Reply to Class 3 Peanut Allergy

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[quote=Anonymous]Mom of child with peanut and tree nuts allergies here.  I have never heard of classes of allergies, and we see a reputable allergist in the DC area and we see Dr. Wood at Johns Hopkins each year.  My only point being that I don't think the "class" of allergy matters much - if your allergist said that you need an epi-pen for your child's peanut allergy, then you need to treat it seriously (and calmly).  To answer your specific question, here is what we do at school (MCPS elementary school).  An epi-pen pack and benadryl are kept in the nurse's office along with the appropriate MCPS forms and an allergy action plan which you can print off the FARE website, and your allergist will fill it out with you.  At the beginning of the year I send an email to my child's teacher alerting her of the allergy, and request a few minutes of her time to discuss.  (If you can do this before school starts, that is better because then the teacher will usually include in her note to the class about snacks a request that they be nut free, but often at our school we don't find out our child's teacher until the day before school starts.)  I ask the teacher and class room parents (a duty of which I always sign up for) to let me know when food will be served so that I can check it ahead of time to make sure it is safe for my child to eat, and if it is not then I'll send her with her own treat.  This gets tricky b/c often people don't remember to let you know ahead of time about treats at school, and at our MCPS no teacher has ever agreed to keep a bag of nut free cookies in the classroom to provide to my child in the event there is a treat with nuts served (I get it - they don't want to attract mice or bugs by keeping cookies in the room).  Sometimes that means she has gone without a treat when the other kids are getting one, but better safe than sorry, and she knows I'll give her a treat at home to make up for the missed treat (which I think cuts down on the temptation to eat it at school).  The main times treats are served at our school are the Halloween and Valentine's Day parties, field day at the end of the year, and sometimes candy will be given out to kids as a reward for good behavior in the cafeteria (don't even get me started on that, although my beef is for health reasons, not allergy ones).  There are always random other occasions as well which of course you don't find out about until the night before so it helps to keep a bag of nut free cupcakes/cookies in your freezer.  But here's the most important thing we do with our child - and we refresh it every year before school starts and periodically throughout the year - we drum into her head that she is not to share food with anyone, nor is she to accept food from anyone unless we have told her it is safe to eat.  We do not require her to sit at the nut free table at school - we did not want her to sit alone at the table back in K when she didn't know anyone, and we trust that she knows not to share food no matter what.  My last tip is never to assume anything at MCPS - often the nurse will tell me the great procedures in place, and then I'll later discover the cafeteria workers have no clue what the nurse was talking about.  There is very little communication within the schools on the allergy front, so each area where you see potential food matters, I suggest investigating it yourself or else talk to your principal to get confirmation that the correct info has been communication to the teacher, cafeteria, etc.  GL.  [/quote]

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