Gluten-Free Lunch and Snack Hints for School Kids

Being a kid is rough enough in public school without being different from your peers. If your child has gluten sensitivity or Celiac disease, he or she may face difficult challenges in daily school life. Many school lunch menus offer only one gluten-free item — milk. As the parent of a gluten-free child, you can ease the embarrassment of being different by preparing foods that are attractive and delicious. Send them these foods along in his lunchbox and he will be proud to eat them.

The lunchbox itself should be as unique as your child’s dietary needs. Skip the widely available offerings at the discount department store. This lunchbox will travel to school, extracurricular activities and even sleepovers with your child, as he or she needs to provide food when nothing suitable is available to eat. Ask what sort of lunchbox she would like to carry. If there is an inexpensive lunchbox available, see if you can find a unique one that will set hers apart. In addition to just looking neat, an unusual lunchbox will help your child avoid mixing his lunchbox with that of another child. If a mix-up should this happen, she may have to skip a meal.

Be sure to pack more food than your child will need to eat. In case something pops up unexpectedly after school, he will have gluten-free snacks available to eat. Also, many children trade in the cafeteria. While your child may be unable to make an exchange, he can share some delicious gluten-free snacks with curious friends.

Keep your child’s menu from growing stale. Incorporate different variations of her favorite gluten-free items. Pack a main entrée, a fruit, a cold snack such as gluten-free Yoplait Gogurt and a dessert. Try packing Nutella or peanut butter in a small plastic container. Your child will be able to dip gluten free chips or crackers and have fun eating with her fingers. Some commercially available snacks are gluten-free, so add them to minimize the divide between your son’s diet and that of his classmates. Cheetos, Fruit by the Foot, string cheese and Frito Lay sunflower seeds are all lunchbox items that may mirror the other children in class.

Provide a gluten-free snack for the entire class during party events. Many children can’t tell the difference between a brownie with gluten and one without. Subtly introducing other kids to the gluten-free diet may encourage a less critical environment in which your child can enjoy his meals. Ask your child’s teacher if you may leave a few emergency snacks in the classroom. In the event that someone brings a snack to share that your child cannot eat, there will be something for him to enjoy, rather than just watching others eat. Make the classroom snacks ones that are enviable, such as Skittles or Cracker Jacks.

The author of this article is Holly Miller, who writes for Coupon Croc, the best place to find savings on all of your online shopping, including groceries.