Celiac Disease Program and Support Group

The type of vacation you are planning will affect your approach to the diet. If you are renting a vacation condo or home in another place and plan to do some of your own cooking, you will either need to bring gluten-free staples and mixes from home. You can also call a local support group in advance to see where and what gluten-free products might be available for purchase onsite.

When you call to make your hotel reservation, request a small refrigerator for your room. They may even give it to you without charge if you explain it is for a medical reason.

Disneyworld is a true paradise for the parents of a child with celiac disease. If you take the time to call the Food Division Offices for the different parks (a different person is the chef in the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and MGM), they will bend over backward to ensure that your child is served a gluten-free meal. It does not require a lot of time to pull this off, and they can deliver the meal to the restaurant of your choice. Now, there is a catch to dining at Disney World. Depending upon the time of year, you could be trying for a specific reservation with the rest of North America. Although it may force more preplanning than you desire, your dining will run more smoothly if you place a few calls from home before you go.

Disney World Food Division Offices:
Magic Kingdom - (407) 824-6993
Epcot - (407) 560-7713
MGM Studios - (407) 560-7830

Teens may want to pack crackers and cheese or a sandwich in the pocket of their ski parka to supplement the cafeteria's offerings. Depending on your child's age, you may even be able to tell the ski instructor that your child needs to be able to have a free choice about what they know is safe to eat. You will, of course, have prepped your child on to the safe choices available to them on the mountain. For your child, the freedom and trust you give them to make the right decision about what to eat is a great first step to the ownership and control of their diet.

When you are planning to stay in a place without cooking facilities, pack a small cooler for the trip. Take gluten-free ketchup, mayonnaise, margarine, sandwich meat, peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing, pasta sauce or some pre-cooked noodles in a sealed container. Depending on the length of your trip you can bring uncooked gluten-free pasta and your own colander to supply to the hotel chef. Before you go, bake or purchase fresh gluten-free muffins, bread and crackers for the trip. Also pack gluten-free breakfast cereals in single serving portions. Always pack small zip-lock baggies and small Tupperware containers to transport individual servings to the restaurant. Bring a small container of gluten-free salad dressing and gluten-free crackers. We even travel with a few sheets of aluminum foil to offer to the servers to have the bread toasted on or meat cooked on if it is necessary.

By the end of your travels, the freshly baked goods will probably be consumed or stale so at this point open up some pre-made muffins or donuts available from several gluten-free vendors and store extras in a freezer or fridge until needed.

Have your child select some favorite gluten-free desserts to bring along. It is almost impossible to find a safe dessert in any restaurant, home or away. It is always safe to store one or two of the hardier selections in the glove compartment of the car for any unexpected road trips when a treat is needed.

Burger King is another fast food restaurant with a good source of gluten-free foods. They usually use a dedicated "fryolator" for the French fries as they claim to cook them in a different temperature of oil than the other fried foods. Always ask the manager of the individual Burger King to confirm this policy. The meat from the hamburgers is gluten-free; just make sure that they remove it directly from the grill with clean utensils. Burger King uses Heinz ketchup, which is gluten-free, and the little packets are very handy for traveling.

It takes the time to call before you go so that people can look up every ingredient and the source and then you simply tell your child the gluten-free choices and let them go.