Irish mum pens children’s book to raise awareness of coeliac disease

An Irish mum has penned a children's book in the hopes of raising awareness of coeliac disease.

Hayley O'Connor told HerFamily that both she and her husband have coeliac disease, and their two daughters have a high chance of developing it. And when they found it difficult. to explain the condition to their eldest daughter, the idea for The Gluten Free Kid was born. The book tells the story of. a young boy named Sid, who just discovers that he has coeliac disease - and learns what that really means. The rhyming book is accented with illustrations from Anthony Corrigan. Recalling how her daughters influenced the book, Hayley said:

"[Writing] is something I've always done, it's been a bit of a hobby for me to write kids books in my pastime - ever since I was a teenager. "But [The Gluten Free Kid] came from the fact that I was trying to explain my coeliac disease and my husband's coeliac disease to our three year old daughter. "As you can imagine, that's kind of difficult. She didn't really understand what it meant - she just thought mammy and daddy couldn't have certain foods. "I know they've got a very high chance to developing the condition - they have a one in five chance, because we're both coeliac. "[The book will] help them get to know what the condition is from an early age. And if we can help spread awareness about it, that'd be really important."

The mum-of-two went on to explain how important it was to her that The Gluten Free Kid be suitable for all children - not just for those who have coeliac disease. She continued:

"I wanted to educate my daughter [on coeliac disease], so that's where the book came from. "I realised that actually, there wasn't other books that I could use to try and explain it to her. I already had this hobby, so I said, 'ah here, I may as well try and create something she can easily understand.' "I still wanted to be honest about what it is. Children are very accepting; there wouldn't be fear around it if there were words that they were used to. "[It would be more] like 'oh yeah, I have that and it means x, y, z' - they'd get so used to it, basically. "It's really for all kids, not just those who are living with coeliac disease or those who are living with someone is coeliac. "It has that nice balance of being educational, while still being a book that rhymes."

She also spoke about the reaction to the book so far, and how parents have said they are "delighted" that such a book exists. She continued:

"It's been going really, really well. A lot of people are delighted that such a thing exists. "Especially for the families that have one coeliac child in the house when there's a few, [for siblings] to understand what's going on."

• The Gluten Free Kid is out now, and available to buy here.