Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Food allergy case

There's a mom at DD's school who had to protest the school's actions because she thought the school was being ridiculously over-protective. Her DS's allergy (to cinnamon?) is fairly mild, yet the school nurse sent out memos to all the teachers putting limits on what he could eat/do, there were emergency instructions, and she made a huge deal out of it. I found this strange considering my DS went to school in kindergarten with a fractured skull, neck brace, and eye patch and they were perfectly fine with him being unattended, walking across wet floors, ice, etc.

I do feel for parents/kids with severe allergies and them not being taken seriously. There do seem to be a lot parents that "cry wolf" or make a big deal out of allergies that are not actually severe, and that takes away from the actual life-threatening cases that should be taken seriously. It's probably hard for the school to sort out which allergies they should be worried about, and which they shouldn't be worried about. Maybe the parents are actually worried that the allergy will cause a severe reaction, and are just being over-protective, rather than it being an attention-getting maneuver. But in cases where a child HAS had a severe reaction already, it should be obvious to everyone.

The other thing is that they lump things like peanuts in with tree nuts. SO, my child's class is SUPPOSE to be "NUT Free" right? But nuts are not actually what my child is allergic to... peanuts are not tree-nuts (they are actually not nuts at all, they are legumes). So, at some point a parent may see my son eating products containing "nuts" and assume I am lying or exaggerating but obviously I am not because my son is fatally allergic to peanuts (and lentils) but is fine with all kinds of tree nuts. It may be mere ignorance as to the child's allergy by non-related resentful parents leading them to say "Oh I saw her DS eating nuts - she is lying about his being allergic!"

Quite honestly, life with a food allergy is very hard. Parenting a child with a food allergy is so flipping stressful and hard. I know there may be a few weirdos here and there ,like in any population, that lie but I am really skeptical it is to huge extent. The abuse and nasty things said to the child and the parents is NOT FUN or special or pleasant. The attention quite honestly is not nice at all. Maybe it's geographical, but there ain't nobody lying about it here in my neck of the woods so much so that kids with valid allergies are putting themselves at risk to "fit in" and not be banished from lunch tables and lunch bunches (and I do KNOW kids personally who do that). I think it would be the rare individual that would truly lie about here. Seriously. It's a nasty experience.

I just have to say that these horrible stories blow my mind. I can't even imagine someone actually having the nerve to say/write/do those things.

All of the schools and daycares that my kids have been in are peanut free. I don't think there are any in our city that aren't peanut free. A couple years the class also banned sesame, whole egg and tree nuts for a kid. There are notes several times a year about not sending in food for birthday's etc. Every birthday party invite I've received has had a note about notifying the host about any allergies so they could accommodate. I heard a couple parents grumble going into JK about what do feed poor picky Johnny/Suzy but once they discovered Wow Butter they were good to go and I haven't heard anyone complain since. In the class are forms with the child's picture, list of allergies, protocol, etc taped to the wall. The teachers all have extra epi pens in their desk. My kids know not to share food - it is drilled into them.

I'm sure there are still some horror stories but the law is on the side of the kids where I live -
http://www.anaphylaxis.ca/en/resources/sabrinas_law.html
Unfortunately it took something tragic to make it that way.

Actually, those are not allergies. Celiacs cheat all the time - they get sick but it would take quite awhile to die. Unlike an allergy, where my sons would have about 15 minutes. We have a friend who is celiac (my husband is a celiac but he doesn't cheat) , we can tell when he has cheated - he gets big rashes... Lactose intolerants cheat too - they don't die (well eventually they could but it'd take a lONG while). They get sick. I don't think they take away anything from those with allergies. They are a completely different medical group with a completely different issue.

I will just bet that SHE found it pretty strange, too, fwiw.

This is the kind of passive-aggressive nonsense that goes on around food allergies, honestly. There's a reason why 504 evaluation is the most appropriate tool to begin with. Because, hel-LO? INDIVIDUAL accommodations. Not one-size-fits-most.

Sounds to me as though this parent was being pummeled with "policy states that" when she had the gall (!) to bring it up at all and make it the "problem" of the school.

I'm a bit cynical about this kind of thing at this point, however.

As for the "over-protectiveness" of "mild allergies" Like I said earlier, reactions get worse with each exposure. Trust me, you do not want to see your child go into anaphylaxis shock before you start being protective. Literally having your throat close at 5 and coming that close to death is a horrible experience for a child. And, the fact is that your child really really could die. Like, really. So doctors tell people with even mild food allergies to stay away from the food because you do not know when the anaphylaxis reaction may come and in our experience - it can definitely come. The anxiety that results form a child having to go through before being protected is terrible. I do not blame parents at all for protecting their child.

totally agree with all pp's. Our kindy is nut free, being vegetarian it can be a pain but it's just the way things are, they are banned for a good reason and that's that. I don't think we even have any nut free kids there.

DD has a severe intolerance which can be tricky - it causes a paralysed intestine sort of thing so any consumption has bad effects, but too much or repeated small amounts causes her to not grow! I've found it hard to get people to take it seriously because after all it's not an allergy and people hear intolerance and they thing neurotic mother. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for parents to deal with a real allergy and not be taken seriously.

Also how the heck do other parents know "the allergy is mild"??? Seriously how would you know that? I have had one mom tell me her child's peanut allergy seemed mild (even though the doc told her otherwise) because said child only broke into hives from the food ... Hives can quickly turn into anaphylaxis, I can ttest to that!

What I've learned is that there are two separate considerations that determine how one manages a food allergy--

1. sensitivity (that is, what kind of dose is required to cause a reaction)-- some people need to actually eat a bit of an allergen, or something that contains significant amounts of it-- and others, in the minority, live at the other extreme and can't (really) even be AROUND someone handling/eating some allergens

and

2. severity-- which, as Irena notes, can vary significantly even for an individual, and from day to day.


The problem is that threshold dosing can also fluctuate somewhat depending on the person's immune status otherwise. An exposure that my DD might be fine with in October could send her to the hospital in May during the height of grass pollen season. Hormonal shifts, asthma status, etc. all make a difference.

It's very complicated.

Food allergies are complicated. I mean, unless my allergist is lying to me, not all positive tests have to be regarded as Code Red. DS just tested mildly positive to a couple of things and we've been asked NOT to eliminate them from his diet until further consultation. I tested mildly positive to a bunch of stuff, and after consultation I only eliminated one. I don't know if this is the case or not, but to me it seems possible that some people might have received these same test results and become very concerned about a reaction? But this may not be necessary in all cases since testing is known to produce false positives. FTR, I was tested due to migraines, which can have many causes. If one is testing due to hives immediately after eating, etc, I would think the recommended actions are different.

The other thing is that if you have a sensitivity (IgG), which frankly, many people I know do call that an allergy, that's really different from an IgE allergy, which is the type that can be immediately dangerous. I know a parent of a child with sensitivities and the school treats it like an IgE allergy, which they need not, according even to the parent.