Explaining Gluten Free Food to People

Video Transcript

"I think the most pain staking thing about having a child that has gluten intolerance is explaining it to not just parents or teachers, but just basically anybody you encounter. I have driven through the bank and they will give a lollipop to my son and you can just see the look of disdain on their face when I'm not letting him have it and he's saying 'Lollipop! Lollipop!' because I'm not certain if there's gluten in it or not. Some of them have it and some of them don't and you can just tell they're looking at me like I'm a monster because I won't let my child have a lollipop. I have had him in a school that was more of like a daycare and they also did not take the diet seriously and were just giving him things and saying 'oh does this have it in there?', 'does that have it in there?' like it was an experiment and I would have to pay, as well as him, for the entire weekend after he would come into contact with the gluten. So what I've decided to do, and it's not really informing the people, but it's getting the end result which is the health of your child, is using the big A word which is allergic, and you say "my son is allergic to wheat do not give him any." If you try to explain gluten intolerance they don't take it as seriously so you must use the word allergic. Also, when packing your child's lunch which is what I do, I don't rely on what they serve at the school, at the preschool, I strictly tell the teachers on the first day "do not give him anything, do not put anything in his mouth, unless it comes from me." That's a good rule of thumb because if you tell them "well, he can have this fruit snack" and one out of a hundred has gluten, they're going to have that one out of a hundred and unfortunately that's just the way the odds go. It makes it easier on the teacher, less stressful on the teacher, less stressful on my son and myself if I just say "if it doesn't come from me he can't have it" so that would be my two best suggestions for that."