It’s September and we going back to school! With food allergies! To a new teacher! Just what the new school year nerves need- the addition of food allergies. Our kid is still in preschool/day care, so we are not ready for Individual Health care plans or a section 504 accommodation plan (but if your kid is- here’s where to learn more), so how to we make sure she is safe? Well, the Elijah-Alavi Foundation is out to make daycares safer. After their 3 year old son died after having anaphylaxis at daycare, Elijah’s parents started a foundation to raise awareness of food allergies and ensure kids in childcare are safe. They are working to pass policies in all fifty states that include:
- State requires up-to-date health records to include known allergies
- State requires food allergy care plan for children with food allergies
- State requires child care personnel to receive training for the prevention and treatment of allergic reactions to food
- State requires child care personnel to receive training on the administration of epinephrine auto-injectors
- State allows stocking of undesignated epinephrine auto-injectors at daycares
- State requires emergency services to be contacted immediately when epinephrine is administered
- State requires parent/guardian be notified of possible allergic reaction
- State requires child care facilities to have food service policies that address allergies
- State requires a child’s food allergies to be posted prominently in the child care facility and/or in the food preparation area
All of these seem like perfectly reasonable expectations.
And if you live in the US, you can go to their website to see which are
required for your state specifically. Even though Elijah’s law isn’t law where I
live, I like knowing these requirements because it reinforces what I need to make
sure her teachers know. They have to know how to use her autoinjector (I made sure
to pack an extra trainer so that all of her teachers could practice with it).
They need to not be afraid to administer the epinephrine (I made sure to tell
them that nothing bad would happen if she’s given epinephrine even if she doesn’t
need it so if they are in doubt, GO AHEAD AND GIVE IT). They need to call 911
and me afterwards. They also have a list of her current allergies. I hope she
is never exposed at daycare, but if she is, I need to know they will act
according to her plan, as quickly as possible.
Ideally, I would have had time to meet with the teachers in
person to go over all of this information. Instead, I traded emails back and
forth, hoping that everything was understood.
Snack is big issue. We always provide lunches for her, but
snack is generally bought by one family per week and shared with the whole
class. In her two year old class, the teachers went out of their way to plan
snacks that were safe for all of their kids. This year, her new teacher wanted
us to pack her separate snacks each day. It’s definitely more work for us, but
it’s also more control over everything she eats. She did scare me the first day
of school when she came home and said “I didn’t like the cheese they had at
snack.” I’m still not sure what she was talking about- surely, she didn’t try
it? Right? She was probably just saying she didn’t like it because she couldn’t
have it… right? Right?! We had a long discussion about how she was only
supposed to eat food packed from home and NOT the self serve snack that is out
for her friends to eat. You know what I definitely shouldn’t be doing? Relying
on my two year old to know which food is safe and which food is not.
Another beginning of the year snafu? The epinephrine that we
keep in her lunch box (with an extra copy of her allergy action plan and quick
reminders to call 911 and us) was removed on her first day of school. Apparently,
the older class keeps all of their epinephrine together. Nothing like getting home and unpacking
a lunch box and not having any idea where your kid’s epinephrine is. The reason
we started keeping it there was because when we first were prescribed epinephrine,
we were only able to get 2 (you know how hard and expensive it can be to get epinephrine!), so we had to have a way to keep it with her at all
times. Luckily, after many phone calls to multiple specialty pharmacies, we
were able to get an extra set that we keep at home. But, I would definitely suggest teachers not
haphazardly remove life saving, expensive medication from a kid’s bags. No
matter their age.
Happy September! It’s good to be back!
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