Foods & Nutrition Class

[2Boys4Me]

My son who has celiac is going to be attending junior high in the fall. When we went to the open house for the schools (we went to a late French immersion school and his designated school) we asked about Foods class. Both schools suggested that he put Foods last on his list of option/elective requests. Almost everything requires the use of all-purpose flour, but one school did mention that perhaps he could take grade 9 Foods as it would have more meal planning.

I was just wondering how junior/senior highs in your area deal with Foods & Nutrition class. Do they accomodate celiac and/or food allergies? We live in Alberta, Canada, and I'm interested in whether different regions of Canada or the States have different policies.

I didn't even bother to ask about the cafeterias since the open houses were in the evening and they were closed. He's been packing his lunch daily since grade one anyway, so it's no biggie for him to keep that up.

PS - moderators: please feel free to move this to another sub-forum if needed. I wasn't sure where to put it.

[sb2178]

In the US, you could, via an individualized learning plan, require the school to work around that. Working with wheat flour is a known trigger for celiac disease, which it sounds like he has documented in a medical record. I'd start with his counselor, and meet with the foods teacher, to see if there is an alternative. Would the teacher offer alternative recipes? Can he do an independent study or research alternative recipes for the course and make them at home? Take an extra health class?

There would be a lot of interesting options-- not just about celiac/allergies, but also about other restricted diets like diabetes.

I would emphasize that it is not safe for him to work with flour and it would trigger an autoimmune disorder with potentially devastating consequences. You don't want to stand out as a teenager, but you also don't want to be sick.

[mamaw]

One thing is if he is very sensitive-- you may not want him in the cooking room at all....... kids with flour isn't always a good scene... flour can stay ariborne for hours...

We opted to either bake at home with video & take end product to school or to have an extra gym class or library time ....also we use a different room when cooking is not involved but kitchen class work needs to get done. Like weight & measures...

Just way to much CC in a school cooking room ......for us.

hth mamaw

WOW-- I just made my 2,0000 th post!!!!!!

[Juliebove]

My daughter is in Junior High and there is no such class offered. This year she is in 7th grade. Her gym class does have some days where they do other things. One of which was to cover nutrition. They only worked on it for a week or two at the most. No actual food was involved. Mainly they learned how to eat a balanced diet. And apparently that involves wheat, peanuts and other foods she is allergic to. She was pretty annoyed by that.

They did have to keep a food diary. Luckily because of her allergies, she does eat a pretty healthy diet.

[Juliebove]

One thing is if he is very sensitive-- you may not want him in the cooking room at all....... kids with flour isn't always a good scene... flour can stay ariborne for hours...

We opted to either bake at home with video & take end product to school or to have an extra gym class or library time ....also we use a different room when cooking is not involved but kitchen class work needs to get done. Like weight & measures...

Just way to much CC in a school cooking room ......for us.

hth mamaw

WOW-- I just made my 2,0000 th post!!!!!!

Oh yeah! Not only did I take two cooking classes in Junior High but I was also the assistant for the 7th grade class. Plenty of food went flying around. Eggs were a favorite. The other favorite thing to do was to dump some water on a person and then flour because the flour would stick to them.

[2Boys4Me]

Thanks for the info.

He's not required to take the class; it's separate from Health.

They have a number of options that they can choose beyond the required curriculum. For example, he could take drama, art, dance, visual communication (?), wood shop, foods/fashion (home ec in the olden days), band, or guitar. He'll just put down foods last on the list and mention that he has celiac so that they won't put him in there at all.

[mamaw]

Juliebove

Oh man, you brought back many memories with the water & flour thing!!!!!! It's been many years since I experienced that...And the cookie dough battles. It wasn't always so much fun when cooking class was in early morning. Aprons helped a bit but we always manmaged to cover our hair & clothes..even with the old hair nets we had to wear...thanks for the memories......

I still think life was better in 50's & early 60's.......

blessings

mamaw