Information "packet" For School

[celiac3270]

Ok... I'm going to a new school next year and the nurse wants me (well, my mom, but my mom and I mutually agreed that I should make it since I easily know the most about Celiac in my family ) to make a sort of info. packet on what can and can't eat, how stuff has to be prepared, etc. He has actually shown some personal interest in this and both he and the vice principal have done a little research on Celiac to find out basically what it is. Now, these are the categories...I'm trying to keep it simple:

1) Basic Foods celiac3270 Can Eat -- they have a couple "retreats" (whatever those are) during the year-- 1-2 day things...away from home, in other words, my fate is in a kitchen of people who don't know about celiac. I'll bring my lunch to school every day, so I don't need to worry about that, but for the former, I'll need to make a list of basic things I can eat: rice (not prepared with chicken broth), meat (except when injected or with spices), potatoes, vegetables, fruits, etc. Sure I know what I can eat, but it's a monumental task to list all the mainstream/basic stuff I can have. This is the primary area where I hope to enlist your help!

2) Cross-contamination and preparation -- I can handle this one, but basically I'll just explain how my stuff has to be prepared--dedicated pans, the like. No gluten can touch it or it's contaminated.

3) Forbidden ingredients -- I'll provide the list from this site.

4) I'll offer to, if this is helpful, provide them with that Delphi mainstream gluten-free food list and/or restaurant chains that accomodate celiacs.

If anybody else has made a similar packet, I would LOVE to see how you wrote it and perhaps model mine off of that. Thank you for your help everyone!

[cdford]

We used the Keep It Simple strategy. I copied a quality restaurant card and used it as a jumping off point. I encouraged them to do a couple of things...generally avoid prepared or processed foods by preparing simple and unadulterated meats, veggies, and fruits. I requested that they keep items such as fresh fruits and gluten-free yogurts (I supplied appropriate brand names) as snacks and quick breakfasts if Jenn noticed a problem with something they served. I provided a few gluten-free specialty items such as pretzels that would keep well and be readily available.

I also asked ahead of time what types of meals would be prepared for things like retreats (this works for both church and school trips) and offered suggestions about creating the meals in such a way that they only had to prepare one set of foods that were naturally gluten-free and feed everyone with it. While that is not possible with stuff like pizzas, it is easy with a "meat and two vegetables" kind of meal. They tended to be open to this when it usually just meant purchasing one brand of frozen veggies or fries over another. Often I just asked which brand they planned to purchase and verified with the mfr that it was gluten-free. Often they were.

We have generally found that if we are positive and helpful, so are those we are working with. There are exceptions to that rule, of course.

You may also want to make a special note on your papers encouraging them to wash their hands carefully between handling of foods...even from stirring one pot to the next. We got caught on this one a couple of times when someone handled a food or spoon then went to the next one without being careful.

Hope this helps.

[celiac3270]

Hi Donna! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I think I'll just take some of the cross-contamination issues I avoid at home (in my 1/2 gluten-free, 1/2 gluten kitchen). For food, though.......do I actually need to make a list of everything I can eat? Or would it make more sense to just give some suggestions for each meal that are mainstream and difficult to screw up on? I think I'll do that. Thank you for sharing your story!

[cdford]

Sorry it took a while to get back on the board. Life got a little hectic. Suggestions would be fine.

I did not really mean everything in my comment, only a "short list" of generally available and easy options. For instance, if they planned to serve chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans for a meal, I would provide a list of acceptable brands or alternatives that could be prepared easily within their plans. If they were going to have hot dogs and hamburgers, I would do the same and offer to provide our own buns and condiments if theirs were not going to be appropriate. You get the picture. I basically just kept in touch and answered a lot of questions regularly. I tried to ensure that compliance was as easy for them is I could make it so they never felt as though I was asking for some unreasonable accomodation.

They can probably tell you how much they need/want to know. Work within their guidelines and they will appreciate the input. Let me know if I can assist further.

[cdford]

One more suggestion...if they have a computer available to them, you might want to consider creating a celiac disease with a couple of food lists and some general information on it. It would be easy to access and provide them with ready information. I provided a similar celiac disease to my gi doc and it is greatly appreciated. If you include links to a couple of sites with general info, they might even get caught up in a little research of their own.

[celiac3270]

Excellent idea about the celiac disease. I already sent it in, but I'll e-mail the word document to you--you don't have to read it unless you want to, but just so you can see what I ended up putting together.

-celiac3270