Thursday, August 13, 2009
Lately I've gotten a lot of feedback and e-mail from parents with children who are preschool age or younger. I've talked a lot about elementary school tips and will have more of those in coming days, but I want to welcome these new readers to my blog by sharing some preschool and daycare tips that worked for me and my daughter.
My daughter's first reaction (it progressed from hives and facial swelling to anaphylaxis) happened at preschool so I'm very aware of how important it is to have good policies in place in these settings. One thing that makes preschool and daycare so difficult is that you rely almost entirely on the teachers and staff to keep your child safe. Depending on your child's age, they will not be able to communicate as effectively about their allergies.
Another thing is that these places are almost entirely private schools and so can make their own policies--there is no standard. The exception for this would be a chain of preschools or daycare centers such as Bright Horizons that is peanut-free.
Peanut-free policies have become the standard at preschool and daycare centers and I would strongly recommend that you try to get your child into one of those. If your school currently is not peanut-free and you can't or don't want to leave, log on to the FAAN website to get stats and information to share with your school. If they have the facts, they will be more able to understand why you want the peanut-free policy.
Even at a peanut-free school, understanding of food allergies varies. Some preschools and daycare centers have mandatory meetings about how to use EpiPens and how to avoid allergic reactions. Make sure that yours does as well. You can get a DVD about food allergies from your allergist or from the manufacturers of the EpiPen--these are usually free. FAAN offers instructional DVDs as well. You will want to share one of these with the school.
Parents are often asked to give a "presentation" to the preschool about their child's allergies and to outline emergency plans. This is your chance to educate and advocate for your child and can be stressful. In my experience, you want to give enough information without overwhelming them. If you present your info in easy-to-read format using bullet points and lists, they'll be more likely to read and absorb the information.
When I presented my preschool/daycare info, I provided a brightly colored (easy-to-spot) binder with my daughter's name, my name and contact info and her photo. It included a brief description of symptoms to look for (provided by my allergist), a Food Allergy Emergency Action Plan (signed by my doctor) and also doctor's contact info. I included a diagram instructing them on how to use an EpiPen (available online at FAAN as part of their Food Allergy Action Plan docs). I also included a list of "safe foods" or foods that I would allow her to eat. This is a short list--and much easier to follow than an "unsafe foods" list. Update the lists as necessary--important, since labels change!! You may also want to share an educational book such as Linda Coss's excellent food allergy series.
If your child eats snacks or meals at preschool/daycare, consider sending your own lunch or meals to school. You should definitely have a chat with the school cook, but it's very hard to know what has cross-contact and what doesn't. I always sent my daughter to preschool and daycare with the following: alternative snacks (just in case, remember my school was peanut-free), a homemade lunch and "safe" treats for when kids brought in birthday food.
Birthday treats are another problem. These are almost never peanut-free (or dairy-free, egg-free, whatever your allergy is--you know what I mean.) My daughter ate her "safe" treats alongside the other kids, but a much better option--especially because so many kids have multiple food allergies these days, not just peanut--is a non-edible treat.
Currently my kids get a free paperback book of their choice for their birthday. This is paid for by the PTO. Daycare and preschool work a bit differently, but see if anyone would contribute $1 to a class b-day book fund. Daycare/preschool teachers can get great deals from the Scholastic Book Club so the cost should be relatively low. I would have suggested this way back when if I had thought of it. Or how about stickers or colored pencils? Cupcakes may be traditional, but they don't have to be the only option.
Understand that educating preschool staff will not be a "one-shot deal." As I said, understanding of food allergies varies so you may have to keep bringing your point home all year. If you remain upbeat, positive and compliment the staff on the efforts they make, you'll see that soon it will become second nature for your child's teachers. If it doesn't, speak up to the teachers directly before you go to the school director. Usually they want to help and just may need reminders.
I will have several resources for parents of daycare and preschool age kids with food allergies (as well as elementary school kids) in an upcoming post, so stay tuned. Also, please share your daycare and preschool experiences, both good and bad, so we can all discover how to best handle this issue. Thanks!