I started when they were about 5. I risk saying that as I may end up eating my hat in the near future... but they do very well with it... gluten... that is.

I've always said to them, "It's your body and you've got to take care of it."

Candy is harder for them. They will refuse candy that they are not sure about when it comes to gluten but if it is a gf candy like skittles or an areo bar (even though it has dairy) it is too hard for them to refuse.

This year I've got a little bit tougher about it as the errors over the years have made it quite clear which reactions are related to which foods. We do very little refined sugar as we find that it affects behaviour and quibbling becomes apparent very quickly. So the deal is that if they have some, they can't make me regret it or the next time the answer will be negative. There have been times I've had to follow up on it and I feel badly - I don't know why though because it's really not hurting them when I say, "Gee too bad you can't have this treat today because last week there was too much trouble."

When they were younger, it was harder to stick to my guns about those things though... As they get older, it gets easier because I know that they have more control of themselves and can 'choose' their behaviour more.

For example, dd is now 9 and a couple of weeks ago I caught her teasing her 7 yob, "Friday I'm getting candy and you're getting none and I'm not sharing mine with you." I overheard it and told her she just lost her Friday candy. I thought I would feel badly about it when Friday came around but I didn't because she's 9, I guess.

Also, I no longer tolerate outbursts as a result of diet issues. If they're not feeling up to par or socializing well, then they are to remove themselves and go to play/do schoolwork quietly on their own. It is not acceptable for them to aggravate eachother and disrupt the whole household as would happen when they were younger and we were newer to the diet (still isolating which foods were causing which issues).

So I guess, my final answer is that it evolves with age. If they were mentally challenged my answer might be different though.