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?

I think it's fine to gently mention it. However, just be aware that this may well simply end up with the teachers choosing not to buy any of the kids these treats.

My DC has a student in his class who is gluten free, so I ensure I always buy something separate for her, every time he wants to hand out treats for his class (birthdays, Eid etc).

The class teacher where I work, handed out sweets, a third of the children are Muslim - and the sweets weren’t suitable for them. The teacher made a point saying, “I’m vegetarian but I eat gelatine in sweets. Are you vegetarian by choice or because of religion?” - This was to a class of 9 year olds! And of course they eat halal meat so aren’t really vegetarian but don’t eat non vegetarian sweets (unless they’re specified as being halal).

I didn’t say anything, but I suppose children should learn not to expect gifts from anyone.

OP - I would be annoyed if it happened to my child.

I probably would mention that he’s GF so not to give him anything, rather than give him something which would cause him to get a reaction of any kind.

Thank you for the explanation as to why smarties and mars bar had gluten. I genuinely had no idea.

In my dc school, it’s common for haribo to be given out which I’m assuming is gluten free?

Not ideal for anyone who is vegetarian or diabetic but the classes are so small that I know the teachers themselves would be aware of such a problem in their class room

My allergic DC used to have a "Treats Box," with lots of things I provided that were safe for him. When people brought it treats he couldn't have he could have something from the box.

I still remember the rage I felt though at pre-school when they were all getting an Easter Egg he couldn't eat. They had asked me about it in advance so I had provided an alternative for him . . . which they forgot to give him so he rather forlornly had nothing!

our primary PTCA was going to be selling edibles at break
No edibles to be given out due to the risk of anaphylaxis.

Please don’t use this phrase in real life. ‘Edibles’ as a plural noun means cannabis-based food products, such as hash brownies or gummies, which I would sincerely hope no-one is distributing in the nation’s primary schools.

@Soubriquet Yes, Haribo is gluten-free. When it was DC's birthday, we took in a bag of mini bags of various Haribo sweets. One type (I can't remember which) was gelatine-free so the vegetarians could eat those. They're also dairy free so suit vegans and those with dairy allergies.

I understand where you’re coming from completely - my DS has multiple allergies and some of his teachers have been brilliant, checking if there’s anything alternative he can have, or giving bubbles/stationary instead, but the school as a whole is very hit and miss - they phone to ask me (usually) what he can have when they are doing food tasting in classes, but then despite me checking the labels for them and saying which ones he can have and which he must not be offered, he still comes home and says they just offered everything to everyone, including him.

He doesn’t eat anything at school anyway so it’s not an issue for him, but he is so happy when non-food gifts are given so that he can actually join in.

^ this. I had no idea smarties had gluten and expect teacher didn’t either

Your son handled this graciously: emailing a teacher to complain about a gift they’ve paid for out of their own pocket as a kind gesture to the class is just rude

Anyway I probably wouldn’t say anything, but I would definitely have a chat with the new teacher and make it clear that every single thing they are offered should be checked for x y Z ingredients, because things like chocolate often contain them when you wouldn’t expect it

I'm sure teachers are made aware of allergies, but you said yourself that it's an intolerance so does the teacher even know? I wouldn't say anything to the school, the effect of your email might be that teachers are told not to give any gifts to their class at all.

Poor teacher. No good deed goes unpunished.

Yeah I’d think that since it’s an intolerance rather than allergy the teacher may not actually have been told.

Thank you!! I thought it was just me

That ,unfortunately, is a teacher showing an unacceptable level of ignorance and downright bigotry. I would be suggesting to the HT that the school spends a bit of time on their INSET days reminding teachers of the dietary and cultural norms that people of different religions have.

Yes teacher is aware. It's a medically-diagnosed intolerance (by a consultant) and they've seen a copy of the clinic letter in which DC was told to not eat gluten (as it makes them so ill that they were underweight and malnourished).

Well she won't have that teacher next year so it won't be a problem.

Who'd be a bloody teacher nowadays? Anonymous letters to school! Christ.

Thank you; I think this is a sensible idea. This year we made sure that the teacher knew from day one that DC wasn't to eat gluten but hadn't expected them to be handing out sweets as gifts (it hadn't happened in previous years due to Covid). That caught us unaware and we hadn't made the point about checking ingredients in everything, especially in unlikely sources. Of course when they eat in school usually, the catering staff handle the checking of ingredients.

Not at our school

We have 4 class groups

Red (not real names) is reception and year 1
Blue is year 2 and year 3
Yellow is year 4 and year 5
Purple is year 6.

You have the same teacher for each colour group you’re in

My DC have allergies, teacher knows..at the beginning of term I give them a tin of alternative chocolate button bags and they use those whenever a child brings on sweets or they give out sweets for any reason.

No, but it would be a problem if that teacher hands out sweets to other children with more serious allergies in their new class. Especially as they will be teaching a year 2 class who may not be so clued up on what they can / cannot eat themselves.

No, I think you are completely right and I think a letter to educate is acceptable.

If the teacher is paying for these treats out of their own pocket, they should be mindful that all the children should be treated equally, and that allergens should be taken into consideration.

I think your 10-year old dc sounds extremely well mannered, but has every right to be upset to be honest.

There are very few vegan varieties of Haribo and they are quite difficult to source. As a teacher my go-to is Giant Strawbs because they are gelatine-free and therefore safe for vegetarians and anyone who avoids pork for religious reasons, and widely available. However they contain beeswax so aren’t vegan.

I am gently going to point out the irony given the context of the thread that you’ve assumed that dairy-free = vegan when most Haribo contain beeswax and carmine even if they don’t contain gelatine.

We had this with my DD at primary & I was told it was a safe guarding issue & it was taken very seriously.

My DD had several allergies & intolerances that triggered colitis for her, not life threatening, but very nasty & meant she'd be missing school. She was once given a cheese sandwich by her teacher when they forgot her vegetarian meal. She was lactose intolerant & had a soy allergy. It made her very I'll.

Her classmate had a life threatening allergy to soy, the repercussions for the same mistake with her, could have been death, so it's makes perfect sense that this is actually a big deal

Teacher here. I absolutely would hope that a parent in your situation would drop me a quick email. Like you say - what happens next time? I consider myself pretty clued up on food allergies (multiple friends with them and have been teaching for a lot of years!) but it would never have occurred to me that those things would have gluten in. I think your idea of sending it with the intention of advising rather than complaining is perfect. Like PP have said teachers buy these treats out of their own pocket so sending in a box of appropriate ones would be a good idea. Please do email the teacher.