Severe Food Allergy Parents - How Does Your Day Care/school Accommodate You?

Think that is reasonable. If they fed him something with peanuts, you could go crazy so just send in his food. Saves everyone a lot of worrying.

Whenever I have a child in my care with a severe allergy, multiple allergies or a pervasive allergy (ie. no dairy in any form or nothing that was made in a factory that processes nuts), I ask them to provide all food for their child. It protects the child, me and my staff from an accidental mix-up. It's a CYA policy that has the child's best interest in mind.
As someone with a deadly allergy myself, I'm perfectly capable of reading labels, but I also can't provide a special meal daily for one child. Be it allergens, BRAT for tummy troubles, organic only or "Suzy won't eat green, orange or white foods", if your child needs a special diet, it's your responsibility to provide all of their foods, not the daycare's.

Our son's daycare has a child with severe nut allergy. He is still able to eat foods that the daycare provides. The daycare provider has gotten her educated as to what foods may or may not contain nuts and she is also trained with the epi pen and what to do in an emergency. Communication is the key.

Momma:

I get where you are coming from - however - if your son is that allergic - why risk it?

You can try the peanut allergy shot - my former co-worker got it - it took about 3 years - but he's good now.

When my kids went to Kindercare - they worked with the families asking people to NOT bring in personal food - and if they brought something for a birthday - all ingredients must be listed.

Their menu is "peanut free" - however - they cannot ensure that peanuts are used in the plant where the food is made. And now with Celiac disease and gluten allergies? Just bring in your own food. Then you know your child isn't going to have a problem.

If the day care normally provides all of the meals for the students, I don't think they should need to change their menus/recipes to accommodate kids with allergies. I think providing for your son is the safest, smartest, and easiest way to make sure that everything he eats is safe, even though it will mean extra work for you.

When my son was in preschool, parents were responsible for taking turns bringing snack for the entire class. There was a list of kids with food restrictions (some allergies, some religious) in the kitchen. Every child also wore a name tag every day and those with restrictions had them printed on their name tags. However, there were not any rules on what food could be brought in as snack with relation to allergies. My son is allergic to dairy, eggs, and all nuts. Each morning, I would check to see what the snack was for the day. I always had a backup snack in my son's backpack just in case. I would tell my son, the teacher, and the parent in charge of snack that day which items my son could eat and which ones he couldn't. If one item was particularly problematic, I would ask that a separate plate be made for him in advance, since otherwise all of the different foods were placed on a common plate and the children served themselves (for example, goldfish crackers cause more problems if they come in contact with something else that my son eats, so I'd make sure he got food that never shared a plate with goldfish).

If my kid had a severe allergy I would WANT to provide all his food. It's not just the food itself you have to worry about but everything it comes in contact with (pots, dishes, counters, untensils, etc.) will they give you a small discount since they're not feeding him?

Schools usually handle allergies differently than daycares because once the child is school age they are able to take some responsibility for their own condition, whereas in daycare or pre-school it is entirely up to the adults to manage the child's condition. Anyway, where I am most day cares, pre-schools and elementary schools are nut free, or at least nut aware, as well as most public places that cater to children.

Our daycare went full on no-peanut for anyone, which makes it harder for us since our daughter only wants to eat pb&j for lunches. We're going to go ahead and just pay a little extra for her to eat their lunch during the summer so we don't have to worry that we might accidentally send something with a peanut in it and get someone else sick. If she doesn't want to eat it, well, she'll learn quick enough that if she's too picky, she'll be really hungry for dinner.

My son is nut allergic and attends a nut free preschool however there are times where they don't feel the snack is safe for him so he chooses a safe snack from his snack bag. This could mean there is something with a warning of shared equipment/facility. I'd rather be safe than sorry. If there is any doubt on your daycares part to provide a safe meal than I would do as they request for now and start looking for a place that is used to dealing with a nut allergy and can accomodate at least the breakfast and lunch portion of the day if that is important to you and you can send in a snack bag every month as backup.

luckily my kids have no allergies-their both in their 30,s n still none..however if i was in your shoes-id be more than happy to make all food for my kids if this was the issue-always better safe than sorry-and good for the director for making it clear on no grey areas.shes being just as proactive as she can be-and as your child enters school-the schools really dont have time to sort out whos allergic to what-so if i were you-id just keep packing a safe n healthy lunch until he knows all the differences in school lunches.

My son had food allergies so I can relate. I provided the school with a list of his can't have's and they did pretty well with it. He did outgrow a lot of his food allergies by school age and he didn't go to day care until he was 5 so that wasn't a problem. I had to give the school a doctors note on the milk allergy but most other things he knew he couldn't have and just wouldn't take that.

I also work at a day care and we have kids who can't drink milk but other dairy products seem to be fine. We have one with a peanut allergy and we just make sure there isn't any peanut butter served on that day. My son was also allergic to peanuts and we found that there was peanut oil in everything from chips to some processed foods. We were always watching the lables. This is where the day care may find a bit intimidating and would like you to bring your own food for him for that reason. I have a cousin who is so allergic to peanuts he can't be in a room with an open jar and in his case it is life threatening, unlike my son who would have to eat it to have a reaction. It seems a bit overboard for them to want you to provide all meals, but that is their policy, so not much choice there. Good luck.

Our daycare facility has a no peanut policy ~ they do not serve anything with peanuts, peanut oil, etc. to any of the kids. And all parents are asked not to bring bday treats with any kind of peanuts.

My son's preschool is tree nut free. There are zero children that attend the school that have peanut allergies. Its a precaution in case they ever do have someone that is allergic I guess. At our preschool, they provide snacks and parents send in a lunch. I have seen that they have a list in the cabinet where they keep the snacks of children with allergies or special needs, so I think that helps them keep track, but they do have the extra comfort of knowing nuts wont be an issue b/c they are not allowed at all. You could always look for a different preschool that is nut free if his allergy is very serious. Even in a nut free school there are examples of parents accidentially sending peanut products though - like those lunchables that have a reeces or snickers included... easier for something like that to sneak in there.

When my son was in daycare they were but free. Staff was not even allowed to bring in any nuts for their lunch. This was a huge center also. They also had signs up in the kitchen and in any kid eating area with the kids picture and what they were allergic to so all staff could see and make sure nothing was accidentally given to them.

If it was me, I would send food (and hopefully get a discount on my daycare since they aren't providing meals) and look for a new center that is but free.

Even with eating his own food, you need to request that the teachers helping him don't touch peanuts and then his food or cross contamination will occur and still make him have a reaction