Well here's my attempt at a blog!!
As somebody in his last, of what will be 14 years, in primary and secondary education, I unfortunately know all too well how difficult and troublesome lunch time is during a school day.
Just to give you a bit of background on myself; I am in the last year of post 16 studies at secondary school, diagnosed with Coeliac disease in 2003 at the age of 11. It didn't really come as much of a shock to me, i'd never been keen on the majority of foods containing gluten and wheat, perhaps I subconsciously linked eating those particular foods with feeling ill, i'll probably never know! I was lucky enough to have a GP who was aware of Coeliac Disease, there was never really any dilly-dallying about with her, she sent me for the blood tests, I went for the biopsy, I was diagnosed, that was that. I don't like to waffle on about myself too much but i'd just like to share what a struggle for me having Coeliac disease was both pre and post diagnosis, and why more awareness in school is definitely needed.
I was always seen as a bit of a tricky customer when it came to eating, my family always wondered why I didn't eat things like bread out of choice. I think my earliest memory of eating while at primary school was sitting around a table and being laughed at for eating my sandwich so slowly (why would I have a sandwich if i didn't like bread? well I don't remember exactly but I obviously didn't like what else was on offer!), when asked why it took me so long to eat something as common as a sandwich, I didn't have an answer.
That was 2003 though? allergies and intolerances were and still are very common right? Well yeah they are, but as Coeliacs well know, the awareness of these are well under 'par'. The school holds details of each pupil including things like allergies, in my primary school there was a wall in the medical room, that had a picture of the students face, along with information such as what allergy they had. The head dinner lady would know this wall off by heart, anything they served up for lunch that contained anything someone was allergic to they were obviously not allowed it. I went through 6 of the 7 years in primary school unaware that I was a Coeliac, and when I was first told to avoid gluten, I vividly remember a little me saying to the dinner lady 'I cant eat that miss', and with them thinking I was just being picky, I was told that because I wasn't on the 'wall', that I have no choice!
Anyway, when I was diagnosed, as an 11 year old all that mattered to me was that I couldn't eat the same food as my friends! The last thing a kid wants is to be different from their friends! and I bet any Coeliac reading this no matter what age, has at some point felt as an outsider when it has come to sitting down and eating with other people. Believe it or not eating is a very social event, school dinners typifies this, you are sitting down at a table with hundreds of other people.
Secondary school is not really any different for me to be honest, you might get a bit more of a choice, maybe you get lucky one day and what the dinner ladies are serving up just happens to be gluten free, but as you know, you can never be 100% sure something is gluten free, whether it be cross contamination, or a 'sneaky' ingredient you have to be so careful. I remember refusing to take my gluten free sandwiches in because the bread looked ridiculous, and tasted just as bad. Taking in my sandwiches used to embarrass me, It drew attention to the fact it was 'different' to normal bread, I hated that and went lots of days without eating lunch. So what choice did I have in terms of school dinners? A jacket potato, I like jacket potato's, but I don't like eating jacket potato's 5 times a week, for the school year.
The point I am trying to make is that awareness for Coeliac disease is very low in general, but from my 14 years of experience in school, there seems to be a particular level of naivety of what can be a very serious condition. As you probably know there has recently been a campaign to improve school dinner meals, lead by Jamie Oliver. All food in school has to meet strict nutritional criteria set my the government. If schools are able to do this then they should definitely be able to provide a good choice of meals that are conspicuously gluten free!
Hope you found my first blog interesting and wouldn't mind hearing how you or you child gets on with lunch at school, and i'll answer any questions you might have! thank you!
Diagnosed Coeliac & Confused
School refusing to provide 5 year old gluten free meal.
The difference between Coeliac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity
Connection between coeliac and gallstones?
