Sarah (from Scribbles and Scratchings) commented recently on my post about the BBC and the cost of gluten free food.
Her comments – and later emails – are so valuable that she’s agreed I can share them with you. I’m sure this will be useful to anyone out there worrying about leaving home. Over to you, Sarah …
I’m a 20 year old coeliac at Uni and never eat any of the nasty stuff you get on prescription, despite being on a really tight budget. Naturally gf stuff tastes better and is cheap as chips (fruit, rice, potatoes) and except for the occasional gf fish finger during exams, or gf crumpet when I’m stressed, it’s all good.
I’m in my second year so live in a private flat with my 5 flatmates, but last year I chose to go self catering – there was NO way I was going to live on jacket potatoes for the year and pay 40 quid* a week for the privilege!! It turned out to be a wise decision, a friend of mine is also coeliac and was put in halls, and got served the weirdest food – once just fish and broccoli, no sauce no nothing. She also got glutened once a fortnight!
I was really lucky – I was stressing getting ready to move in because I knew within hours I was going to have to sit down with a bunch of strangers and explain being coeliac and kitchen habits to them, but it turned out fine. There was 5 girls including me in my flat, we cooked chilli together on the first night (with a lot of reading stockcube and spice jar labels from them – i think it was all a bit novel!) and have cooked together monday to friday ever since. They’ve only glutened me once in 2 years, we cook everything from scratch because it’s cheaper, and this year one of my flatmates is dairy free so it all worked out great. I always provide my own pasta on the nights they cook pasta because it’s so expensive and hard to get hold of when you don’t have access to big out of town supermarkets, but then my dairy free housemate gives us all the soy products we need if we’re making lasagne for example.
I haven’t read enough to know how old your oldest daughter is, but the biggest thing to be gluten free at Uni is having confidence in the first few weeks as you meet more and more people and go out for more and more coffees/lunches – it’s easier straight off. It’s all been pretty great since then to be honest (still a fair few jacket potatoes though!)
A couple of physical things I learnt were
- to get your own tiny little fridge – not one of those stupid can coolers but one big enough for one person’s food – mine is about a metre cubed and has a baby freezer in one corner. This makes the difference visually really clear to flatmates, but also means you can really make sure your food stays gluten free (food thievage always happens to some extent in student flats, but all it takes is someone ‘borrowing’ your cheese or jam or butter with a dirty knife and you’re poorly.) In first year I kept my fridge in my room, but now in second year I know and trust my flatmates it’s in the kitchen next to our big fridge
- colour code. When you’re shopping for uni, if possible pick an uncommon colour or pattern and try to get all your plates, bowls, mugs etc in that pattern (this can acutally be quite cheap, I got all my orange and pink floral stuff from the summer picnic range at Sainsburys for about £15 the lot.) then your flatmates know not to share stuff that’s whatever colour your stuff is – or at least not until you find out how good they are at washing stuff up. Also coloured tupperware makes it easier to find safe leftovers in the freezer.
- ask for your own drawer in a shared freezer ASAP especially if you get prescription bread – there’s nothing more annoying than getting a fresh batch on prescription and finding out that a flatmate has filled the space in the freezer with ben and jerries or a huge bag of oven chips etc – explain STRAIGHT AWAY why you need the space – my flatmates were pretty understanding of it.
- make a fabric cover for your toaster- sober flatmates will remember which toaster is theirs and be careful, but drunk flatmates with the munchies are not so considerate- make it obvious which one is theirs by covering yours up when you’re not using it!!
- If your flatmates like to get food late at night after a club night or something similar, go scout around the local takeaways during the day when they’re not so busy, and find out if you can eat at any – I found that a lot of pizza places sell chips and only fry chips – nothing else in their fryer so are safe. One even let me top the chips with any pizza toppings I fancied then baked them in a foil container so the cheese melted- yummy and nice not to be left out of every food treat!
- You may be miles away from an out of town supermarket (as I am) and the little ones rarely sell gf stuff – get used to online delivery! but be careful with substitutions – the day I had regular muffins substituted for gf ones ended in a fun phonecall to tescos. I just say in the extra notes bit of the form now ‘no substitutions’.
Remember – Uni is FUN! and being gf shouldn’t get in the way of that, so long as you go in with your head screwed on, being PROUD of who you are, and pretty soon you’ll realise the people who give you a hard time aren’t worth your time anyway. I now live with girls who have got to the stage of calling me at any time of the day or night when they find a new product in the shops or a restaurant which labels its menu, and I’m having an absolute ball!!
Thank you so much Sarah – I think those are invaluable tips. Love the one about the cover for the toaster … it would never have occurred to me
* translation for the non-British: one quid = one pound!
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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… |
This is a fantastic article – really solid practical tips for coeliacs at uni. As a paranoid Dad I’m already worrying that our 3-year old may be coeliac, and how that will affect her as a kid (I wasn’t diagnosed until the age of 24).
I notice your daughter was diagnosed at 2. Can I ask how they did that? We’ve just started our toddler on gluten and I’m researching how to diagnose such a young un.
Thanks
Roger
Hi Roger. I think you’re well placed to manage your daughter’s needs if she turns out to be coeliac, since you’re already diagnosed. And if she is coeliac, she’s likely to be diagnosed early, since you’re looking out for it … so the risk to her development is likely to be small.
We don’t have a family history of coeliac disease. My daughter was diagnosed because of a classic failure to thrive, wasting of limbs and distension of belly, and my repeated visits to the doctor because of her constant vomiting and horrible diarrhoea. She was tested first by a whole panel of different blood tests, one of which was for coeliac disease, and then, when that came back positive, she had a biopsy, which was also positive.
Once she was put on a gluten free diet, her condition began to improve within weeks. It took a while (years) for her bone age to catch up with her real age, and a couple of her baby teeth had missing enamel (which I think may be related) but she is fine, fit and healthy, and has been for years.
Is your daughter showing worrying symptoms?
HI Lucy
Thanks for your reply. I didn’t realise they would perform biopsies so young. We have only had our wee one on gluten for a few weeks and so are holding off drawing conclusions yet.
I think our difficulty is going to be that we will spot any symptoms early, and biopsy-detectable damage often takes quite a long time to develop. I read a very compelling piece recently from a New Zealand based paediatrician arguing for non-biopsy diagnosis in children for exactly this reason.
We have got a good GP though, so hopefully he will be flexible if and when it comes to diagnosis.
I’ll be keeping an eye on your blog :-)
All the best
Roger
http://www.celiactravel.com
Perhaps they don’t do biopsies so young these days?
I know it took us 9 months to get to a diagnosis, which is a long time when they’re so young, and when something obviously isn’t right. Fingers crossed for you …
We have links with Brighton Uni, but will offer a 10% discount to any student placing an order with us (we will have to take your order over the phone for this). We have a free-phone number and we are all coeliacs here who are happy to chat, share experiences and give advice.
Oops forgot the link!
http://www.johnsonsprovisions.co.uk
Free phone number 0800 688 89 69
That’s a great offer Helen – have you advertised this at the university?
please. can you tell me what brands of lipstik are glutten free and where can i purchase them in the united states. thank you. zina
Hi .zina annunciata
Sorry, I don’t know much about lipsticks in America. The CSA Gluten Free product listing (my copy is very out of date now, so you’d need to check) suggests some products from Bonne Bell, Nu Skin, Beauticontrol and Artistry, but I’m not familiar with these brands. There’s some discussion of lipstick here, and the Afterglow range is gluten free and available in the US (see advert on the right hand side).