Back-To-School with Food Allergies

I’m still in shock that my daughter started school this last Monday, which is cramping our late night Olympic Games TV watching style. It really snuck up on us and thankfully, we’re old seasoned salts at school and were able to scramble. This is not my favorite way to begin, so I thought I would share a few quick resources for everyone in case you might be in the Back-To-School Scramble too. If I am missing your favorite resource, please share below.
Getting prepared for school with food allergies creates two major areas of focus.

1.  Management of food allergies at school
2. Your child managing his/her food allergies at school

The first point is where parents and care givers work directly with their child’s school regarding policy, 504 plans and general day to day prevention reaction prevention strategies. Including protocol of handling an anaphylactic emergency. No matter which year it is, I feel like I am starting over and to be honest, I am. In my dreams, I want all of the successes from the previous year to return. Unfortunately, every school experiences staff and/or policy changes every year, bringing a new brand of chaos I’ve decided. Here are a few tips to kick off the year from the parent perspective:

• Embrace that will be bumpy and be ready. Don’t over schedule that first week or school. If your school handles 504 plans right before the start, keep our calendar loose and available if possible.
• Visit the Food Allergy Research and Education(FARE) Back-to-School page.  The offer resources and an informative list of 10 Essential Resources to Prepare for Back-To-School. This list is actually a compilation of links of valuable resources. I have to confess I felt a ping of jealousy when I saw this resource. Back twelve years ago these little gems did not exist. Bravo to FARE for progress!
• Kids with Food Allergies (KFA) a Division of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, offers a very comprehensive School Planning Guide: 10 School Planning Tips When Your Child Has Food Allergies. This guide includes a very overlooked tip: forms you’ll need copies of when meeting with your school, including a Special Dietary Accommodations form for students who will be eating lunch at school. This is very important for students enrolled in any Free and Reduced Lunch program.
• Shop for safe snacks and or ideas ahead of time. Keely McGuire Allergy Free Fun Lunch Boxes is a very fun, playful and healthier website featuring great recipes and ridiculously adorable lunch presentation ideas. Think themed lunches, like sports, Saint Patrick’s Day, etc.
• Read by Dear Teacher Letter of my Food Allergic Child on Huffington Post and feel free to use any or all parts of it. The letter is just my honest request for inclusion and my commitment to the teacher to helping create this path.
• Visit my EPI Carrier and Holder post to search for new ways to carry to store our life-saving epinephrine auto-injectors.
• If you enjoy baking or cooking, Colette Martin, host of Learning to Eat Allergy Free tears it up in the kitchen with two fabulous cookbooks (I own them myself), “Learning to Bake Allergen-Free: A Crash Course for Busy Parents on Baking without Wheat, Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Soy or Nuts” and theThe Allergy-Free Pantry: Make Your Own Staples, Snacks, and More Without Wheat, Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Soy or Nuts“. Her website is also a great place to find recipes, see product reviews and learn more about life with food allergies.

Now, let’s talk about kids. Starting from an early age, children can be taught to say, No thank you to food not approved by parents. Kids these days are much smarter than I ever was at that age. By kindergarten, my son was carrying his EpiPen® and would never eat anything that did not get the mom nod of approval. Not all kids carry their meds that early, my daughter wasn’t allowed until 4th grade–she was ready later in life. Here are few tips for kids:

• When ready, start carrying rescue medications in belts, carriers, etc. Many parents allow their child to learn how to carry an empty holder until they are ready to carry real medications. Some kids don’t like the feel of belt, where others love the freedom of movement. Its wonderful if they have the chance to work through carrying rescue medications before school starts.
• Use a place mat or napkin spread open when eating lunch. It looks cool while creating a barrier between the table top and safe lunches.
• Carry hand wipes to clean off desks, chairs and lunch tables. This is great way to be powerful in keeping allergens at bay.
• Just say no. Really. Teach kids from the start to say, no thank you, when offered food. I found that my kids enjoy life so much more once they learned to say no thank and just enjoy the moment.
• Trade it in! After my kids would say no, I would offer them either a safe treat or item at home. At one point, we had a coin system where my daughter would earn a coin for every time she could not eat something at school. Eventually, she would earn enough coins to buy something interesting to her. Needless to say, she learned that sometimes avoiding unsafe foods brought an unexpected surprise.
• Teach kids that sometimes having an invisible disease can be rough. But the good news is that they are pretty darn tough themselves and they’ll be okay. I also would use challenging situations as learning tools for my kids to practice advocating for themselves or teaching others while using kindness and facts.
• Lastly, I harped on for years: Be Who You Are! Which is an interesting and great kid who just happens to have food allergies, asthma and can cook up a storm.

I hope these few resources open up a whole world of possible solutions. The key for my family is recognizing that each school year and child is unique and there is no such thing as a one size fits all plan. Flexibility, doing your homework and being ready to talk it through is key. Also, a nice cup of tea and cookie never hurts either.
Disclaimer: None of the organizations or businesses mentioned here know I am writing about them. I am sharing what I hope will inspire you and maybe even help you have a great school year. I am an Amazon affiliate and if you purchase Colette’s books I will receive a small commission.