When I found out my daughter Megan was coeliac, I couldn’t envisage how nursery would cope. She was only two and it was hard enough for me to keep tabs on everything she was eating.
Luckily, I had already compiled lots of gluten-free and cross-contamination information for the Safer Eating website, so I passed that on to them. They were in shock about the levels you had to go to – how careful you had to be with toasters, watching out for hidden ingredients and even playing with Play-Doh, which has wheat in it.
Of course I worried about not being around to monitor things. I worried they would accidentally make her ill. And I worried she would feel isolated and left out at meal and snack times.
I didn’t imagine Megan would cope very well, especially when sausages are her most favourite thing in the whole world.
Can you imagine a toddler sitting there waiting patiently (ahem) for their lunch and watching all the other children getting their lovely toad in the hole… and then receiving their boiled potatoes and plain fish? I know how depressing it is for me, as a grown-up coeliac, when my options are limited and everyone else is tucking in to amazing food.
So I decided from the off that I would take some food into nursery. We are lucky as they make meals fresh on site so with a bit of forward-planning, I can bring in gluten-free products and Megan can eat the same as everyone else. So I’ll turn up with pizza bases, crumpets, gravy granules (shout out to Kallo for making this easy for us), Yorkshire puddings and the like. Quite often it is the other children that get food envy when Megan’s ‘special’ versions are served up.
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Things didn’t get off to a perfect start and I was greeted with a: “Erm, sorry we’ve got a little confession. Megan had normal bread at breakfast.”
But I was expecting teething problems. Since then, she has occasionally had a poorly tummy, which may have been due to cross-contamination. But it is hard to pin-point exactly where it happened.
The other day, they baked a batch of gingerbread men at nursery and made them all gluten free. (I was delighted – but admit I felt a bit like the gluten police, checking the list of ingredients with them.)
She brought some home and wolfed down two the following day without us realising – and was bouncing off the walls for several hours. Better than sat on the toilet, though!
Megan has become an expert hand-washer so if they are playing with flour, Play-Doh or baking, she knows to wash her hands carefully afterwards.
I think the only time she gets upset is if another parent has brought in birthday cake, sweets or chocolate and she gets offered them and can’t have them. We just give her something at home, if this happens. But she is normally fine if she gets enough warning. On Pancake Day, I said: “If everyone has pancakes at nursery, then don’t worry, we will make some ‘special’ ones at home.”
When my husband arrived to pick her up, she was eating a dry gluten-free pitta bread but still had a smile on her face. And an even bigger one when she filled her gluten-free pancakes at home with bananas, squirty cream, maple syrup, lemon and sugar!