You may remember my discussing the need to explain to school about the requirements of the gluten free diet, to make it easier for my daughter to go on school trips – or other trips without me.
I thought I’d provide the letter that I sent before her most recent school trip, in case it is useful to anyone else. I wanted to explain to school not only what she could and couldn’t eat, but also what the likely effects would be.
Do feel free to download, cut and paste and generally reuse for your own purposes, but bear in mind that this was written for the UK, so you might need to double-check some of the detail.
Letter explaining what a coeliac can eat
I’ve stripped out her name and our contact details, for obvious reasons.
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I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
Lucy – Your letter is great. :) I’m just curious though -under beverages you list “squashes”… which for me are pumpkins, zuchini, etc. LOL. Are they fruit juices, etc – like pureed banana + raspberries? (that would make sense actually – squashed fruit?)
Thanks!
kate
Kate, I never thought about the possibility of confusion here! Another example of the major cultural differences between here and there …
Pumpkins etc are obviously gluten free, unless gluten is added in the cooking.
What I meant by ‘squash’ is probably the most common drink for children here in the UK – fruit squashes. These aren’t actually or legally ‘juice’ because the juice content is too low – even the ones labelled as high-juice. They are more like cordials, in that you usually buy squash in a concentrate form, and add water, though you can buy them ready-to-drink for convenience. They are not a fizzy soda drink.
The traditional flavours are orange or blackcurrant, though the range of flavours is ever increasing, and even seasonal, or chosen as part of a marketing ploy (during the vogue for Shrek films, there was a swamp-juice flavour – lime, I think). We like pink grapefruit.
The thing to beware of is that some very popular traditional variants of fruit squash are made with barley. These are usually clearly labelled as, say, ‘orange with barley’, or ‘grapefruit with barley’, but the squash itself looks identical to the non-barley versions. Always worth checking.
Thanks for the translation, Lucy. :) As a language teacher, I’m always intrigued to find our own differences in usage, etc. (I’m a bit of a geek like that…LOL).
I’m completely intrigued by this idea of a fruit drink. (Not so much by the swamp water..LOL).
:)
-Kate
I absolutely love this letter! So helpful — I even printed it out and gave it to my friend who works at a restaurant so she can help out the customers.
I’m delighted to hear that Shannon – glad to be of help!