mcbean

I'm not sure what to do here. F has been at his preschool for going on three years. He starts K in the Fall. I have always been the shopping parent, which means that I buy all the snacks for the school. That way, I know they are safe for him to have, since he has SEVERE allergies to peanuts and eggs (both whites and yolks).

At Valentine's Day, the kids all exchange Valentines, and most kids attach a little candy - lollipop, etc. I've always told F that he can't eat anything like that without checking with me. At school, they let them each have one piece, and F asked his teacher if he could have a lollipop. Now, any person other than a parent of an allergic child would probably think "how on earth could egg or peanut get in a lollipop?" Well, guess what, somehow they do! I have to search through candy to find ones that don't. Anyway, one of the teachers told F he could have it. He wasn't so sure though, so he didn't eat it - THANK HEAVENS! - he told her he would ask his mom first. It was one from a big Target back that F's own grandmother also sent for Valentine's Day. Clear on the big bag - peanut exposure.

Another day, a police officer came to visit the school. She brought the kids little cello-bags with M&Ms in them for each child. Again, F asked the teacher if he could have them. She said "Yes"!!! All M&Ms have peanut exposure.

After that incident, I emailed the director with a reminder that F's allergies are severe and the teachers cannot assume that he can eat anything unless it actually has the ingrediants listed and they can read that it doesn't have ANY exposure to nuts/eggs. She replied, thanking me for my email and telling me they would have a nice long discussion about it.

Today, I took F to school. I hadn't bought snacks for this week, as there seemed tons left from last week. So as I'm taking stock of the kitchen to go to the store this afternoon, I see two big bags of pretzels that the teacher (not sure which one) brought for snack. Sure enough, they have peanut exposure. They were going to feed this to my child. I pulled down a bag, showed the director that it has peanut exposure and told her that F can not have them. I suggested they have them in the afternoon class today (F is in the morning). But I'm tempted to just go in and toss the whole thing when I take the regular snacks this afternoon.

I'm sad and livid and don't know what on earth else I can do to get this through to them. I don't know why it's only been a problem lately - laziness on their part?

I'm sorry this turned into a novel. I'm just so disappointed.

Carol in Maryland

I think you are absolutely right that, unless a person has a child with this problem, they simply do not "get" that it is life-threatening and not something to be dealt with casually. You would think, with all the publicity that food allergies have been getting, people would be better educated. I really don't know what more you can do than be hypervigilant and working with F to do his own monitoring, which he seems to be pretty good at, thank goodness!

8marie

All I can say is to stick to your guns and keep repeating yourself. Maybe type something up that reminds them to not only check the ingredients, but that if there are processing notes that note peanuts processed in the same facility....THAT COUNTS TOO!!!

On a side note, same brand/style/design of animal crackers...one in a single serve pack - one in a large bag. Large bag lists dairy, small bag does not....isn't that strange?!?!? I declined to serve either to my allergic kid...looking at the crackers and packages they seem exact. Wasn't worth the risk to me as the teacher.

Do you run into similar situations???

KBtotheBB

((Aileen))

I don't know what it's like to have a child with such severe allergies, but I can imagine that it can be really scary when situations like this come up. Kudos to F for being so good and cautious ... that's very responsible of him.

Maybe sit down with F's teachers to (again?) talk about the severity of his allergies and how easy it is for foods to be exposed to peanuts.

mcbean

Thank goodness F is so responsible about his allergies. The director did remark that I've taught him well, which was nice to hear. She said he's not fearful, just matter of fact that he can't eat things where a grown-up can't read the ingredients. He knew (better than the teacher) that he couldn't have the lollipop or the M&Ms. I'm really lucky. It is one of the reasons that I held him back from kindergarten - so he could have the maturity to understand his situation better. I was just floored by this recent snack thing - because I've told him that since I'm the shopping parent, anything they serve for snack is safe for him to eat.

Rubisca

Ugh, I'm sorry, Aileen. I'm glad he is old enough (and obviously smart enough!) to be pretty vigilant on his own, but it's awful that you have to be so involved in every bite that he eats and that you don't feel like you can trust his caregivers at school. No advice here, just sympathy...

mommy23ms

Exactly.
It's probably hard for them to get it because it's not something they are vigilant about daily in their own lives. Things you wouldn't expect to have been exposed to eggs/peanuts have been. Unless you deal with it daily, it'd be hard to stop and think before you feed it to a child. Hopefully you can beat it into their heads, probably just in time for F to move on . . .

whistlergirl

That is scary. As a teacher I was always so vigilant about peanuts and tree nuts. The possibility of one of the kids having a reaction to something just was not worth it. Hugs to you.

_Sue_

Ugh - Aileen, I'm so sorry they seem to be not 'getting' it. Can you also put up a big sign in the kitchen about checking ALL ingredients? Hopefully the director will make a point of discussing it at the next meeting, or perhaps you can ask to speak at the next meeting? Not finger pointing but just a review of procedures before allergic children are given ANYTHING to eat?

And good for you and F for instilling such responsibility. Pretty amazing that he has the restraint to choose not to eat candy after he's been given the green light from an adult!

KeriKadi

Of course I agree with everyone else.

I think you need a face to face with his teacher. She needs to see, from you, how VERY important this is. She needs to say NO to everything just in case.