On Healthy Living

About 94 percent of school nurses surveyed say the have at least one child with food allergies in their schools. Whether the child is yours, a friend of yours or just in the same class, you need to know about it and to make an effort to keep troublesome food away from the child.

If your child has food allergies, you probably know to make sure that the child’s teacher, school nurse and cafeteria people know what your child is sensitive to. Make sure the school has Epi-pens available and that someone knows how to use them. Alert other parents who might bring snacks to class not to include ingredients that will harm our child, and encourage them to talk with their kids (or have the teacher talk to the class) about not sharing food with your child that he or she is allergic to.

If your child is in a class with someone with food allergies, find out all you can about the child’s particular sensitivites before you prepare or buy food to share with the class. Also, make sure your child knows not to share food that will make the child sick.

Food allergies affect about 11 million Americans. While the peanut allergy seems to be the most publicized, other common allergens are milk, eggs, wheat, soy, tree nuts, shellfish and seafood.

For more information about food allergies, including a free education program available for schools, visit The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

Sarah White wrote this on August 24th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Health Foods |