Can a nursery insist on having antihistamine for my 6 month old?

[JLusaka]

My 6 month old has an allergy to milk protein and his eczema will flare up badly especially where milk has been in contact as well as diarrhoea if ingested. Washing off it disappears in ~2h. Nursery is insisting they have antihistamine for him in case he has some accidentally but is presrption only at 6 months. I have some but only from when it was horrendous when he was very poorly and it knocks him out. We are trialling foods at the moment and are still not expected to use it for this so can a nursery insist we give it to them?

[RickGhastley]

I imagine the nursery are worried incase your son has a very bad reaction and just want something to hand just incase.

DS' nursery insist they keep prescription paracetamol for DS (they will only give medicines prescribed by Dr) incase he shows signs of a high temperature. This is because I mentioned he had 1 febrile convulsion over 3 years ago. They have never used it!

Like Cat says, it is important there is a plan where you all understand and agree to the circumstances in which the medication is used.

[dribbleface]

As a nursery manager i don't blame them, they need to be able to have something in case a reaction develops and progresses. Not trying to alarm you but a young baby did die in a nursery where he was gievn milk protein by mistake (shoud not have happened but that's a whole other thread). The nursery understood that his symptoms would be that it made him sick, he suffered a fatal anayphlactic reaction. . As a result many nurseries are very tight on allergies. I have an anaphylactic reaction to nuts so my staff are very aware of the dangers!

If the medicine was prescribed for a reaction the nursery wuold need to have access to it. We have a care plan in place for all our allergic children that states their symptoms and then what theu usual course of action is.

To be honest I would think it would be better if they aired in the side of caution, giving medicine to such a young baby is not preferable but as a parent of an allergic/ashmatic child I would rather they gave it if in any doubt than potentially leave it too late. Obvioulsy if they gave it frequently I would be questionning their allergy management and then reassess.

[ColinAtMedilert]

As a parent of 2 children with egg allergies, I would personally provide some anti-histamine to the nursery. My daughter had an allergic reaction and needed some anti-histamine while in her nursery's care. It might be a pain to get another prescription from the doctors but I think it is better to be safe than sorry.

Regarding the drowsiness, hopefully your child will never have a problem and will never need to be given it. As 'dribbleface' says, if they have to give it out frequently, it will be that their allergy management isn't good enough.