The Dublin mum who turned her family's coeliac diagnosis into a children's book

There’s a particular kind of parenting challenge that doesn’t come with a manual. Not the toddler tantrums or the homework meltdowns — but the moment you have to explain something genuinely complicated to a small child who just wants a straight answer. For Dublin mum Cathy Magrey, that moment arrived when her mother was diagnosed with coeliac disease and suddenly Granny couldn’t eat the same food as everyone else at the table.

“I found myself struggling to explain it to my young boys,” Cathy says. “Why Granny couldn’t have what we were having. I couldn’t find anything suitable to help, so I wrote it myself.”

That instinct — so recognisably mum — has turned into The Food Detectives: A Gluten-Free Mystery, a children’s picture book that Cathy has just published, drawing on her background in behavioural science and how children learn to make a tricky subject feel genuinely manageable for little readers.

Why this book matters

Coeliac disease affects around 1 in 100 people in Ireland, and many of those cases are still undiagnosed. It’s the kind of statistic that’s easy to gloss over until it becomes personal — until it’s your child’s granny, or your own child, or you. And when it does become personal, you quickly realise how little help there is for explaining dietary differences to young kids in a way that makes sense to them rather than scaring them or confusing them.

The Food Detectives frames gluten-free eating as a mystery to be solved, with two young boys and their grandmother at the heart of the story. It’s warm, it’s age-appropriate and it gives children a narrative framework for understanding why some people eat differently — which, if you’ve ever tried to explain food allergies to a four-year-old at a birthday party, you’ll know is no small feat.

Importantly, the educational content has been reviewed by the Coeliac Society of Ireland, which gives it a credibility that parents navigating a new diagnosis — whether their own, a grandparent’s or a child’s — will really appreciate.

Where to find it

The book is currently stocked in the Coeliac Society of Ireland’s shop, in three local Dublin bookshops and on Amazon.ie. If you’re in Limerick on 11th October, Cathy will be joining the Coeliac Society at their Gluten Free Roadshow — a great opportunity to pick up a copy in person and have a chat with the woman behind the story.

It’s the kind of book that quietly fills a gap you didn’t realise was there until you needed it. Whether you’re managing a coeliac diagnosis in the family, trying to help your child understand a classmate’s dietary needs or simply looking for a bedtime read that does something a little bit meaningful — this one’s worth knowing about.

A book born from real family life

What makes The Food Detectives feel different from a lot of health-focused children’s books is that it isn’t preachy or clinical. It came from a mum sitting at a kitchen table trying to figure out how to answer her kids’ questions honestly. Cathy brought her professional knowledge to it, yes, but the emotional core is just a family trying to include Granny — and that’s something most of us can picture without much effort at all.

If you’d like to find out more or get your hands on a copy, it’s available now through the Coeliac Society of Ireland’s shop, selected Dublin bookshops and Amazon.ie.