How Do I Tell My Son's Wonderful Childcare Provider That She May Not Be Doing Enough?

[JennyC]

I'm not sure what to think. My son has been gluten free for over 2.5 months. Initially his diarrhea was gone along with all of his other celiac symptoms. For the last couple of weeks he has been having diarrhea on and off, been cranky, and yesterday he developed a mouth sore. I am over the top careful at home. I suspect that the yogurt that I have been giving him (with a Lactaid pill) may be giving him trouble. It's Yoplait yogurt with no gluten in the ingredients. Maybe it is too much lactose for him to handle. He has no other common food allergies. I will stop giving it to him, but it just does not seem to always be consistent with his symptoms.

The other issue may be at daycare. My son's childcare provider is fantastic! She goes out of her way for him by preparing food for him on her weekend, changing the frequency of some menu items for all the kids, and putting up with my bombarding her with gluten free foods, lists, toasters, baking sheets and so on. I do worry about her cross contaminating him. She says understands the concept and is careful, but when she is constantly cooking with gluten in her kitchen it seems likely that mishaps are certain to happen. She has 10 kids! I'm not sure if she washes his dishes with gluten dishes and I'm starting to wonder.

Does anyone have any advice on how to ask her these kinds of questions and give her more information on cross contamination in the nicest, most appreciative way possible? It is so hard because she is great and she tries so hard for him. I don't want to come off wrong, but this is really important.

Thanks!

[Nantzie]

Wow. She sounds wonderful. What a sweetheart to do all that. I can see how you don't want her to be offended or hurt.

Approach it like a team effort. Tell her that you think he might be getting glutened somehow, or may be reacting to some other food. Ask for her help. You might want to have her watch for reactions for something you might think YOU might be messing up on. (Doesn't mean you have to do anything, but it gets her in detective mode.)

You could always do paper plates for a while to see if that helps. My personal theory is that the landfills are much better off because I don't eat fast food all the time. It can handle the trade-off of some paper plates for a while. We're back to plastic now for the kids, but switching to paper for a while really helped to not have to worry about it at first.

Nancy

[Kibbie]

I'm not sure what to think. My son has been gluten free for over 2.5 months. Initially his diarrhea was gone along with all of his other celiac symptoms. For the last couple of weeks he has been having diarrhea on and off, been cranky, and yesterday he developed a mouth sore. I am over the top careful at home. I suspect that the yogurt that I have been giving him (with a Lactaid pill) may be giving him trouble. It's Yoplait yogurt with no gluten in the ingredients. Maybe it is too much lactose for him to handle. He has no other common food allergies. I will stop giving it to him, but it just does not seem to always be consistent with his symptoms.

The other issue may be at daycare. My son's childcare provider is fantastic! She goes out of her way for him by preparing food for him on her weekend, changing the frequency of some menu items for all the kids, and putting up with my bombarding her with gluten free foods, lists, toasters, baking sheets and so on. I do worry about her cross contaminating him. She says understands the concept and is careful, but when she is constantly cooking with gluten in her kitchen it seems likely that mishaps are certain to happen. She has 10 kids! I'm not sure if she washes his dishes with gluten dishes and I'm starting to wonder.

Does anyone have any advice on how to ask her these kinds of questions and give her more information on cross contamination in the nicest, most appreciative way possible? It is so hard because she is great and she tries so hard for him. I don't want to come off wrong, but this is really important.

Thanks!

Wow thats a tough one I do in home daycare and am the watchdog during the day becuase the other kids at my house eat gluten products (I make their parents bring main meals and I provide snacks)

1. My mail reason for providing snacks is because kids like to walk around with snacks in their hands, so only gluten free snacks at my house! (this may be where you are seeing some issues with crumbs on toys or kids sharing foods when she or others didn't see!)

2. All my kids eat at the table and have assigned spots and place mats! The rule is no one gets down from the table until finished with lunch. Then I clear their food away, wash each child (with a different wash cloth) and their surrounding area. I always do my daughter last so that she doesn't pick up any crumbs. Then I vacuum the floor!

I'm guessing that one of these two things are not happening and it is not a "kitchen mishap" issue. I'd check the snack thing out first! If it still is an issue I would just let her know that he is still showing symptoms and shouldn't be and that you will be providing his meals for the next week to see if there may be a cross contamination issue that both of you may have overlooked.

If the symptoms go away, you can just tell her at the end of the week that there must be something at her house that you have both overlooked and then try and figure it out together (this way you can remind her about cross contamination) and decide what is the best way to handle this.

Hope this helps!

[Nic]

I was wondering about the crumb issue as well. It is very easy to make mistakes if the house isn't gluten free and the person who needs the diet is only in the house part of the day. I agree with making it a team issue. My youngest son was gross motor developmentally delayed and I was wondering if my sitter was giving him enough floor time where he could work his muscles. I told her that the physical therapist wanted "us" to make sure he got x amount of time on the floor each day. She was very receptive (she too was a wonderful sitter) and I never had to tell her I thought she may have been part of the problem.

Nicole

[Esther Sparhawk]

When my Annie first started on her gluten-free diet, she was already enrolled in a wonderful preschool, but it was I who made lots of mistakes in not realizing how many contaminates already existed in her preschool classroom. Now I provide my preschool teacher with the following (for my own daughter, not the whole class):

Colorations gluten-free playdough

Elmer's glue

Crayola crayons

Coppertone sunscreen

Burt's Bees lip balm

Cookies/crackers/treats for my daughter only

a daily sack lunch

gluten-free finger paints and watercolor paints

I don't allow my daughter to use the hand soap at our preschool; she just washes with water.

Also, in case I forget to pack a lunch and am running late for work, my daycare provider always has a box of Annie's gluten-free macaroni and cheese to make for my daughter, in emergency situations.

Furthermore, for when our preschool has birthday parties or fun days, I gave my preschool teacher a list of gluten-free candies, so she can plan ahead.

There are still going to be mistakes made. My preschool teacher cross-contaminated one of our Colorations gluten-free playdough packages by allowing Annie to use the rolling pin which is normally used with gluten-containing Playdough, for example. We live in a gluten-containing world, and to send a child to preschool ensures that gluten will sometimes get into their system. But by providing the preschool teacher with LOTS of gluten-free stuff, you can cut back the contamination issue by quite a bit. The last time Annie got glutened was clear back at Christmas, so I think my approach is working for the most part.

Good luck and keep plugging away at your job as parent!

Mechelle

[JennyC]

Thank you for all of the replies. They do not use play dough, but I will bring up the art supplies and cross contamination issues in a team-like manner. I have been providing gluten free food so that he can eat similar things to the other kids rather than premade lunches. Maybe I will discuss that possibility with her.

Thanks again