When I was 7 years old, I had my ton­sils out. To break up the monot­ony of my 10 day recov­ery, my mom put together a goodie box that I pulled from each day. It was filled with crayons and col­or­ing books, small toys and play­ing cards. For those of us with dietary restric­tions, a goodie box is a must, no mat­ter how old we are. I real­ized this when my lit­tle boy started kindergarten.

Some­time after Chan­nukah and before Christ­mas, the younger kids at our ele­men­tary school typ­i­cally build edi­ble snow­men out of gra­ham crack­ers, marsh­mal­lows, pret­zels and choco­late chips. Very cute. After school one day, over the heads of the kids, I tell my son’s teacher that I’ll grab the GF ingre­di­ents for this upcom­ing craft. “No need,” she smiles. “I already did.” I looked at her quizzi­cally. “But it’s expen­sive,” I protest. She just shook her head and smiled.

I was stumped. I couldn’t believe that a teacher was reliev­ing me of this extra step. But I should have known. Before school even started, she e-mailed me to dis­cuss how she might han­dle treats for birth­days and school par­ties. I think they lumped sev­eral of the “allergy kids” into this one class, because aside from my lit­tle Mr. Gluten, she’s got a Mr. Peanut in there, too. Her solu­tion was all nat­ural, all-fruit pop­si­cles that she keeps in the freezer of the teacher’s lounge. Brilliant.

I was elated to know that this young, ener­getic, fairy god-mother type not only exists but also teaches 2nd grade to my son. Short of com­ing over and read­ing him bed­time sto­ries, he couldn’t love her  more. Nor could I. However, if your child has a new teacher whom you’ve never met, here are a few things you can do to make sure your lit­tle one has safe treats at school:

Once you find out which teacher your child has, con­tact the school or the school’s web­site and send a very friendly e-mail to the teacher, address­ing your child’s diet restrictions. Never offer up a prob­lem with­out also offer­ing a solu­tion – like pop­si­cles. If you have the time, offer to bring GFCF cup­cakes for the next class party.

If you can squeeze it in, con­sider vol­un­teer­ing as co-room par­ent or party coor­di­na­tor. If you’re like most of us and can’t fit that into your sched­ule, make sure you email those indi­vid­u­als, alert­ing them of your child’s restrictions.

Present your child’s teacher with a goodie box. Mine is a clear plas­tic shoe box with an air tight lid from The Con­tainer Store. I clearly mark each side with my child’s name and stuff it with GFCF treats like indi­vid­ual pack­ets of Ener-G Foods Pret­zels, Nana’s Cookie Bars (they are indi­vid­u­ally wrapped), Envi­roKidz Organic Rice Bars, (the peanut bars are GFCF, but con­tain soy), KIND Bars (most are GFCF, but con­tain soy) and mini Rit­ter Sport Dark Choco­late Bars (con­tain soy) imported from Ger­many that I pick up at my local mar­ket. The teacher will always have some­thing safe for your child for the next party or occa­sion, plus it relieves the pos­si­bil­ity of cross-contamination. I also take this oppor­tu­nity to include sev­eral all fruit juice boxes that don’t con­tain HFCS.

Whether you have small kids, or older ones with pock­ets in their back­packs for snacks, a few steps is all it takes to make sure they have safe food avail­able when they need it. If you’re the one with restric­tions, bring your own box to work full of indi­vid­u­ally wrapped almond pack­ets, dried fruit, trail mix and choco­late (Trader Joe’s car­ries all of this stuff). We’re all crea­tures of habit and tend to take the path of least resis­tance, so make it easy for you and your fam­ily to eat safe, healthy food that’s convenient.