Has It Really Been 2 Weeks?
B started Kindergarten last week. It's been rough. Tears every day (mostly hers) - I am hoping it will be a phase that she'll snap out of soon. It's not like she's never been away from me. She's been in daycare/preschool since she was 5 months old. Change is hard I guess.
As for keeping her safe in school, things couldn't be better. I had a meeting with her principal and teacher before school started and save for banning peanut butter in the school, I've had all her needs met without protest. In fact, they suggested other things to think about (and remedies to the problems). I have lots of notes that I'm going to put here soon. I know it wont help those of you who just started your kids for the school year, but maybe it will help someone searching next year. I have lunch duty on Friday, so I'll get a better sense of how the allergy table works as well as their hot lunch program (which claims to be peanut safe). We'll see about that!
I feel like I've filled a million epi prescriptions and bought dozens of bottles of benadryl. But I think every base is covered. How about you guys? Any surprises yet from school?
9 comments:
My son starts kindergarten next year and so your experiences will be very useful to me. Looking forward to reading them.
Thanks for all your updates, they really help.
Nat's Mom
My daughter with peanut and tree nut allergies started kindergarten this year as well. My wife contacted the person in charge of food services at the district level. We were able to get a list of all the foods served in the cafeteria with the ingredients for prepared foods and nutritional information for processed items. Hopefully the people in your district will be just as helpful.
So far my son's nursery have been fabulous so fingers crossed that will continue. No school for another couple of years so I've got plenty of time to build up a head of worried steam by then!
We have had great luck. Our lunch program is safe and the school has done a great job. The kids have had a hard time not understanding that peanuts can hide in food. I ordered a book from Barnes and Noble called "Allie the Allergic Elephant" it explains in kids terms what can happen if your child eats peanuts. The teacher read it to the class and it helped tons!
Glad all is well!
Our only issue has been that they haven't given me a list of birthdays and he got left out of one a few days ago and felt sad.
Other than that he's been VERY stressed. Stressed that he's not smart enough and stressed that he's going to have a reaction. I'm hoping that once he gets used to things that all the stress will go away.
love your blog! my son is off the scale allergic to peanuts, shellfish, and eggs..as well as allergies to gluten, and many other things I am working with our school system now, since the daily sandwhich is peanut butter and jelly...thanks for your imput!
My daughter started K this year too, so I would love to share ideas with you. One great thing these days which is so different than my elementary school days, is that there is no trading food allowed at snack or lunch! That fact alone relieves a lot of my stress.
The secretary at the school showed me the box full of Epi-pens for all the allergic students! It really is becoming more common.
Any surprises! Been dealing with our elementary school for 4 years now (even though there are 16 other kids with food allergies) and have heard things from staff (and Principals!) like:
- there are peanuts in this world, deal with it!
- we're a peanut-free school (well, sorta). The SCHOOL doesn't serve peanut products, but kids can bring it from home, oh, and the consession stands for sporting events can sell them.
- we've never had a student reaction before (true 6 months ago, but then (guess what), EMS was called for another student (not my son) last year. Hmmmm...ready to listen yet?
lovin' this blog! my 4 yo daughter has had numerous trips to the ER from really mild exposure, so we're super careful because she's really high risk. we have a nut free home, but unfortunately my ex is of the mindset that he doesn't want to change his comfortable habits for the safety of his daughter, so i've had many screaming fights with him. sigh. glad to know i'm not the only one in the world who takes nut allergy seriously!
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