Reply to Nephew with celiac - what is fair/appropriate when visiting grandma?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My cousin's wife got diagnosed with Celiac a few years ago.  She was having a lot of issues with miscarriages, and being very ill much of the year.  Because Thanksgiving is a time when there can be a lot of issues with cross contamination with baking, etc. my mom offered to do a 100% gluten free Thanksgiving and has now been doing it for a few years.  This includes using almond flour for the pies, using cornstarch instead of flour to thicken gravy, etc.  So far my cousin's wife can enjoy Thanksgiving without anxiety and everyone else doesn't seem to notice.  There are typically up to ~7 children between the ages of 2-8 who attend, some of whom are relatively picky, who seem to manage just fine.  Mashed potatoes always seem to be a big hit with small children.  Anyway, it doesn't seem to be a unreasonable burden on relatives to eat gluten free Thanksgiving, or more of a burden than typical Thanksgiving craziness for my mom to cook it.

As far as gluten free foods go, gluten free pasta is easy and there are a lot of options for GF pasta these days.  I recommend the corn and quinoa pasta, and especially if you put any cheese or red sauce on it, I doubt your kids would notice that it is not normal pasta.  GF bread has gotten much better in recent years, and GF crackers are often very good and kid friendly.  If you want chicken nuggets or whatever, since they are fried, I doubt your kids would notice much if there is a corn/rice based flour. Of course corn tortillas and rice are already gluten free.  I don't think this has to be a giant ordeal for you/your kids, especially if it is only a week.  It would probably mean a lot to grandma (who feels like she needs to go out of her way to accommodate) and to your BIL/SIL who probably have a lot of anxiety over the situation.  Especially since their kid is only two and can't look out for themselves and decide what will make them sick or not.  Also it's a new diagnosis and they might relax a bit after getting used to the situation. I agree with your PP that since your kids are older, it's now time for you to go out of your way and be gracious.  Your BIL/SIL probably did all kinds of inconvenient things when your children were babies/toddlers and now it's time to pay it forward.

Personally, I am more than willing to go out of my way to accommodate people's dietary restrictions related to legitimate medical issues.  I find non-medically related pickiness to be incredibly annoying, and a lot of the time inflexibly catering to pickiness for small children just exacerbates the problem.  No one is going to starve eating gluten free chicken nuggets for a week.[/quote]

So many good points here, especially about your BIL/SIL probably accommodating YOU and your DH, OP, when you were the ones who had the small babies. [/quote]

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