My father is can't have gluten, but to make cooking for him worse, he can't have any artificial colours or sweeteners, no chocolate, no processed meats, oh the list goes on, but I won't bore you with all that.  His favourite sweet that I can make for him is honey joys using the skippy corn flakes (I think they are the only gluten-free cornflakes).  Do you know what I mean?  They're those cupcake pans filled with cornflakes and honey.  It's alot of sugar so I'm not if you will be able to make them. 

To make sure she doesn't feel left out, on the days she comes, only do gluten free baking. I would also check with the parents re:preservatives. I work with a boy who is on a gluten free diet, and tried to do the right thing with buying products. Luckily I incorporated a package of what he had eaten into the note home, because it was only then they told me he was also off certain additives and preservatives!

With something like that I would have them send you safe foods for her to eat. you wouldn't want to make her improper foods and make her very ill.  JMHO

The parents shouldn't really have an issue with this. Besides all the snacks and food s they can eat can be costly. They would def. cost you more than it cost for the other children's sancks and lunches.

A lot of this depends on how easily you can access specialty products. Where I live, these things are not available locally, so it would mean careful shopping when in large centres and a lot of use of other things.

my grandmother and my friend's mother have had celiac, and so the struggles are known to me. My friend has a lovely recipe for a marique cake - it uses about a dozen eggs and a lot of butter, but it is yummy! Not good for the colestrol though... I will say that the combination of fat free and gluten free would make baking very difficult without speciality flours.

For Christmas, they make nanimo bars, and peanut butter confetti, and things like fudge, instead of the normal cookies. They use ground nuts instead of the graham crackers in the nanimo crust.

All I can say, is I'm glad it's no longer my grandma's day- Being a farm wife in the days of chopping wood and hauling water, meant that most things were grain based. I understand she did have access to potatoe flour, and would make herself a loaf of bread now and then, but it seems she mainly just did without out. Goes to show meat and potatoes are the way to go!

It's actually not that hard, until you start running into some of the strange things that have glutten in it, and if she's only intolerant and not celiac, than those may be okay.

Overall, be creative and have fun!

There are lots of good recipe books around that you can use for cooking gluten-free.  One excellent cooking thing that is gluten free is popcorn!  I always make a batch of popcorn when I have coeliac friends come around cause everyone likes it.

Anything that's just fruit and vegies e.g. fruit kebabs, fruit salad, is also really good.  They can quite happily dip it in yoghurt. 

You can still make normal biccies and slices etc. if you just get hold of some gluten-free flour.  Most health food stores and the bigger supermarket chains e.g. Woolworths (in Australia), stock gluten-free flour, biscuit mix and bread mix.  The more you look around, the more you'll find!

Good luck!

There are heaps of food's you can give her that that do not contain gluten. Rice crackers with cheese and fruit platter's. You can buy gluten free cake mixes and muffins, bread's ect. Meat and salad platters, popcorn ect ect the list is endless, just read the labels and you will get to know what is gluten free. I am also a family day carer, and I rarely offer food to the children with gluten, as gluten intolerance is very common, I also have it, and my brother does, and my mother has celiac disease, so my mother cannot have even small amounts.

Not sure what country you are in, however here is a link to NSW Celiac Society. The website has a lot of resources including recipes.  It would make sense to try and incorporate some of the simpler ones when you do cooking activities.  It is also a great opportunity to educate the other kids about people with different dietry needs and allergies etc.

Find recipes that are gluten free. I'm sure you would be able to find recipes on the internet. If you don't want to use the recipes then save the baking days until the little girl isn't in.