School Orientation
School orientation is always a bit awkward, even more so when you know that at some point you will have to have THE conversation.
There never is a right time to discuss your child’s food sensitivity. On the one hand you want to give the teacher the chance to get to know your child without any preconceived notions. You don’t want to label your child upfront as the boy with the food allergy, or the girl with celiac disease. On the other hand you need to know that your child will be safe from day one of school. These two conflicting values are usually what are going through my overburdened mind during school orientations. Inevitably, safety considerations (or should I say my neuroses) win out and I elect to tell the teacher early on.
So last night I found myself in the corner of the preschool explaining celiac disease to my daughter’s new teacher. She took it well. She vaguely remembered having another child with a gluten sensitivity years ago and assured me that it was not a big deal. She told me to just bring safe snacks to keep in the classroom for Amy. I nodded, knowing that teacher did not foresee all the issues that I foresaw (such as baking, school trips, and birthday parties), and returned to the project she had assigned the parents to make for the children. Then I heard her briefly clear her throat and make the announcement:
“Does anyone else have a child with a food sensitivity?” I looked around eagerly. It would be wonderful to find someone with a child with an allergy to milk or peanuts that could sit in a corner with Amy and commiserate. One woman spoke up:
“Yes, my daughter has a…sensitivity…to gluten.”
Did she say what I thought I heard? There was another child with celiac disease in Amy’s class! The teacher smiled and indicated toward me:
“Her daughter can’t eat gluten either.”
Our eyes met and I could’ve sworn I heard violins playing in the background.
“Your daughter is a celiac too?” She asked. I nodded trying not to tear up, and she quickly moved over to the empty seat next to mine. We exchanged our “celiac stories” and started to plan out battle tactics for the classroom.
“Maybe we can convince the teacher to only serve snacks without gluten,” she suggested. And I happily skipped over to her dream world for the moment.
Later that night I returned home and immediately ran upstairs to Amy. She was sitting at the computer watching Arthur. She was supposed to be sleeping but I was too happy to care.
“Guess what Amy!!” I shouted a little bit too enthusiastically for that time of night.
She looked at me inquisitively.
“There is another little girl in your class, named Mary, who can’t eat gluten – just like you!”
Amy smiled a bright beautiful smile and while pushing a tiny blond ringlet of hair from her eyes exclaimed, “I want to sit next to her!”
It was a grand evening, and the first school orientation that I have ever left lighthearted.
4 Responsesto “School Orientation”
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I so know the feeling. We still are to find someone in our daughters school let alone her class that understands her plight. She has been dealing with this for 4 years. Fortunately we found a Celiac summer camp that she goes to for one week each summer where she can identify with each and every participant including the counselors. It is truly an amzing feeling. This is my third child and I just want her to feel like she fits in. What parent doesn’t want that for their child? But it does get better, at least that is what I keep telling myself and my daughter. Fortunately she keeps plugging along. Thanks for sharing the happy news with us.
Glad to hear you had a great experience at your orientation. We did too! My blog post about it is hitting on Monday– and I linked to your story as well!
We all need to celebrate when we have a good experience — and to know good gluten free experiences are happening more often.
Good luck with your daughter’s school year!
I too understand. We however are lucky, our daughter’s teacher is celiac as is one other teacher in the school. Also one of the teacher’s aides is celiac and there are 4 other students in the school with the disease. It’s nice to walk into an environment where people don’t look at me like my child has 2 heads!
How delightful for your daughter! For both girls and moms, this should be a great year. I remember those times well, with my sons. I ended up making gluten free pizza for whole classes at times.
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