Kids Food Allergies Blog

As parents of food allergic children, we need to walk a fine line between advocating to keep our children safe and alienating people whom we need as allies by seeming too extreme.  As I prepare to meet with the principal of my daughter’s new school, I wonder just how much I can ask from her new principal, teacher, and the parents of her classmates.

I am reminded by one of my readers how asking for too much can border on the absurd.  Richard R posted this provocative comment below:

I’ve run into absurd extremes before. Our daughter’s pre-school sent out a letter that since they had a child at the school who had a sibling with a nut allergy who WASNT at the school, no child attending school would be allowed to eat peanuts at HOME, let alone at the school. In other words, No peanuts in 3 degrees of separation from the allergic child.
There was an outcry and it was rescinded. It’s stuff like that that makes the issue seem silly and overblown.

Richard raises an interesting point.  Based on the facts Richard presents, I would argue that the parents aren’t helping their child, and they certainly aren’t helping our broader cause.   I’d rather go the humbler route.  This is what I’m asking for.  Please:

1. don’t allow children to bring or eat peanuts in the classroom;
2. have children wash hands after eating;
3. don’t do art/science projects which contain dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, or eggs; and
4. try to provide advance notice of birthday celebrations so that we can provide a special treat for my daughter.

But what seems perfectly reasonable to me may seem totally outlandish to others.  That seems to be Trace Adkins’ experience.  We learn from Celebrity Baby Blog that when asked whether people are sensitive to the severity of his daughter’s allergies, Adkins says:

People seem to not really care.  I was doing a radio-show interview the other day, and a listener called in and said, “I was told that I couldn’t bring something into my kids’ school because other kids were allergic, and that’s infringing on my freedoms.”  I thought, “You idiot.  Bring something else.  Are you seriously suggesting that you should have the freedom to kill my kid?”

If you have a child entering kindergarten (like me), or are changing schools, I found a really helpful website, Safe@School Partners, that offers a discussion guide for approaching food allergies with those responsible for keeping your child safe at school.   Of particular interest to me was the sample letter from the principal to parents of your child’s classroom.  It would need a bit of tailoring to meet our circumstances, but I think strikes the right tone.

I was a huge fan of The Apprentice in the early seasons, but never got hooked on The Celebrity Apprentice. But over the past week, everywhere I go, people have been telling me about Trace Adkins — and how his story made them think of my daughter and other food allergic children, and the challenges that our families face on a daily basis. I just watched the Week 13 video clip 4 where he talks about his daughter and his charity The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). It brought me to tears. I thank you, Trace, for raising awareness on an issue that is so close to my heart. Even though you may not have won the contest — you have done a tremendous service for the families of the 3 million school age children that suffer with severe food allergies by highlighting the difference between mild allergies that cause itching and severe food allergies that can cause airways to close. I wish your daughter all the best. And thanks again for making people think. You will always be a winner to us.

Check out the Trace Adkins Blog. You’ll see Trace does valuable work on food allergy awareness. And here’s his MySpace page.