Kids Food Allergies Blog

School’s out for summer.  So, why am I spending so much time thinking about school?

Last week — I had my first meeting with the principal and kindergarten teacher of my daughter’s new school.  I was pleased by how productive this meeting was.  I left reassured that the school would make reasonable accommodations in order to provide a safe environment for her.

My husband recommended that I post the discussion outline that I prepared that set the stage for this school meeting, in the event that it might help someone else.

Meeting Objectives:

1. Prevent food allergy attack by minimizing the risk of allergen exposure
2. Recognize signs/symptoms of food allergy attack and be prepared to execute emergency medical plan
3. Create safe environment in which food allergic child can have normal school experience

Wish List:

1. Minimizing risk:

A. Understanding the allergens:  What are they?  What range of reactions can occur based on contact or ingestion?
B. handwashing - entering school and after eating
C. nut-free classroom (since kindergarten students have snack in the classroom)
D. food-free art/science projects
E. principal/teacher letter to educate parents

2. Executing Emergency Plan

A. How widely distributed?
B. How knowledgeable about food allergies are teachers/staff that are responsible for FA child? Are they trained to administer epipens in an emergency?
C.  What about substitutes?
D.  Where are epipens stored?  If stored in nurses office (not classroom), how accessible is this office?  What happens if office closed?  Is emergency medicine brought on playground or on field trips?  Who is in charge in these environments?

3. Creating safe/normal environment

A. Birthday celebrations and class parties - predictable schedule with advance notice so parent can provide safe snack for FA child
B. Desire to keep child safe without putting any additional limitations or restrictions (other than those recommended by her allergist) that make FA child feel excluded from group activities
C. What are the bus procedures/protocols?  Can child self-carry epipen?  Will bus driver carry epipen?  If answer to both is “no” - how can FA child be kept safe on bus?

I hope this is helpful.  If I’ve forgotten something — or if you’ve have had positive/negative experiences in meeting with school officials that you think would be helpful to share — please  leave a comment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under food allergies, school. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.