If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

How exactly is it handled? I am very confused about the procedure and I will definitely try to find out more in January but I would love to know how it is handled in your child's school. Basically there is a girl in my son't class who is allergic to EVERYTHING: milk, eggs, soy, nuts, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on...

She sits at a separate lunch table with the rest of allergic kids and whenever there is a small party in the classroom her mom brings her separate food.

When she came into school in the middle of semester we received a letter about never bringing nuts to school. I don't have that letter anymore and I don;t remember any other details but I do know for sure that any dairy was also on the list she is allergic to, yet children bring macaroni and cheese for lunch and that's not a problem. It is, however, eaten at a different lunch table from her.

The only time this girl can come in contact with all those foods is if they are eaten for snack in their classroom.

Does that mean that I can give my son PB sandwiches for LUNCH but obviously not for snack?

Another thing is that I do give him cheese crackers for snack all the time and I know at least one other child who gets the same kind of Trader Joe's cheese cracker and eats them during snack time IN THE CLASSROOM.

I wouldn't care that much about all of it and obviously the last thing I want to do is hurt that poor girl, but I have got my own kid to worry about. Benjamin refuses to eat hot cafeteria food ( and I don't blame him) and is EXTREMELY selective in his other choices. He basically LIVES on pita with hummus or pita with turkey lunches. He loves peanut butter so when this whole thing happened basically we lost that option completely. Or did we?

I know I am just mumbling on but I am very unfamiliar with any of this! As I mentioned many times on these boards I didn't grow up in USA and actually had pretty bad allergies when I was a child. I basically knew not to eat certain foods. Ever. Nobody ever restricted what kids could or could not eat around me. I think the policies here are different.

If anyones is still reading and has any light to shed on this situation about how theses things are handled in their child's school I would greatly appreciate it!

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

I'd send him in with anything EXCEPT peanut butter. The milk, soy, etc allergies are all harmful if ingested But not if others are eating it in front of them -- the peanuts are an airborn/contact allergy. If your DC eats peanut butter and has any residue at all on his hands, sleeve whatever it could easily come into contact with the allergic child and be lethal.
I would check with the teacher or the parent - but good for you for being concerned! I know a lot of parents complain about the peanut free rules and I don't understand either why we never heard of this when we were kids, but I try to put myself in the parents shoes (my ds has a dairy allergy but thank god not nuts) and I can't imagine how scary it must be to rely on other parents to help keep your child safe.

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

Every child's allergy is different and each school handles things differently. My kids are in the allergy room. Basically they put all kids with allergies in one class. They can not bring anything peanut related into the classroom. They can however bring obj for lunch since the kids with the peanut allergies eat at a seperate table. Some schools are peanut free, some classes are it all depends. Best bet is to call the teacher or the principal.

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

I am a teacher and have several children in my room with severe allergies that require epipens. We are not peanut free-the children with the allergies have assigned seats at our lunch table and the children sitting next to them and across from them are not allowed to have the foods that the other children are allergic too. So if someone brings in a peanut butter sandwich, the lunch aide makes sure they are not sitting next to or across from the cihld with the allergy.

The table is washed before the children with the allergies sits down and all children wash their hands after lunch. The lunch aide also has a walkie talkie that they have with them in the lunch room in case they need to get in touch with the nurse in case of an emergency.

As for snack in the classroom-same basic concept. All children wash their hands when they are done with snack and I wash all the tables down after snack. There is no sharing of food EVER.

As for celebrations and birthdays, I have the parents of the children with allergies send in special snacks for their children in the beginning of the year. Anytime we have a celebration that involves food, the children with allergies get to choose from their bag of special snacks.

I am sure all schools/districts handle things a little bit differently, so it is important for you to speak with your child's teacher.

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

ITA agree with the above posters.

As a substitute for PB, check if you can use almond butter or sunflower butter instead. A lot of kids don't taste the difference and it looks the same as PB.

Re: If there is child in your son's/daughter's class with severe allergies

The child in my daughter's class has a peanut and tree nut allergy. I will never send in anything with nuts because his allergy is also air born so being in the room with it can be extremely dangerous for him. We were sent a list of snacks that do not contain and are not processed around nuts. It has made celebrating birthdays in the class difficult but other than that I stick to the list. Definitely can be a PITA when it's not your child with the allergy but I just think of it as if it were my child what would I want everyone else to do.