kids

[nichole]

One of my twin daughters was diagnosed 6 years ago as a coeliac, at first it felt as though there was nothing out there for her, speed reading ingredients is something we are all now very good at.

Don't be afraid of asking in restaurants and some of them, like the Harvester you can download their menus which state what is gluten free or not.as far as children are concerned there can never be enough cake and the glutafin cake mix is one of the better ones. I now do all of the novelty cakes birthdays Christmas and christening etc for all my friends and family. Lets just say the coeliacs near me always end up with more than the others!!!!!

[FionaGFG Administrator]

A great inspiring post nichole. Thanks for sharing. Love the cake picture!

[Elspeth]

Thats really good to hear as I always have had a problem with things like birthday cakes. My children want to share their birthday cake with me and i cant have it and they feel bad so I eat it anyway! At least thats what I used to do! I have used the ds cake mix and made a birthday cake for my youngest who turned 13 on 11th December and no one realised it was gf till I told them and one friend wanted more! Gf food is improving thankfully but knowing that the glutafin cake mix is good too is a bonus! thanks!

Now how do we get the schools to use gf ingredients in the home economics cooking? My 2 daughters bring home stuff for me to try and are really disappointed ( as am I) that I now wont eat it!

[nichole in reply to Elspeth]

my 12 year old will only use gf ingredients in her home ec classes she has gained extra marks by explaining why xanthian gum needs to be added and extra liquid sometimes, I have to work very closely with schools at first in primary level and supplied flour and mixes etc, once they were used to it they do not find it a challenge they even found it fun!

[Elspeth in reply to nichole]

Thats great the school will do that! My girls dont have CD so they wouldnt do it for them! Do you ever have cross contamination issues? i.e. your daughters work surface being next to someones who is using wheat flour and spreads some?

Also can i ask you... when you are making pasta for the family do you use gf pasta for everyone or make your daughters separate? I wonder this on the grounds that CD does run in families so everyone in the family could be predisposed to it?

[nichole in reply to Elspeth]

alt school she works separately or her partner uses her ingredients so there are no issues there. my other 3 daughters have all been tested and thankfully they are not coeliacs i am the only one who has issues as well.

Mostly I will cook all the same and we all have gf, its quicker and better for them all

[FionaGFG Administrator in reply to Elspeth]

Hi Elspeth - here's a top tip. My sister also has CD and when her daughter does home economics at school she made it very clear that a) she'd be cooking gluten free to avoid cross contamination back at home b) so that she could eat the food her daughter had cooked in class and enjoy her hard work together

I'd suggest you mention this to your kids school. Just because they aren't Coeliac doesn't mean they can't cook GF. It would also help raise awareness in school. Wouldn't they also like to know their mum could try what they'd cooked?

When we do a load of pasta at home we do 2 lots. One for the 'normals' and one for moi GF. That's largely as the GF pasta costs so much tho. Yet if there's just two of us eating then we'll do GF pasta - simple & easy and less worry about cross contamination / utensils/ timings/ draining etc.

[Elspeth in reply to FionaGFG]

Thanks Fiona! I will go to the school and see what they are willing to do for me! Does your sister supply the ingredients for her daughter to use?

I get my pasta on prescription and when we have it I have generally just used gf pasta for all of us! I do this cos I figured that my kids are pretty likely to end up with CD too so the less wheat their bodies have to deal with the better!

I will let you know how I get on!

[nichole in reply to FionaGFG]

that is what my eldest did she is not gf and she cooks and brings back to her sister. I have managed to get quite a lot of pasta on my daughters prescription