Need Gluten/nut Free Snack Ideas

[Roda]

Need some help here from all of the veteran's on this one. Here is our class approved snack list as of right now (it was changed today due to my son's gluten free status):

apples, bananas, grapes, string cheese, Yoplait gogurt/trix yogurt, mott's appleauce cups, fruit/fruit cocktail cups, Betty Crocker fruit roll ups/snacks, carrot sticks, ocean spray craisins, rice/corn chex, and gluten free rice cakes. I'm trying to come up with a few other options that are gluten/nut free that won't break the bank for the other parents. I doubt anyone would buy lundberg rice cakes so Quaker plain/lightly salted(large ones) is what I would suggest(only ones labled gluten free) but on the bag it has a warning about may contain peanuts. Ugg! Or should I just go with what they got? I got the revised list today and they have listed as an approve snack "gluten free chex mix cereal- rice, wheat or corn." I appreciate the time and effort that went into this but I have to let them know that wheat chex is a definate no no.

[bbuster]

maybe popcorn or chips (plain Fritos, plain potato chips, several other choices)

[Rowena]

Hmmmm, what I was gonna say is already on the list. My coworker and I have a strange obsession with carrots. I'm pretty sure my two bags of carrots we buy every two weeks are gone by the first week. And the ocean spray craisins are definite hit with me... but I'm not a kid, so who knows if kindergarteners would like that. I personally would go more on the healthy side of things and say fruit and veggies. But that's me, I've become a health fanatic lately. But like the person above me mentioned, chips and popcorn are a good alternative. But with chips you'd have to be really specific because a lot of them do contain wheat, obvious or hidden. I know Mission tortilla chips are safe.

Another option is to just have your child bring his/her own snack. But that would be hard to manage. The teacher may have a hard time help your little boy/girl eat only his/her snack. Like any normal child, he/she would want what the other kids have. I worked in a nursery for a few sundays at church, and we had one child who had special dietary concerns and couldn't have goldfish. But it was next to impossible to convince him to only eat the animal crackers. (Not sure how we pulled it off every sunday.) But doing this way would provide your child with more options. Or maybe there could be a snack that is stored in you child's classroom for questionable days or whatever.

[Roda]

Hmmmm, what I was gonna say is already on the list. My coworker and I have a strange obsession with carrots. I'm pretty sure my two bags of carrots we buy every two weeks are gone by the first week. And the ocean spray craisins are definite hit with me... but I'm not a kid, so who knows if kindergarteners would like that. I personally would go more on the healthy side of things and say fruit and veggies. But that's me, I've become a health fanatic lately. But like the person above me mentioned, chips and popcorn are a good alternative. But with chips you'd have to be really specific because a lot of them do contain wheat, obvious or hidden. I know Mission tortilla chips are safe.

Another option is to just have your child bring his/her own snack. But that would be hard to manage. The teacher may have a hard time help your little boy/girl eat only his/her snack. Like any normal child, he/she would want what the other kids have. I worked in a nursery for a few sundays at church, and we had one child who had special dietary concerns and couldn't have goldfish. But it was next to impossible to convince him to only eat the animal crackers. (Not sure how we pulled it off every sunday.) But doing this way would provide your child with more options. Or maybe there could be a snack that is stored in you child's classroom for questionable days or whatever.

Yes, I like the healthy snacks too. Most of the new approved snacks came from my ideas and things that were in my son's own snack box at school. There are kids in his class that have peanut/nut allergies so I had to make sure all of the snacks I sent for my son were nut free also, but the rest of the class's snacks were not gluten free. I think the teacher finaly realized how hard it was to manage 19 other kids eating gluten and only 1 not and keeping him safe from cc. The extra steps required were taking too much time away from instruction time. Actually I'm glad they did this. I guess I was feeling a little guilty for the other parents (not the kids) for having to go the extra mile to provide a safe snack for the class (we have snack for 1 day every month appx.). I guess I shouldn't feel guilty, but I am concerned that they may send something in and try to feed him something that may not be safe (ie the rice cakes that do not state gluten free--worry about cc). I did some research and sent in some papers today to see if a few products I found would be acceptable for the nut allergy crowd.

[Takala]

Peanut allergies ? ruh - ro !

I would stick with the Lundbergs for the rice cakes.

They go on sale sometimes. Works out to about 25

[Roda]

Peanut allergies ? ruh - ro !

You can make the rice cakes taste like cinnamon toast with a sugar and cinnamon mix sprinkled on it, but I'm trying to figure out what you could use for butter or margarine. That could get messy. But if it were your turn you can pre season the plain cakes, bake them in the oven, and then repack them. You can also crumble them up and make rice crispie type treats out of them, using a gluten free or homemade marshmellow mixture.

Yeah, the peanut allergy really limits what I can send in for my son, but it is just as important for those to be safe as my son. Making cinnamon toast out of the rice cakes is a great idea that I will definately try at home at least. I never thought to crumble them up to make rice crispy treats out of, I wonder how they would taste? I was wanting to make rice crispy treats for their valentine party, but obviously I can't use Kellogs and all the gluten free ones have a nut/peanut warning on them. I did find some nut free/gluten free ones from Kinnikinnick but I would have to order them and don't know if I will get them in time. At the very least you gave me some great ideas for home. I have found having a child gluten free to be more challenging than for myself. He wants things that I don't care to have or can't eat so I'm checking on things I never had to before. I'ts worth it though because he has adjusted pretty well so far. We went to Babycakes in Downtown Disney last week and bought him some gluten free donuts and cookies. It was so worth it to see the excitement on his face to be able to walk up somewhere, order something and eat and enjoy it without having to tell him no we can't have that!