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A Gluten Free Christmas: Making it Easy to Stay Away From Home With Your Celiac Child

Going away from home at Christmas can be stressful enough at the best of time, but when you have a celiac child who needs a completely gluten free diet at christmas, the complexity levels sky rocket!

The main aim is to somehow work out the Christmas celebrations so that your celiac child does not feel too ‘different’, but also so that your hosts do not take on loads of extra stress in catering for the gluten free diet at Christmas. You have probably got your kitchen pretty much gluten free by now, or at least know which areas are gluten free and which are not (and so does your child) But in someone else’s kitchen - no matter how supportive they are, it isn’t so easy, and you have an interesting balancing act of respcting their space and kitchen and ways of doing thing… and protecting your child’s health.

The main key is communication. It is worth having a long conversation with your host/hostess a few weeks or a month before you are due to go. I tend to send some stuff by e-mail for them to look at and think about because too often friends are very nice on the phone and tell me not to worry, but when we get there it is apparent that they haven’t a clue what a gluten free diet really means.

He/she really needs to understand what the diet entails, while at the same time not feeling overwhelmed by it and wondering if she will have anything left to cook!

Suggest specific things, like the sort of breakfast cereal your child eats (as long as it is not an expensive specialist one) and having in rice cakes and everyday foods which are naturally gluten free.

Find out the menu and itinery for your visit well in advance and spot any potential problem areas:-

Will the turkey stuffing (which usually contains gluten) be inside the turkey? Does it have to be? Is there a gluten free alternative you could offer to make?
It is easy enough to use cornflour as a gravy thickener - would your hostess be happy to do that?
Can you take an alternative gluten free Christmas pudding/cake for your child?
Will you be going out anywhere else while you are staying away that you need to ring ahead to?

Obviously you will want to take some of your own gluten free supplies; cakes, cookies (make enough to share so your child isn’t always having something different to everyone else) so you always have something on hand, should you need it. I often buy a small tub of margarine and a pot of chocolate spread soon after we get there specifically for my son to use, so it won’t be contaminated by knives that are covered in crumbs.

If you have space in your luggage (I realise that is extremely unlikely but…) you could also take your own gluten free cooking utensils, bread board and so on. I try to take a spare bag of gluten free flour and baking powder and my own cake tins so if we are running short of gluten free goodies, I can throw together a cake. I can’t imagine anything worse than everyone else tucking in to Christmas goodies while my celiac child has nothing special to eat!

With a bit of careful planning ahead, however, that should never happen. If you are going away or Christmas with your celiac child, ring your hosts today! Have the gluten free Christmas conversation and then go and enjoy the holidays!

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