If you have a Coeliac child

[PalmTreesAndWarmSeas]

How do you handle eating out? We are having to stay away from home next weekend and I'm panicking about my DD. She is 5 and we have known she is coeliac since she was tiny. I worried much less before covid as we never had a problem, but it has been so long since we last ate in a restaurant and it is now giving me huge anxiety as she got glutened at school recently and was very, very ill. I can't stand the thought of it happening to her away from home.

Friedmans great in nyc

No. My coeliac son vomits when he is glutened. It's not that unusual, is it?

With holidays we only go self catering and then we can seek out a safe place for coeliacs to eat as a bonus for the holiday rather than depending on it.

Vomiting is Gluten poisoning to a coeliac, not food poisoning.

Chains, chains and chains are your friend, they have to be so strict.

Thanks again all. Yes, DD's reaction is quite extreme and tends to happen the next day or later the same day. She will go into what is almost a trance and vomit repeated for a few hours. She will then recover but be hyperactive for the rest of the day. It has happened 3 times since she stopped eating gluten so I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

We are self catering in New York but I don't know how good the cooking facilities are. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Oat cakes and cheese strings can solve most food problems - they're filling, last well and can be easily packed into a bag and whipped out in case of emergencies.

I'm encouraged to hear about NYC. France was very difficult.

Cheese strings! I'll pack some. I was even wondering about taking some sort of sandwich toaster so we can make toasties in the hotel room if all else fails.

Sandwich toaster wouldn't be the right voltage.

I've found coastal USA to be fairly straightforward, I think New York will be easier than Skegness.

Sorry - meant the toaster for Skegness. We should have cooking facilities in NY.

That's good to know about coastal US. I would love to go to California once the pandemic is over.

DD found France tricky.

Italy bizarrely is meant to be very good and I think Spain as well. We found Mexico OK.

It isn't helped by her being vegi as well!

I'm quite excited about GF donuts. She has only had homemade cake donuts

The vast majority of restaurants have gluten free options these days but they are rarely on the kids menu, but call in advance if possible if she's a fussy eater because depending on the type of restaurant there's often only a couple of options. The only thing I have had to prebook though was afternoon tea (as it's so gluten based!) and they did a brilliant job

@PalmTreesAndWarmSeas

Thank you all.

Can I also ask - if you are coeliac, do you take emergency food supplies? We really struggled in France a couple of years ago and were very glad we took GF bread with us. My poor DD is getting very anxious about eating, she won't eat at school at all.

I generally take bags of apples everywhere I go and if we are driving to a holiday or something like that I take a cool box of cheese, boiled eggs, crudités, fruit, as back up. I have to eat regularly because of other medications, so I’ve learnt to be careful. I don’t really do the gluten-free baked goods thing, but a child would need more carbs anyway, so why not?

Italy is a much better country to be a coeliac in than France, funnily enough. If you google “Italy coeliac policies” or similar you’ll find details of how and why. So consider Italy in the post-Covid world.

I'm
Personally not gf (close friends child is) but I notice last time I was stateside that restaurants had clearly marked gf options but like in the U.K. not necessarily on the kids menu. It will be worth messaging restaurants ahead of your trip because customer service in the USA is usually good and for a child I'm sure places will want to help. My friend is gf and vegetarian, causes a lot of problems but never goes hungry!

FB groups are really good. Have you heard of Becky Excell? She runs a blog (gluten free cuppa tea), has recently had a fantastic book published (How to make anything gluten free) and also runs a very busy FB group under her name. There are lots of posters on there who give ideas for places to eat out all over the country, well worth joining and having a search.

As someone else said, the lounge chain is fantastic for coeliacs, they do all they can including having a separate kitchen area for their gluten free menu. I recently spoke to their head of food, as their allergen matrix isn't clear and makes it look as if quite a lot of their food is a may contain, when it actually isn't. They are looking to change it to make it clearer following a lot of concerned feedback (including from me!) but basically they put that because it is food from suppliers that simply have other gluten containing items on their premises. However, there are strict protocols and certification in place, so may contain is the wrong warning to be on there, and they are changing it.

I would always have some food for emergency snacks, we're just planning a 10 day driving holiday round Scotland and will be doing exactly that (I'm also a vegetarian so that makes it even more difficult, as lots of naturally gluten free meals on menus tend to be meat or fish).

I just take loads of snacks and things for packed lunches. Research places for dinner in advance.

DD has horrific pain and bowel issues when she’s glutened, but also she is very very emotional for a long time after.

Chains are often better but also we find ordering dishes that wouldn’t naturally have gluten in i.e. rice or baked potato normally a better option too.

Remember if you fly you can normally get free extra baggage allowance if you ring the airline up. Great for taking food abroad if you're not sure what the set up is. And then bringing back Bath and Bodyworks candles!

Be careful taking any food to USA Europe anywhere

Yes, I love the gluten free cuppa tea site! I didn't know there was a Facebook group though, I'll have to join that one too. The Coeliacs eat out too one is great, one search for Skegness and I have plenty of suggestions. Now I just need to reassure DD that the food we are served is safe as she has huge trust issues. I don't want her to go hungry all weekend.

When we went to France we took GF bread and tins of tuna. It got a bit boring though. I'd love to hear packed lunch ideas when there is no fridge.

Yeah I think meat and possibly fruit/veg would not be ok. But sealed snacks, long life bread I think is ok.

@CovidCorvid

Remember if you fly you can normally get free extra baggage allowance if you ring the airline up. Great for taking food abroad if you're not sure what the set up is. And then bringing back Bath and Bodyworks candles!

I love this idea

Oat cakes?

the gf oat cakes obviously. You could maybe store cheese in a cooler box?

We had a bit of a nightmare on the way to mexico ...I rang twice and checked the baggage allowance and they said it was sorted. Turned up and they tried to charge me loads for excess baggage. I'd nothing in writing but luckily they let me off.

We also got free seat allocation. I refused to pay for the early allocation and thought we'd just get 2 together on freebie day. Even though there were loads of seats together they put us different sides of the plane. I expect that from Ryanair but not with Tui on a trans atlantic flight

So rang them up and pulled out the coeliac card and saved £80 which was the charge to move one seat! Tui also can't provide a vegetarian gf meal. So we ordered one gf and one vegi and hoped to be able to do something....but the vegi one was pasta and the gf one was chicken! Thank god for snacks!