Peanut Allergies and School

Peanut allergies can be a matter of life and death. My 9 year-old son is one of a growing population of children who have to deal with peanut allergies. Sending him to school is a huge deal for me. I am very protective of him, and it's just super hard to let him out of my sight for 7 hours each day.

When he was in kindergarten, his music teacher gave him a piece of candy and it caused him to have a serious reaction. I had visited with his main teacher about his allergy, but I didn't realize that he would have other teachers too. To make matters worse, his school didn't have a nurse on staff, and so the office personnel waited for me to get there because the reaction happened close to the end of the school day. He could have died while they waited for me to get there.

We pulled him out of school and I home schooled him for the rest of the school year. I just didn't think he was ready to be responsible enough to say "no" to special treats when offered to him. Plus, I wasn't ready to face the fear and worry of what might happen.

Before the next school year began, my husband's employer transferred us to a new state. As we searched for a home, a major consideration was finding a school district that full-time nurses on staff at each school site. Luckily, one of the best school districts had such a set up. I visited with the school nurse and his first grade teacher at great length. This school also had established terrific rules to protect students with food allergies: No sharing or trading of food at lunch; no peanut products allowed for parties; and no home-baked goods for parties.

I kept in touch with the teacher and the specials teachers to make sure that we kept on top of the things that were given out. I also took bags of candy and a box of ding dongs to his teacher. This made sure that he had safe food to eat if an unexpected event happened or if some of the party treats weren't labeled or if they were not sure if it was safe for him. These supplies were invaluable and made the teacher, my son, and me feel much better.

The school nurse was very organized with the medications too. She had his epi-pen and Benadryl in a container marked with his name. Inside the case was also information about his allergies, contact information for his doctor and for me and my husband.

As my son has gotten older, he has gotten better about his allergy. He tries hard to remember to ask if items have nuts. But, I constantly remind him that he can't fully trust just asking - even if he's asking an adult. If you're not used to dealing with a severe peanut allergy, you don't understand that a food isn't necessarily safe just because it doesn't have nuts in it. You have to read the complete list of ingredients and look for warnings such as, "May contain nuts" or "Manufactured on equipment that also processes nuts."

We were at Sam's Club the other day and a lady was handing out samples of cake. My son asked, "Does this have nuts?" The lady replied, "No." I grabbed his hand and took him over to the packages of the cakes. We looked at the box and it said, "May contain nuts." This was an eye-opening experience for my son.

I worry about how he will be able to attend parties when he's a grown up. I worry about mean rivals putting peanut butter in his soup (like they did on CSI). Basically, I just worry. But, I am trying hard to work with my son and his school to make sure that he avoids exposure to peanuts.