Back to School with Peanut Allergies

You all may have noticed the food allergy button on my sidebar. Most of you (knock on wood) will NEVER have to deal with such things but this post is being written to educate you because chances are you have others in your school who do. Food allergies are on the rise. If you suffer with food allergies or love someone who does there will be some really cool links at the end.


For our family back to school is a mixture of thanks and dread. Thanks that we will be back on schedule, dread because every.single.year we start all over again with teachers and administrators who don't always "get it." You see, buddy boy has a peanut allergy and while we control our environment and the food he eats for the most part. School is in essence a loaded gun for him.

Dramatics aside, peanut oil is something that stays on the hands until they are washed with soap and water. Picture glitter on the hand of the child who had peanut butter toast for breakfast. That glitter (or peanut oil) gets stuck to everything that child touches in the school. The door into the building, the door to the classroom, the chair, the pencil sharpener, the shared scissors, the balls during gym, you name it, if you can touch it you can leave your glitter behind. Now picture what an average school looks like....ALL.A.GLITTER.EVERY.WHERE.

This next part is the part most don't know or understand, so pay attention (please):

A child with a nut allergy has an internal "cup" that cup begins to "fill up" with every exposure they have to the allergen (in our case peanuts). It can be an oral exposure OR a contact exposure. So, by touching the peanut traces my son will react through his skin (many times with hives) and it adds more to his "cup". When the cup overflows that is when an anaphylactic reaction occurs. So, you see, it is not a matter of IF he will have anaphylaxis, it is WHEN. The best way for us to postpone that day is to keep him from coming into contact with the allergen the best we can and that is through education of both teachers, students and parents.


Where do you think the most dangerous place in the school is? Most of you will guess the cafeteria, right? So much PBJ, peanut butter and honey, peanut butter cookies, crackers, nuts for protein. However, our school has put measures in place for the lunchroom. There is a table my son sits at with the other food allergy kids and it is cleaned with separate cleaning supplies, including bucket and cloth. So, really, that table he sits at is most likely the LEAST contaminated part of that school. Picture all those children now going out to recess....ugghhh!! touch the basketball, the playground equipment, the door handle. However, our school also has put other measures in place. Albeit a hassle to constantly be "on" them about being consistent. All the cold lunch kids (where most nut foods come from) wash their hands after they eat and are seated all together. The hot lunch kids sit all together as well.

We have started school (since I began drafting this post) and to my surprise the school sent home the following letter to every parent in the numerous classrooms that school nut allergic children. I have to say it has been 5 years coming and I couldn't be happier. We have met with lots of resistance from administration as well as a handful of ignorant assholes uneducated parents.


"Dear Parent or Guardian:

A student or students in your child's classroom is/are allergic to Peanuts, Peanut Butter, and ALL Nuts. A severe reaction (anaphylasis) may occur as a result of ingesting the food item or in some instances by physical skin contact. This is a life-threatening allergy that may cause difficulty breathing and loss of consciousness and may require administration of emergency medication and hospitalization.

Avoidance is the only way to prevent a severe allergic reaction. The school has developed a plan to reduce the risk of exposure for those children who are allergic to certain food items. Some of the precautions taken include allergen-free tables and sections in the lunchroom, allergen-free tables washed with separate cleaning supplies to avoid cross contamination, and lunchroom/classroom procedures to reduce contact and exposure with foods containing the allergen that are brought to school.

Please make your best efforts to avoid sending foods that contain the foods to which their classmate(s) are allergic. Be aware that prepackaged food may have ingredients which can come in a variety of forms that contain the allergens listed above. You can also help by assisting your child in understanding the precautions that must be taken to reduce the risk of exposure of an allergic classmate to the allergen that may cause a life-threatening reaction.

By working together staff, parents and students can help lessen the risk of a severe allergic incident in our building fostering a safe environment for everyone. Thank you for joining us in this effort."



Still with me? God bless you! All I can say is this is nothing short of amazing! We had been told for years that such a letter could not be sent.

Please, if you know a child who has severe food allergies or is in your classroom at school, please educate yourself and know that the parents of these little (and not so little) ones carry a lot of stress and anxiety around how to handle this situation. Believe me I have had my fair share of run ins with irate parents.

Every.single.one.of.us will have an occasion to ask the school/teacher for a special accommodation for our child at some point. It might be social, educational, medical...but the day will come when YOUR child needs an accommodation so in the mean time support those who have those accommodations now.


Cheers to a year where I am not sending my child off to school with a total pit in my stomach!


Here are those links I promised you:
http://www.peanutallergykid.com/ (a GREAT blog about peanut allergies, tons of resources there)
peanutallergy.com

Peanut free sites with food:
http://www.peanutfreeplanet.com/
http://www.divvies.com/

epipen video