<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks to everyone for your input!  It seems that many of you have crossed
this bridge before and come up with very reasonable and acceptable (on the
part of your children) alternatives to the free pizza offered.  I think I
will probably substitute a certificate for a new book in place of the pizza
(my son LOVES going to the bookstore--his personal library is bigger than
the children's one at our little town library!).  And getting him to pass
along his free pizza certificate to a classmate is an act of sharing that is
also a positive benefit.   For those who asked, here are most of the
responses I received:

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 My son's school also has the Book It Program with Pizza Hut.  Because he
can't have the pizza, I went to our local McDonalds (where he can enjoy
either french fries, a McFlurry or a grilled chicken patty)  and talked to
the Manager.  She agreed to give him gift certificates when he meets the
Book It Goal.  She got in contact with his teacher and they have worked it
out so that when the teacher passes out everyones certificate, he will be
included.

***************
When my son's class had the same program, I just told him that I would give
him the cash equivalent to the value of the pizza instead.  He was old
enough to appreciate the value of cash so it worked out great!

*************
How about asking Pizza Hut to let him trade it out for their buffalo
wings?  They are GF.

**************
We have never participated in this particular program.  But, whenever there
is a food reward I do a "better" reward.  My daughter is a chocolate
fiend.  I trip to the ice cream parlor would be preferred over pizza.  If
it is a treat at school on a give day, I just make sure the school
secretary has the substitute treat for my daughter.  It doesn't have to be
big but as long as it is preferred it is better and then not only does she
not feel left out she feel sorry for the other kids who get stuck with the
other prize.

By the way I never say it is better, I just know that is how she will react
to it.

****************
You could always make him his own pizza.    Or
barring that, let him "trade" it for a trip to the
zoo, water park, mini golf, new books at the store,
national park picnic, children's museum... I'm not
sure if you're in the Tucson area or Phoenix, but
there is so much to do in both!  Be creative!

*****************
You can still do the pizza reward. there sauce and chesse and some meat are
GF. Call now and talk to them and just take your GF crust in and they will
make a pizza for you.

*******************
Being an elementary teacher, and also using the Pizza Hut program to
encourage reading,
I would want the parent to let me know so I could do something different
for your child, but just as rewarding.  It could be done in a
confidential manner if your child is self conscious.

*********************
My oldest two kids are in classes that are using the Pizza Hut "Book it"
program. My oldest wants to get the coupons and give them to his best
friend. Since the program just started this month we haven't gotten to the
coupon part. I thought I might give $1 for each coupon they earn.

*********************
I tell my kids that if they make the goal for the month then we will go to
Wal-Mart or somewhere and they can pick out a prize (nothing too big).  This
usually works as motivation for my kids.

********************
I'd probably make a cool pizza for him myself and let him give the
certificate for the free pizza as a gift to someone he really likes. I
have not had great luck making pizza crust but in archives I bet you
can find suggestions. There's a GF mix I know. And Amy's frozen foods
has a very good GF pizza I recently tried! Be careful, she has lots of
them that aren't GF, too.

******************
My son's teachers have always done a special prize for my son each
month.  They have done everything from a hersheys, to a few colored
pencils, to stickers, miniature maze books, etc.  He never knows what he is
going to get so he loves the surprise and so do his friends.  We offered to
have things at school for them to give him but all of his teachers so
far(he's a third grader) have offered to do this on their own.

*******************
I asked my son if he wanted me to bring in our own pizza, he said "no",
because nothing is really as good as the pizza hut pizza, so I offered
pokemon cards (he collects them), and that was good enough for him.

*******************
We went through the same thing last year and what we did was I bought small
little gifts for the teacher to give my daughter each month.  Then, when the
had the pizza party at year's end, I brought her in GF pizza.  She doesn't
like pizza all that much anyway so she loved the little gifts which I
wrapped.

*******************
We haven't done much.  My daughter loves to read so she does it just to say
that she completed it and earned the award. Then she gives it to myyounger
son who isn't old enough to read yet. I then make her a gf pizza to eat
while the other kids eat their pan pizzas.  I would love to hear any
suggestions you get so that I could do a better job of rewarding her.

********************
My daughter, too, started receiving these rewards last
year in Kindergarten and also will be continuing this
year. I had my daughter read and accept these
certificates. I then told her that we would cash them
in for pizza for Mommy or Daddy and that I would make
her an extra special pizza all her own on that day.
She absolutely loves this idea, as she knows she
earned an extra special pizza!
Hope this helps.

*****************
My daughter's school had the same program a few years back.  Yes, you
are right, it's not very exciting to a Celiac child.  What I did, was
gave the coupon to my son who is not celiac and I took her to Wal-Mart
to pick out a little something.  I gave her a $5.00 limit, and she was
able to pick out whatever she wanted.  This seemed to work for us.

*******************
Zack, my kindergarten guy, came home with his "book it" form last
week too.  Kind of heartbreaking but we decided to turn it positive for
him.  I told him that he gets to be like Santa and he can decide who he
would like to give it to as a special gift.  He's actually excited that
he gets to give a nice present to someone.


There's more to life than food but it sure is tough sometimes.

**********************
When our children participated in the Pizza Hut reading incentive plan in
kindergarten and in the younger grades, we went to the local ice cream shop
and purchased gift certificates for sundaes or milk shakes or a dish of ice
cream. We gave these to the teacher and asked her to give them to our
children in place of the Pizza hut coupon.  They received the same instant
gratification as the other children by receiving the coupon with everyone
else, and were O.K. with it being a different reward. If memory serves me
correctly, I think we also used a couple of McDonalds Coupons from time to
time as well. As the children got older, they just got the pizza hut coupon
and we traded it for an ice cream coupon at home.  Good luck and keep
encouraging reading....its the most important tool for education your child
will learn in school!!

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *