Organisation is the key...

Living with coeliac disease, especially when you have a child who has the condition, means that you have little choice about planning when and where your/their next snack or meal comes from. Gone is the ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ approach and in with the strategy.

When it was just me who had been diagnosed, it was less important. I am happy to eat pretty much anything, if there is just a strange fishy curry on offer which is gluten free, I will eat it! I am also able to deal with feeling hungry. For a five year old child, this is not the case. Forward planning is essential, as is taking along a whole host of yummy gluten free snacks to top up little one’s energy levels.

Today, for example, we planned a day out, involving a cold (and snowy!) walk by the sea, followed by a family lunch at the old faithful Wetherspoons. Their menu offers a pretty good range of gluten free options – for an adult. Try taking a child in there! Evie eats a pretty good assortment of foods, but trying to encourage her to eat Pri-Pri Chicken or Spinach Curry is not easy. The old safety net, Jacket Potatoes are also out for the moment (she has never been a fan but I am working on it!). So, Evie, bless her, has a gluten free packed lunch (which I took with us), and amazed me yet again, by not uttering a single complaint or whinge (she would have been well within her rights), as she sat and watched her big sister plough her way through a plate of nuggets and chips. She was only diagnosed in September – I certainly wouldn’t have taken that situation any where near as well at that stage. However, to soften the blow, I had taken in a little something for afters....

Spot the difference!

...a gluten free chocolate muffin to eat with her ice-cream! One happy bunny.