To insist on sending gluten free flour for DS's food tech lesson

[listsandbudgets]

DS is gluten intolerant. We've just had an email from school asking us to send ingredients for bread and also scones - fair enough not too complicated. However the email goes on to say that it's so they can look at the affect of gluten in cooking

I've emailed back saying that as DS can't have gluten I'll send the closest gluten free equivalents I can find so DS can at least participate and almost immediately got a response saying that it had to be gluten because that was the point of the lesson.

AIBU to insist? It seems very unfair to make him cook something he can not eat. I'm considering emailing back telling them that having a gluten free version will help illustrate the differences and actually enhance the lesson (but I don't want to be THAT MOTHER!!)

YANBU. He can’t eat what he has made, and therefore it’s wasted ingredients.

I would go back and say that you can’t afford to send him with something, ie normal flour, to make something he simply can’t each. That you only use gluten free at home because of his intolerance so if necessary the school will need to provide the ingredients

i dont see why he can’t use GF and uses someone’s else’s as the example to what happens with gluten

OP said gluten intolerance. That’s not the same as coeliac.

I would have just said I can’t send stuff in because we only buy gf flour so that is all we can send , I can’t imagine they expect a whole bag of flour per child .

If the child is Coeliac then no YANBU. Many coeliacs can't even have ANY contact with gluten. They wouldn't for example, expect a child with a nut allergy to be in a classroom where they were experimenting the effects of cooking with peanut butter.

Assuming they are going to eat the baked products, of course he should be allowed to take GF equivalents - especially as you are offering to provide them.

But if this were the case OP would not have said “I’ll send him in with gluten free flour” she’d have said he needed to be excused from that lesson. And, indeed, would probably have told the school straight after diagnosis that he could never be in lessons involving gluten.

I think it’s inflexible of the teacher - a batch made with gf flour being shown when talking about what gluten does in reference to the batch with wheat flour is perfect - it’s a better lesson IMO

Just want to point out that you can't substitute wheat flour with gluten free flour for a standard bread recipe. The method and ingredients are quite different.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons they said no.

Enhance the lesson? That's the qualified teacher's call.

The objective is something specific that is learned and practised within food technology. The goal isn't actually for the kids to have a snack.

I never ate any of the food I made in food tech lessons, don't think my parents ate it either when I brought it home 😄

I think the teachers being a bit pants by not allowing your son to use gf flour. Your son could go and look at other classmates bakes to see the effects of gluten.

And, like you've said the other kids in the class can see what happens when you don't use gluten 🤷‍♀️

I'd just stick some gf flour in a sandwich bag with whatever else you need to add to it to make it rise properly lol

I’ve got coeliac disease and I would never bake with gluten, too dangerous.

What is the point of OP's DS cooking something he can't eat?

He can see the impact of gluten in someone else's dough - in fact, his dough would be a great comparator for the class to look at.

I'm gluten intolerant not celiac and I wouldn't be able to participate in that lesson.
My eyes and lips would swell just from the flour particles in the air.
Hopefully your son can join in if it's not going to be digested

I think you’ve missed the point, why does is it useless for him to understand the effect of gluten, the point of the lesson is not so he has something to eat, it’s to understand gluten.

Not unreasonable at all op. I know someone that is not coeliac and doesn't touch it ever

Agree with your second point, especially if he used an identical recipe.

I'm less in agreement with your first. The purpose of the lesson is not so that he can eat it. He's there to learn something, or a few somethings.

The OP's post doesn't give enough context though. They won't be able to 'see the effect of gluten' by all making bread unless they've first seen how not having gluten present affects the outcome. It's standard practice to wash out the gluten experimentally and bake comparative experiments. Then you'll see the effect.

Too many Food teachers now have not been specifically trained to teach the subject. Another fail on the part of our great leaders.

Sounds reasonable to me that making a non gluten version would be a great comparison. I would ask.

It seems daft to make something he can't eat and he can just pair up with someone and they can compare. They will learn more that way anyway. I can't see how it's not win-win, but then some teachers aren't very flexible (or don't have the time/ resources to be!)

It's standard practice to wash out the gluten experimentally and bake comparative experiments. Then you'll see the effect.

Too many Food teachers now have not been specifically trained to teach the subject.

@Lifeinlists surely if standard practice is as you say, then there is no need for gluten free flour to be brought in and the teacher is correct?

Those asking whether he's been diagnosed are actually hilarious. The majority of people with coeliac disease are never diagnosed. And go on to develop neurological symptoms, rapid tooth decay, rashes and osteoporosis because doctors do not care about common and highly treatable diseases if they van make a lot of money masking your symptoms instead. Just think of all the dentists who would be out of business for a start.

I have a gluten intolerance and no way would I work with non-gf flour. Your DS shouldn't be inhaling airborne flour particles.

The school have a Health & Safety responsibility for kids with allergies & intolerances.

I don’t think that people are saying he should eat the bread unless he has been diagnosed coeliac. I think what they are trying to flush out is the severity of the intolerance and whether the DS can be in a room where gluten is handled at all, and they are equating this level of intolerance with a coeliac diagnosis.

My view is that this is a non-point and he must be OK to be in a room with gluten otherwise OP would have pulled him out of the lesson altogether.

Surely OP knows her son’s medical condition and risk management better than an internet random who has never met him?

Surely him having gluten free would explicitly demonstrate what gluten does???

don’t understand why the teacher wouldn’t just say yes - maybe because they won’t be happy with the outcome? Maybe it’d be flatter?

i wouldn’t be paying for an ingredient that he couldn’t eat!

Tell them the effect of using gluten is cooking is to give your son the shits

So everyone else is paying to cook something they can actually eat, but ops child is paying to cook something that they can’t?

If they are studying the effects of gluten in baking then they need both gluten and non gluten examples.

Unless the week after the whole class is making the same recipe again but with non gluten flour @listsandbudgets? In which case it at least makes scientific sense.