Food Allergy Awareness Week: School and Snacks

Now here’s a hot topic! Because of the prevalence of food allergies these days, your child is likely to have an allergic classmate at some point in their school career. Managing allergies in the classroom is tricky at best and controversial at worst. Schools and teachers have been forced to attempt to make food allergy policies that protect the allergic students while not creating a hardship for the non-allergic children and their parents. Some have found a better balance than others; policies range from one extreme to the other, including:

• peanut-free classrooms across the board OR peanut-free classrooms when a peanut allergy is present
• separate lunch tables/work tables for food allergic children
• special allergen-free zones
• removing play-dough from pre-schools, daycares, and Kindergarten classrooms (because it contains wheat and a reaction can occur on contact even when it’s not ingested)

Even the parents of food allergic children are divided on the best way to handle food allergies at school, because it IS difficult to find the balance between protecting the one and preserving the freedom of the other. I’m not going to get involved in the debate, in part because I’m not entirely sure myself of the best solution.

However, I do want to address one thing: complaints about the policies from parents of non-allergic children.

What I really want to say to those parents who complain is this: Grow up.

Instead, I’ll say this:

Put yourself in the shoes of the food-allergic parents. Imagine that if someone touched your child with peanut butter on their fingers, your child might end up with an allergic reaction so severe that potentially inexperienced strangers will have to inject him with epinephrine and call an ambulance. If the treatment is not immediate and administered correctly, your child is in danger of dying. All from peanut-butter fingers.

When you look at it through someone else’s eyes, you can begin to appreciate the necessity of keeping a safe environment for food-allergic children. Most of the time, the prevention policies are reasonable enough and easy for everyone to follow. Of course, it can get ridiculous in extreme cases where children are severely allergic to multiple things; in that case, I personally think it’s probably best for the parents to consider if it might not be better to home-school or tutor their child rather than forcing 30+ individuals to totally change their lifestyle for the sake of one person.

So what can you do if your child is in a class with a food allergic child? Regardless of whether or not the school or teacher has policies in place to protect the food allergic one, here are some things you can do:

1. Educate yourself about their specific allergens and the typical severity of their reactions. Talk to the parent and find out: would they have a reaction on contact or only on ingestion? Can they have eggs baked into cakes and cookies or not at all?
2. Strictly follow whatever policies are in place. If that means no peanut in your child’s lunch, then don’t put peanut in your child’s lunch. Simple! (Avoiding peanut for one meal a day is really not that big a deal. Imagine trying to avoid 8 different common foods for every single meal and snack! If you’re stumped for lunch ideas beyond PB&J, check out this back-to-school post.)
3. Educate your child. It means so much to me that my brother- and sister- in law - who live in the same town I do so we see them a lot and spend a lot of time with them - have educated their two children about my Certain Little Someone’s allergies and have strictly instructed them not to feed him anything other than what I allow them to feed him. They are so well trained that the other day, when we were eating out with him, my Certain Little Someone grabbed a (safe) french fry from his cousin’s bag. The cousin instinctively reacted with a gasp and grabbed the bag away from him. He didn’t see what my Certain Little Someone had eaten and was afraid it was unsafe for him. You can teach your child to be the same way for the sake of the other food allergic children. Tell your child to keep his or her food in the spot where it belongs and not to let it get anywhere near the allergic student. After eating, wash hands carefully to avoid touching the child with allergenic fingers. And carefully wipe your spot after eating (if eating in the classroom).
4. Even if the parent of the allergic child brings a special snack just for her, consider preparing snacks that are allergen-free. Many kindergarten and lower elementary classrooms have special snack days or birthdays where parents bring in food to share with the class. If that’s the case in your child’s class, consider bringing food that is safe for everyone, including the allergic ones. I’m not suggesting that you go out and buy rice flour or other exotic ingredients just for that one snack, but consider foods that are naturally allergen-free, like fruits and vegetables. Serve them in finger-food sizes or with toothpicks. Offer a dip for those who don’t have allergies. For very young children, a box of allergen-free cereal (like Kix, Chex, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, or the like - no, not healthy, but an easy snack!) will be just as appreciated as anything else. For older children, plain potato chips are usually welcome. If you want to be a little healthier, there are several brands that make safe sweet potato chips that are healthier than regular chips. Tortilla chips and salsa are also usually free of the top 8 allergens. Fruit snacks and gummy snacks are usually allergen-free (albeit dreadfully unhealthy). OR talk to the parent of the allergic child and see if they have any ideas of a quick safe snack you can provide for all the children.
5. If you want to bring a goodie bag for all the children to celebrate your child’s birthday, focus on non-food prizes like stickers, pens or pencils, erasers, notepads, and little toys. The party favor section at any big box store or party store will have a lot of options. If you must throw in a special treat, consider hard candies (for older children) or gummy candies (for younger children), as those are almost always allergen-free. Once again, check with the parents of the food allergic child before assuming anything.

That’s it for Food Allergy Awareness Week! I’ll be back tomorrow (hopefully!) with another great powdered-sugar-free frosting recipe for you. To recap, here are all the other FAAW posts:

The Dangers of Food Allergies

Food Allergies 101

Hosting the Food Allergic