Nanny with a peanut butter allergy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's obviously possible to find families who will happily work with a nanny with peanut allergies, but it will likely reduce the number of families willing to hire you.

One thing that I find curious is: how did your current nanny family take this news? Or were you already out of work and looking for a job? The way your post is phrased it kind of sounds like the latter. If you are not a strong candidate for other reasons, this obviously won't help your case, but I hope you won't solely blame your new allergy as the reason you're having trouble finding a job. You can try to offset this drawback with something else on your resume, such as getting an ECE degree or learning a new language (Spanish or French) so you can market yourself as bilingual, etc.

OP here. I've been with the same family for 4 years.
They told me that they would happily forego peanut butter to keep me.
I'm not sure where you got the idea I am having trouble finding work.
I speak 3 languages and have a degree, so I'm not really sure what I could do to make myself more marketable.

Except it's not just peanut butter or peanuts. It's things made in a facility with peanuts. It's that granola bar you don't realize has traces of peanuts. Your doctor told you not to handle products with peanuts. I certainly hope your bosses educate themselves beYond "oh we just won't keep peanut butter in the house"

[Anonymous]

I'd be thrilled. My kids don't eat it, only my husband so I'd love not to have it in the house as I hate the smell of it. Really, its not a big deal. If you can be around it, but not eat it, families can have it when you're not in their home. Otherwise they will be decent and keep it out of their home.

[Anonymous]

WHAT? I've been allergic to tree nuts all my life. I can handle, open nuts, open granola bars and hand them to children, handle cookies with walnuts in them, cut pecan pie and serve it.... just won't ever MAKE pecan pie, or use walnuts in my own cooking.

Believe me, you'll be fine. Just wash your hands after making the peanut butter sandwich, etc. I do remember to not kiss my husband after he's had granola or eaten nuts until he'd brushed his teeth, but that's because we deep kiss. I wouldn't worry about hugging or kissing a child who had eatern a peanut butter sandwich once I'd washed his face.

You'll be fine. Carry your epipen. You should tell the parents you are allergic to peanuts (and remember, that means all foods with peanuts in them) because you should get in the habit of telling everyone who is around you often, but just don't eat anything they make unless you are sure. Bring your own lunch, and read ingredients before eating the bread, etc.

[Anonymous]

PP with tree nut allergy. The family can have peanut butter in the house, just don't eat it yourself. Seriously, you're making too much of a big deal about this. I know it's a new diagnosis, and believe me I'm VERY SERIOUS about my allergy, I question everything, read every ingredient, etc. But having nuts on the counter in my kitchen is not going to kill me - eating them will.

And practice using your epipen - I hope your epipen came with a trainer - please practice using that on your outer thigh so you aren't scared to use it. It's easy, it's quick, it's discrete, it's important.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think that there are so many nut-free families these days that you won't have a problem. Include it in your profile so there aren't any surprises, and people who don't mind it will already know when they set up the interview (when it's time to move on from your current family.)

I also developed a peanut allergy in adulthood after eating a ton of them until that point with no ill effects - scary!

[Anonymous]

I'm a nanny with severe nut allergies and it has never been a problem with any of the families. I make sure to ask if there are nuts in any of the foods that I am offered and read labels. I won't cook with nuts, but smearing peanut butter on a piece of bread with a knife isn't an issue. If I'm giving the kids a snack of nuts, I use a paper towel and pour the nuts into a bowl directly from the pack without touching them. I always wash hands afterwards and wipe the kids' mouths/hands or ask them to do it themselves to be on the safe side. I've never had a family treat me differently when it came up that I had nut allergies - except for treating me with more care.