anaphylatic school By n2n2n2n

I teach at an anaphylatic school.
We have about 15 kids with severe (some life threatening) allergies to many things including peanuts, soy products, latex, eggs, lactose intolerance, mango, bee stings and a recently

diagnosed celiac. WOW --- even I am surprised with that list. We strive to make our school a safe place by requesting parents not send nut products to school. We check snacks and lunches every day and kids that have nut products or "may contain's" eat their lunch in the office. They are supervised washing their hands after eating the nut product. This is not a punitive thing,

simply a fact of life. "Allergy classrooms" have their tables washed each day. (We eat in our classrooms. The rest are washed once a week.) We have a designated bathroom for our allergy kids.
We are a "food free" school. That means that we don't have food treats and parents do not send cakes etc to school. If somebody does we send the stuff home in the kids' lunch pails. (I like not having food / party days :o)
The latex and soy allergies have resulted in a change of products purchased for our school. We don't get the soy crayons anymore (thank goodness) and our latex kid has her own easers, balls etc.
Your egg kid should be okay as long as everyone eats only the food brought from home. On the rare occassion that we do have a treat -- popsicles on play day etc. --- our anaphylatic parents either buy the stuff for the school or send in stuff for their kid.
Each of our children wears their own epipen in a fanny pack. We (teachers and parents) feel this is very important since precious time can be lost getting the epipen to the child should the reaction occur outside at recess or in gym etc. There are also back up epipens in the office.
The year I had a nut allergy in my homeroom, the Mom brought in an orange and an epipen and let me practice. Each year one of the Mom's comes in and as a staff we see "the movie" that both explains and terrifies and the same time. Then there are several oranges and practice epipens for staff to use.
We frequently have reminders in our newsletters about the allergy concerns and we have posters in our classrooms both for administering the epipen and identifying the classroom as a "______ - safe zone". We also have pictures of all the kids posted and the steps to be taken should a reaction occur. This is in every classroom as well as the office and staff room. Every once in a while a parent complains that they can't find anything to send in their kid's lunch because "he will only eat peanut butter." Administration deals with those on an individual basis. Most people are quite accomodating. When I have an anaphylatic kid in my class I make sure that is at the top of my daybook in big bold print. I also ask the supply teacher to check with the office prior to the entry bell.
Sorry this response is so long. I didn't realize how many things we had in place until I started typing. :o)

View the original thread this idea was posted on

^BACK

---

The ProTeacher Collection - All rights reserved
For individual use only. Do not copy, reproduce or transmit.
Copyright © 1998-2008 ProTeacher®

Visit our ProTeacher Community

---