School providing GFCF diet

[Guest guest]

Hi,For 11 years I have provided the GFCF school breakfast and lunch for my grandson. I was told that the school can provide it with the proper documentation from a doctor. I have the documentation but I have been dragging my feet, so to speak, in getting it to them. I did call but the person in charge is out of town. Do any of your schools provide each meal in GFCF for your child. I am hesitant but I am Grandma, and don't know how long I will be able to do it. Tristan is 14 and will be going into 8th grade next year. Carlson

[Guest guest]

If you can document the need --as we did for our son with a doctor's note, then they must accommodate and provide gf/cf.We decided not to pouch this as there were so many other issues we needed to push for, so I have been making my son's breakfast and lunch now for eight years.  The law says they must provide this, so call a meeting if they won't agree to it outside a meeting and get it written into his ARD accommodations.

[Guest guest]

No, I can't expect the schools to get it right. The difficulty of the diet itself coupled with mass production/cross-contamination just isn't worth the risk for us.

-Sandy H.

To: Texas-Autism <Texas-Autism-Advocacy >Sent: Wed, May 26, 2010 10:40:56 AMSubject: School providing GFCF diet

Hi,For 11 years I have provided the GFCF school breakfast and lunch for my grandson. I was told that the school can provide it with the proper documentation from a doctor. I have the documentation but I have been dragging my feet, so to speak, in getting it to them. I did call but the person in charge is out of town. Do any of your schools provide each meal in GFCF for your child. I am hesitant but I am Grandma, and don't know how long I will be able to do it. Tristan is 14 and will be going into 8th grade next year. Carlson

[Guest guest]

Sandy,i have to agree with you, and that is why I just prepare the meals myself.  I am responsible for breakfast and lunch, and my husband does dinner so I get a cooking break.  I'm not even sure if my son is coming in contact with products other than food products that contain gluten, casein, or soy.  These matter too.  I send his own personal soap for him to use, but who knows if the school makes sure he isn't using theirs.  Also, they use hand sanitizer like water up there, and I know that is not good for our kids due to the grain alcohol. 

My son always does better in summer when he is in a setting that pays attention to these issues.

[Guest guest]

I had a friend back in Washington state who would give a talk at various autism

conferences about getting schools to provide a child with a GF/CF diet (or any

other special diet) via a doctor's note and IEP. The problem is, like everyone

else has said, that just because the special ed staff / administrative staff

approve the diet doesn't mean the kitchen staff will follow it religiously. At

the school I work at, for example, the staff who actually prepare the foods

don't speak English and are paid minimum wage. I wouldn't trust that they would

adhere strictly enough to the diet or that they would take issues like

cross-contamination seriously enough, let alone that they might not be able to

read the ingredients because they are in English, or that they'll know that

" natural flavoring " often means gluten, etc.

What I did for awhile back in Washington was I personally called the head of

food service for my district and asked for the ingredients of the various foods

on each month's menu that sounded like they might be safe (I didn't even bother

with the foods I knew wouldn't work, like pizza - too time consuming as it was).

I then went through the month's menu and circled the exact items my son could

have and crossed off any sides or whatever he couldn't have, then let his

special ed teacher buy his lunch for him based on my selections.

That said, my son would never eat anything bought from the school cafeteria, so

it ended up being a waste of time and I stopped.

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