Our Girl’s First Gluten Free Sleepover
Once we had received our daughter’s celiac diagnosis, one of our biggest concerns was finding ways for her to still feel included with her friends. We knew parties, sleepovers, school events and anything with gluten-focused treats would be hard for her. All of the birthday cakes, cookies or cupcakes at school parties (and other events) were going to make her feel left out, and we wanted to do whatever we could to prevent that.
This weekend was her first friend sleepover since she was diagnosed. We’ve told many of her friend’s parents about her celiac disease after her diagnosis, so we didn’t need to share that information. However, I couldn’t help but immediately worry about what she would eat at the party. While I was thinking about what to do, I got a text from her friend’s mom (who also has celiac disease) and she already had her own plan to provide gluten free options! I still offered to send her over with her own special treats and her friend’s mom told me not to worry about it. THANKFULLY, we have great people in our life who will go out of our way to take care of our daughter!
She had gluten free chicken nuggets (Applegate brand - which she loved) and fruit for dinner, a gluten free cupcake while the other girls had cake and a gluten free donut (Katz GF powdered donuts) for breakfast. Not once has she said she felt left out or sad about not being able to eat what the other girls had. That is a huge win for us! We also left with a few new gluten free foods that we know she likes.
I know this is a unique case, since the mom in this situation already eats gluten free. I thought about what I would do in another situation and these are my sleepover party suggestions:
Send my daughter with a dinner, cake/cupcake and a breakfast that are all gluten free.
Confirm that the parent knows that she can’t have gluten and let them know that if there are any questions about whether she can eat something, they can text me.
Have a talk with my daughter about how important it is for her body to eat gluten free, just in case she would want to give in to temptation. In her case, she’s much smaller than her friends because of celiac disease and she wants to get to be as tall as them. We continue to reinforce that she will grow when her body heals and that is by eating gluten free foods.
Let me know if you have any tips/tricks of your own for sleepovers and parties!