Since I am a teacher and have spent a lot of time in schools, I have noticed how differently each school and district handle food allergies. Below is a list of some of the school guidelines for students with nut allergies that I have noticed when being in a school. Does your child have any of these same guidelines?
- Pictures of students on the cafeteria wall with list of allergies
- Specific rules/guidelines in classroom, like everyone wash hands before/after eating
- No food or eating in the hall
- No child can share food with another
- A policy of no food or backpacks brought inside the classroom, and everyone who enters must use a hand wipe first.
- One-on-one classroom aide for the allergic child
- Classrooms with PAL posters on the wall
- Signs outside the classroom that say “Allergy Aware Classroom”
- “Nut-free” lunch tables
How do people feel about these guidelines? Does it help your child feel safer? Do they feel singled out? When I was in elementary school, I was the only one in the entire school with any allergies. My teachers were certainly aware, but it was nothing like the way elementary schools are handling it now. I would like to hear what you as parents have to say about it? I look forward to some comments!
My daughter has a nut allergy and she’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall. Her school will have nut-free grade levels for any grade that has a student allergic to nuts. I’m not so sure how I feel about this. I’m afraid that with all the misinformation about nut allergies, there would be a false sense of security.
And then there’s the whole thing about the child herself learning how to deal with her allergy. Peer pressure, home-baked goods that can be cross-contaminated, people who don’t take allergies seriously and would outright lie about what’s not in the food just so people will taste it…
Anyways, I could ramble on and on about this. Can I ask you to take a look at this blog post that I wrote? http://karenthecalifornian.blogspot.com/2009/05/nut-allergy.html