As a Saturday treat and only if Little F has been good all week we take a ride to our regional McDonalds restaurant. Now not a great deal on the McDonalds menu is GF but up until now Little F has been more than happy with a Happy Meal made up from the grilled chicken breast (from the chicken salad) and fries.

Picture my dismay then when on Saturday I ordered 'the usual' only to get the reply "Sorry Sir, the chicken breast from the salad has been replaced with a new coated chicken fillet" ... my stomach sank.

I requested if they knew what the coating contained and the counter assistant scurried away to grab the proprietor, who brought me the new chicken breast product to look at. With a Broad grin on his face the supervisor then handed me a piece of paper which he'd printed from the company web-based site, his finger jabbing at a line in the middle of the page; "Product notes: Gluten Free." To his eternal credit the owner had pre-empted my questioning and done his homework.

So, with a little hesitation .... I ordered the fillet.

Little F is a Highly sensitive Coeliac. We know that if he comes into contact with gluten, within seconds he (quite spectacularly) displays the classic signs. As parents we go to extreme lengths to project Little F from possible gluten contamination so the next few minutes felt thoroughly alien as Little F enthusiastically polished off his lunch.

Half an hour passes ... nothing at all. Two hours pass ... nothing at all. 1st post meal bowel movement (sorry folks) ... Fantastic! One small step for Little F's Saturday lunchtimes, One GIANT leap for Ronald McDonald!

Saturday Lunchtimes are saved and more importantly, it would seem at least one major fast food chain has taken note. Maybe one day, there will be a complete GF meal option; until then I'll be ordering the chicken fillet and fries :)

*Please note: This was MY / OUR encounter. Please don't blame me if YOU have a response.

On checking 5 minutes ago on the main McDonalds web pages the new fillet details hadn't been uploaded but I'll keep checking back to see if they post up.

Click HERE for McDonalds Food Pages

I'll be adding more posts to my Free From blog section over the coming weeks. If you have any questions or ideas for posts It would be great to hear from you.