!) Or even better, get your child a gluten free plate ready loaded before the start. (This is preferable as communal bowls of crisps etc. can be contaminated by gluteny fingers even if the crisps themselves are gluten free)

Make sure you provide gluten free alternatives to the sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and biscuits that the other kids are having.

Find out what the prizes are for the games (usually edible) and if the children will be given a party bag to take home. Hopefully the teacher will check the labels on the candy, because there is so much that is gluten free it is easy enough to do. If not you will again have to send in your own alternatives.

Baking

It seems that baking at school is a traditional part of Christmas these days, but this can be full of dangers for the celiac child. If the teacher is open to the idea you might want to suggest some easy, naturally gluten free recipe ideas for all the kids to have a go at - that would be easiest

But if they have decided to make Christmas Star Cookies (or something similarly gluten-full, as far as I can see it there are three choices:

1. Allow your child to cook what everyone else is cooking but not eat any of it (which is somewhat hard on the child but protects their tummy)

2. Ask for your child to be excused the baking, which is really hard if the whole class is baking together, but if it is done in small groups with other activities taking place at the same time is less noticeable.

3. Provide alternative flour, baking powder etc. and alternative baking tins, utensils etc. so your child can bake with the others. Bear in mind that flour gets everywhere, and even if your child is using their own flour there is no guarantee it will not be contaminated. This could make it difficult for the teacher in charge of the group, unless they are very understanding.

If you have the time spare, the best option might be to go in as a volunteer for the activity to help out.

Treats

The teachers bring them, the students bring them: Christmas is full of candy and biscuits. It is important that any celiac child, as soon as they can read sufficiently well, learns to read labels, and your child will have to put this skill into practice over the Christmas period. Hopefully a lot of it will be gluten free. If not, make sure your child’s teacher has a stash of gluten free alternatives that you have provided so your celiac child does not miss out.