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WILLIAM MALTESE MOMENT #4

Reading, Writing, and GF

While maintaining a Gluten-Free environment on the home front is one thing, it isn’t going to happen at school where most children spend even more time than they do at home.

While my niece and her husband have solved that problem by home-schooling all of their children, not all parents can go that route, or choose to do so, making it extremely important that gluten-intolerant children are pre-prepared for spending so much of their lives in surroundings abounding with something that can be so potentially dangerous to them.

It’s genuinely difficult for a child not to want to partake of the same foods and snacks, from school vending machines and from school lunch rooms, which are eaten by fellow classmates. It’s very difficult for a gluten-intolerant child to face down the stares and curious glances when someone’s mother sends freshly baked cookies and the gluten-intolerant kid is the only one in the classroom who doesn’t partake.

Who hasn’t read accounts of truly malicious children who know full well the dietary restrictions of their fellows and take full advantage? While the stories that usually make the newspapers are accounts of kids with peanut allergies having fatal reactions to being purposely slipped tainted foodstuff, I’ve had more than one parent tell me that the same sort of mischievousness has been played out between gluten-intolerant children and some unscrupulous classmates. Unfortunately, the gluten-related incidents can be perceived by authoritative figures as far less serious than the peanut-related ones in that the short-term results of the former don’t see the victimized child dropping dead on the spot.

It’s up to every parent to make sure his gluten-intolerant child is equipped with all of the knowledge needed in order for that child to cope at school; including daily brown-bagging of the proper Gluten-Free foods for school lunches to keep temptation for gluten-laden substitutes at a minimum.

Teachers and classmates should be made aware of any gluten-intolerant child among them so as better to monitor situations, in the absence of parents, and/or to recognize gluten-allergy reactions when they occur. While some parents have the tendency to listen to the pleadings of their child to not do anything that sets him apart as “being different” from his peers, a child should be reassured that he’ll come across as decidedly less different if his condition is explained and understood. Thinking little gluten-intolerant Charlie is suddenly a bully and uncaring terror is less preferable than recognizing his body is merely reacting to gluten-poisoning.

Even later in life, with years of indoctrination and trial and error which should provide anyone the firm basis on which to resist temptation, there are always pitfalls with which to deal. Fraternity and sorority venues often include keg parties; yes, beer, more often than not, contains gluten. Such get-togethers can provide all sorts of grain-based gluten-filled alcoholic beverages, too. Peer pressure, and a desire to “fit in,” can constantly make it genuinely difficult, if not impossible, for a gluten-intolerant anyone—man, woman, or child—to resist being “one of the group” by indulging in just one gluten-saturated beer, cocktail, Ding Dong®, or cookie.

No matter how well-intentioned and determined any one, or any one family, is to be 100% Gluten-Free 100% of the time, it’s simply not going to happen, as my niece and any member of her family can tell you. You can only do your very best to educate yourself and your gluten-intolerant loved ones on the subject to provide all the reassurances necessary to bolster die-hard determination to stay on the Gluten-Free Way. When any of you slip, inadvertently or with full knowledge, you simply have to recognize the resulting consequences to your well-being as the result of your misstep, and do your best to get back on the straight and narrow as quickly as possible.

No one is perfect; nor should anyone, not even you, expect you to be.