To be annoyed with teacher giving my child food gifts that they can't eat

[mrsfoof]

DC has a gluten intolerance. To clarify, it's 'just' an intolerance not coeliac disease, but if they eat even a little bit of it, they get bad stomach cramps and diarrhoea. DC is 10 and the school are aware of their dietary requirements and are great at providing GF school meals and always remember to provide GF ingredients when the DC does cooking in class etc.
Anyway, at Easter, all children were given an Easter egg by the teacher. All the class had the same type of egg but it contained gluten so DC couldn't eat theirs.
The same happened today - DCs were given various toys and sweets in a goody bag as an end of term gift, some of which contained gluten.
Now the gluten sweets aren't especially obviously 'gluten-y' (Smarties, Mars bars etc) so I expect it never crossed the teacher's mind to link them with the fact that they contain gluten. However, I'm a bit cross that the school are handing out foods with allergens in them to kids that can't eat them. DC knows that they are ones that they can't eat and was very gracious in just saying thank you to the teacher and giving them to their siblings to eat instead. They were a bit disappointed of course but it's not a big deal to them.
On the other hand wonder if I should mention it - what if DC was younger and ate them without checking? Should they have more robust procedures to ensure that allergens aren't given to kids who shouldn't be eating them?
And yes, I'm aware that it's highly likely that the teacher bought these with their own money and it would seem very ungrateful to 'complain'. Any letter I send would be about awareness, not complaining as such.
Or should I just keep quiet?

Why don't you just have a selection of gluten free treats that you can swap over and let the siblings have the wrong ones. No big deal.

He knows not to eat them, he's not going to die.

It's a bit much to insist that the free treat bought from the teachers own pocket is to your specification. Would you prefer they just leave him out completely?

No, I think this isn't on. I'm a teacher and have children in my class with dietary needs so gave non-edible gifts. It's not hard and I think it is worth raising.

Does the teacher know

head and kitchen staff should but might not occur to teacher

i would mention it along the line of thank you for da egg /treat but he can’t eat it due to his intolerance

but yes I would get some spare treats and swap them over

I think it's fine to send an email about awareness of kids allergies. I'm a TA and we try to be particularly careful about less obvious allergens etc (dairy allergy obviously rules out normal chocolate, might not immediately think of Smarties having gluten but we would check ingredients).

If we missed something in the way your DC's teacher did we would be upset and apologetic about having potentially made a child ill but we are human and it would be more supportive and do more for the relationship going forwards if your email was advice about awareness rather than attacking or apportioning blame.

It might be better to wait until just before the new term starts though if the holidays have started - nobody will see your email for a while, it might get forgotten over the summer and the actual classroom staff involved won't be around to actually discuss / have training until September).

I’d say something.

My favourite teacher at school knew that there was one child in the class who couldn’t have certain foods. They asked them if there was a particular sweet or treat that they’d like instead of the chocolates that everyone else was given. They chose an orange. So every Christmas and Easter they got their orange and didn’t feel left out.

As a PP said it would also go down well if you suggested sending in a small supply of gluten free snacks the teacher can give DC on these occasions in future given that ithe teacher bought it themselves and its not an official school food / dinner

Does the teacher know? If she does she should be taking it into account. When I was teaching parents used to bring in bags of Haribo to share when it was a child’s birthday. Some children couldn’t have those so I used to keep an alternative in my storeroom for those occasions. I don’t think it’s too much to ask as long as she knows.

I don't expect the teachers to buy special GF treats. DC isn't bothered so no need for us to swap over (and we didn't know they'd be getting them anyway). There are loads of 'normal' chocolates and sweets that are GF anyway and in the same price bracket, so perhaps a bit of thought would ensure that the whole class could eat the treats given. Or no sweets at all would be fine too. It's just they feel awkward to open the bag and see something they can't eat but have to say thank you for anyway.
It's more about making the school aware to check that the treats are suitable in case they do the same with a younger child that would just eat them without checking (the kids come out of school with the bags half eaten already!).

YABU. How lovely of the teacher to spend their own hard-earned cash on a present for the children in their class. I’m sorry that your DC is intolerant to gluten and well done to your DC for being gracious in receiving a gift they can’t eat. Just give DC something else.

Yes, teacher is aware as they have supplied e.g GF croissants for French day in the classroom.
I think it's more that they didn't realise that Smarties and Mars bars contain gluten because it's not obvious in the same way that you know a biscuit or a bread roll does.

Just politely mention it to the teacher. They probably, as you said, did not realise that they contained gluten or didn't think to check. Of course your dc should not be left out. Just talk to the teacher, kindly.

I wouldn’t have expected chocolate and sweets to contain gluten and as a someone who doesn’t know anyone with a gluten problem, looking at the allergens wouldn’t come naturally to me. I would assume gluten literally meant bread and things like that.

It is more than likely an accident and I would gently point it out though

I think any email sent would be done anonymously and not naming the teacher as I'd hate for the teacher to feel bad about this.

I think you should definitely contact the teacher. Not in a confrontational way, but just to point out the safety implications of giving unchecked food to kids with allergies.
What if the teacher didn’t realise a product contained peanut oil, and handed it out to a very young child with peanut anaphylaxis? There could be a fatality.
It’s certainly worth suggesting that future class treats or gifts should be non edible ones, for safety reasons.

I’d say something just because the next DC may have a severe reaction.
Just keep it light and friendly, ‘it was so nice of you to give the DC the gift but I just thought I’d let you know such and such contains gluten, no problem for my DC but just in case you have any other DC with allergies next year. Enjoy the hols, blah blah blah’.

Peanut oil is a bit different I think. I would look for peanut oil as that could be anywhere but gluten to me is flour based, so I wouldn’t be looking at chocolate for gluten

With a younger child, a teacher ought to be very careful - suppose a child eats something which they shouldn't eat and is ill as a result - a younger child might assume that they will only be given things they can eat. At this age, I would hope that they would at least say "fooflet, I haven't checked the ingredients so get your mum to check if you're not sure". In an ideal world, yes, they'd check first, and give them an alternative (even if it was an extra toy instead of the sweets).

It could be worse - our primary PTCA was going to be selling edibles at break, so one mum enquired about allergens before sending her child with money. Child also double-checked when buying. Answer given in both cases was incorrect, and child ended up going home ill. (Then of course they got one of those lecturing attendance letters, without any acknowledgement that the school might actually have been responsible for some of the absence.)

When complaining to school do beat in mind that this won't be a grift from school. It will be a gift from the teacher themselves and the teacher will have paid for it directly, not from school funds.

Even buying each child a £1 token gift will cost them £30. Their own money.

And yes, whilst it'd be nice that the teacher had selected something specific for your child's dietary needs - it may well have simply stopped their kind when at the shops. Plus as it's an intolerance rather than an allergy or medical condition it won't be a 'red alert' notice so something they'd normally only usually check if handing out food to be consumed within school.

If there were some items they could enjoy in their gift from teacher I'd let it go personally. If it's the whole thing it could be mentioned in passing but not as a big deal.

I can’t imagine a teacher handing out a Snickers bar to a child with a nut allergy. Some allergies / intolerances / coeliac disease don’t get taken seriously, which is very wrong.

I've had a parent give me a stash of appropriate snacks to store in my cupboard, just in case there was a party bag or other treat given out that their coeliac child couldn't eat.

I've also baked gluten-free cakes at Easter to give to my class so the child was included.

I've spent ages searching in the supermarket for suitable treats to buy my class, that were GF, halal, vegan etc. so everyone can enjoy them.

Sometimes life just gets busy. I'm sure the teacher would be mortified if you mentioned it to her. She probably wasn't aware that the treats like Smarties, for example, contain gluten.

Separate this situation from your thoughts that younger children may eat an inappropriate food. That's something to focus on with the school/head/governors; a general school rule about giving food out is a good idea to avoid issues like this. Schools say no nuts quite often, so thinking about how to help children with other allergies and intolerances and food restrictions is a good thing, imo.

But please don't be annoyed at the teacher. There is so much to think about with a class of children and I'm sure this was just an innocent error on her part at the end of the school year, when she just wanted to treat her class. No harm was done.

I don’t think I would go out of my way to make the teacher feel bad about this.

'various toys' and 'sweets.' Does this mean that some things were available for your child. As teachers, we give these gifts out of our own pockets. They add up when you have a class of 35 to think about. Admittedly, I always ensure I only give vegetarian and nut free as I have lots of vegetarian children but gluten free is a bit more difficult. I agree she could have made an effort to give an extra toy instead BUT I don't think you should complain.

I wouldn't hand out any kind of food as a treat. Some children will have allergies, be gluten intolerant, or have religious beliefs that impinge on their choice of food. It's a bit of a minefield. Pens, felt tips or pencils work better. (But in my cynical view, there would be one parent objecting to even this - they might stab themselves, or suck them and poison themselves).

You’re not ungrateful at all. I have two children in my class who are gluten and dairy intolerant and another that doesn’t eat pork, so can’t have gelatine. We have given out biscuits, marsh mallows and things on trips or other special occasions and lessons and chocolate as a gift at Christmas - I wouldn’t ever leave them out, I always got them an alternative. It’s not hard to find. Except before one walking trip where we had biscuits for a half way treat I was rushing around to see if any other teachers had a gluten free treat to hand because I forgot them at home. But I did find something in time. Sounds silly maybe, but to a child this is a big deal!

And maybe this is my point about raising awareness. Gluten is in wheat / rye / barley. In the case of the Smarties, the shell contains wheat. In a Mars bar, there is barley to give that 'malty' taste.
For my DC it didn't really matter because a) they're old and sensible enough to know what's ok and what's not and b) they don't have coeliac disease so at worse would end up poorly with a few hours with tummy cramps and the runs. If another child who had coeliac disease was given these and ate them, they would do themselves some pretty awful damage. Hence why I considered contacting the school to make them aware of this issue.