The birthday party .... a little coeliac's nemesis!
All children love birthday parties but for a little coeliac it can be quite a miserable affair. They have their playtime, then sit down for the food, everyone gets excited about what they will choose but for TLC her options are very limited. Party food is surprisingly gluten'ful! If you think about all of the common party foods:
Sandwiches
Sausage rolls
Mini sausages
Pizza
Chicken nuggets
Breadsticks
Crisps
Cake
Biscuits
Ice cream
Sweets
Chocolate
All of them (can have) gluten in the them! You're left with fruit and cheese a lot of the time, which I think we would all agree isn't all that exciting!
Some of our lovely friends make a separate box for TLC which is really kind but my tip would be to ring in advance and check what the other children are having. I always do that now. It saves any embarrassment when you get to the party and means that TLC can have the same as all of her friends.
I always pack a few extra bits too to allow for unplanned extras and party bag surprises! Quite often there will be a selection of treats and sweets in the party bag but as they're not in their wrappers, there's no way to know what's in them and you can't expect a 5 year old to go without her party bag. I also usually take a slice of cake (I bought a whole cake, cut it into slices and froze them individually so that I can get out a slice at a time as needed) to pop into the party bag.
There are often prizes for party games: musical statues, pass the parcel etc. TLC is really good at knowing she can't eat a prize as soon as she's given it. She knows that she has to wait until I've checked whether she can have it and if not, we have a deal that I will offer a fair swap! She is very good, as I am sure all of your little Coeliacs are, but my mission is to make sure that they don't feel "odd" or left out and hopefully some of these tips will help. You will have your own too I'm sure.
Other than the main food, I usually take crisps, biscuits, sweets and chocolate. Not to all be eaten in one go :) but just to cover off the common party treats. If hot food is on offer, I take some sachets of tomato ketchup with me - even if pots of Heinz (or other GF alternatives) are on offer, everyone will be dipping their food in the sauce and it would be contaminated. If there's chips, I check whether they are cooked in their own fryer and if not, I take a box of frozen microwave chips (1 minute in the microwave and they're ready).
That said, if you fancy giving a gluten free party a go, it's pretty easy and you don't have to go without! For TLC and her brother's parties, we have made all of the food gluten free so that we don't have to worry about segregation, and it doesn't look bad does it ....!
You can get gluten free versions of all of the things in the list above from the main supermarkets. Sainsbury's even do frozen gluten free cocktail sausages all year round! Sandwiches can be made with GF bread, or one of my friends did GF wraps which were great. Dips and vegetables went down really well at our party and are simple to make gluten free. You can make/buy gluten free cake easily now (see my last post!) and lots of crisps are gluten free so you don't have to buy anything particularly different there. As I always say, just takes a bit of planning!
Even for adults, parties are a disaster zone! So much "party food" is bread or pastry based. At Christmas time, Tesco did a GF party selection box but now that GF pastry is so much better, you can make some nice treats with a roll of pastry and a little bit of imagination!
With summer around the corner, hopefully there will be a few barbecue parties - just be careful with cross contamination on the grill but lots of burgers and sausages are gluten free now and chicken, corn on the cob, salad, rice dishes, jacket potatoes etc are all great for Coeliacs big and small. Keep you eye on sauces and marinades as they can catch you out!
