Saying Goodbye to Gluten / Gluten-Free Living, Celiac Disease, Gluten-Free Support · Jennifer Marcks / Gluten-Free Health Coach

E75 Back-to-School: Top Tips for Gluten-Free Preschool & Elementary Success

·36 min·2 clips

A gluten-free child’s 504 plan can include hand sanitizer reactions and other school exposures.

1. Saying Goodbye to Gluten / Gluten-Free Living, Celiac Disease, Gluten-Free Support focuses on back-to-school success for gluten-free preschool and elementary students. 2. Jennifer Marks speaks as the host, a gluten-free health coach, cooking instructor, blogger, recipe developer, wife, mom, and former teacher who has guided three children through school. 3. The episode asks how parents and schools can keep a child safe, confident, and included when celiac disease or gluten intolerance makes school food risky. 4. Jennifer says the first step is empowering the child early, even at age 2 or 3, by teaching them to recognize "GF" on packages and safe foods. 5. She describes involving children in grocery shopping, cooking, and restaurant ordering so they learn to speak up about what they can eat. 6. She says open communication with the teacher, principal, classroom aides, and school nurse is essential because many staff members do not understand what celiac disease means. 7. Jennifer recommends sending the homeroom teacher a note and requesting a 15-minute or 20-minute meeting at the start of the school year. 8. She explains that preschool food policies vary widely, with some programs providing all food and others allowing families to send in snacks under limits such as nut-free or fruit-and-vegetable-only rules. 9. She says parents should ask where snack and lunch happen, whether desks are wiped down, and how handwashing is handled in lunchrooms. 10. Jennifer describes choosing to send packed lunches instead of relying on school hot lunch because of cross-contamination concerns. 11. She gives a celebration strategy from preschool: freeze muffins or cupcakes at school so a gluten-free child is not left out of birthday treats. 12. She tells a classroom story where a teacher planned to pop popcorn despite a no-food policy, and the parent had to call the teacher and escalate the issue. 13. She says the child also had corn-related reactions, so the popcorn problem was not just a policy issue but a health issue. 14. Jennifer explains that some schools have no-food policies while others allow all food, and both setups can create problems if staff do not understand contamination. 15. She says field trips need planning too, including asking where children will eat, whether they need bagged lunches, and whether the destination has safe gluten-free options. 16. She describes sending dairy-free ice cream with a teacher for a dairy farm trip so her child would not be excluded when other students got ice cream. 17. Jennifer says art class can also be a risk because glue, Play-Doh, clay, and paper mache may contain gluten or flour. 18. She recalls one paper-mache project where her daughter stayed out of class because flour was in the air, then made a gluten-free version at home. 19. The episode has an instructional, parent-coach tone with repeated real-life examples from preschool through high school, and Jennifer pauses for a mid-episode promotion of her free five-day Gluten-Free Secrets Challenge. 20. Parents of gluten-free preschoolers or elementary students will get the most from it, while listeners looking for advanced middle-school or high-school planning may want the later episode.

As heard by us

A calm, practical guide for gluten-free families navigating school snacks, lunchrooms, and everyday communication.

This episode is a steady, useful guide for gluten-free families heading into preschool or elementary school. The host speaks from experience as a gluten-free mom and former teacher, and that gives the advice a practical edge: how to work with teachers and staff, what to do about…

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A practical school-day guide for gluten-free kids and the adults helping them.

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