Nursery Xmas party-coeliac- should I be paying for her food ?

[jussi]

Hello,
I apologise in advance for the pettiness of this post.

My daughter who has coeliac disease has her nursery Xmas party on Wednesday. (It is joined to the primary school which I recently took my ASD DS out of therefore wondering if this is clouding my judgement).

Anyhow, all parents have been told that the nursery will spend some of the money we paid at the beginning of the year to cover food costs.
This morning nursery manager asked me to bring in biscuits/ sweet things for DD. She said as gf food is so expensive they can only buy the bread.(Could have given this fir nothing as get on prescription). Made it obvious I was unhappy but said I would (as obviously don't want DD missing out).

However, I do think that they could find an extra few pounds from their inclusion pot or wherever to buy some gf products.

I know in the grand scheme of things this isn't particularly important but just wondering whether I should just accept I am going to have to pay or whether I should insist the school pays. Gluten free food is very expensive but that goes for us as well as the school!

Maybe I am being really naive, but I don't understand why anybody has to pay a lot of money to ensure your daughter has a range of appealing food to eat at the party.

Whenever I host a party which I know will be attended by people who have food allergies, I serve mainly simple food with a short ingredients list. Fruit, salted crisps, unflavoured popcorn, cheese, plain chocolate, plain pasta, etc. Not only does that ensure that everybody can eat most of the food, it also makes it easy for people to figure out what they can safely eat. No need to buy separate "gluten-free" products or try to prevent other people from snaffling them before the person who really needs them gets a look in. And no need for the person with allergies to be singled out and given something different if they would find this annoying or embarrassing.

I don't think I'd grumble so much about the money as about the fact that it seems the nursery is unwilling to go to any trouble over this. It isn't that hard.

I agree entirely-I always ensure everything is gluten free for any parties we hold- whoever they are for-so do many of my friends seeing as many children have various allergies.
Would love to say to the nursery why can't they make it all safe for everyone but hey ho! I asked what the other children would be having so I could replicate it as close as poss but was just told biscuits!

It's quite usual, IME, that if you have dietary requirements you are expected to provide suitable food.

Dd1 is allergic to wheat, and I always provide the school with alternatives, the same with parties and playdates.

As the parent of a child with a dairy intolerance I always provided party food so I knew exactly what she was eating.

As a SENCO in an early years setting I always provide food suitable for any child with special diets including GF/CF currently.

If the parent offers and alternative that is fine but no expectation that they will provide!

Hope that helps.

Thank you people.gives me some perspective! Just for the record, I always do provide for her but it was just mentioned that this particular money was to be used for the party do thought they could stretch to a packet of gf biscuits but obviously not. Never mind, no big deal really.

Hi jussi, I had similar thoughts when my ds was at nursery. It was a private nursery. I paid for meals but provided most of the food myself. I felt the same as you and was never sure if I should have said something to nursery about it or not. It felt wrong to be paying the nursery for his food and then also providing it myself. I am glad ds is at school now so I can give him a packed lunch and dont have to worry.