Great Camp Experience

[acousticmom]

Last month, my 13-year old son went to church camp (Lake Ann Camp, northern Michigan), and I spent tons of time beforehand communicating with the camp chef about the menus, providing him the info he'd need, figuring out what we had to bring for my son to eat similar foods to the rest of the kids, and then pre-cooking and packaging it all. It was a lot of preparation. When we got there to drop off the food, the chef told us he had assigned a "personal cook" for my son, so one person who understood celiac and cross-contamination issues and would handle all his food for him all week. We were thrilled!

He still got a couple of stomach aches (fortunately they're "only" bad for 2-3 hours), but that was probably from ordering slushies from the snack shack (bigger cc risk there). We were camping nearby so we could come see him if he wasn't feeling well (how I wish I could do more than give moral support!). But all in all, he had a great week, and the kitchen staff was superb.

We face so many challenges, I don't want to forget to post the good stuff when it happens!

Carol

[momothree]

That's great! It's so good to hear that things can work out positively. We sent our two kids to camp this summer too (both with celiac) and I, too, did a lot of communicating with staff personnel in regard to the diet etc. It appeared that they understood fully and I sent a covering letter addressing the specific needs as well. I thought that I did all I could, but things weren't so positive for us. They ended up having a good time at the camp (thankfully), but food was definitely an issue, and we didn't find out until we dropped them off (2 hours away) that the camp cook didn't make the accomodations that she indicated she would. I had a very rough week while they were gone picturing them feeling massively deprived, and it took away from the excitement of them experiencing the whole camp thing. Next year I will do things differently. I'm not really sure how, but I guess I will send considerably more food, just in case. Thank goodness kids are resilient.