Child Dog Allergy and dog visiting school

[Freyaandthewildthings]

Hi, my child has a severe dog allergy, when I say severe its landed her in A&E before now. Anyway the school are having a dog visit to sell a book. The dog will be there on a day she wont.

How long would you leave it before sending her back to school? The next day? I'm just conscious that she will be playing on the floor where the dog has been etc.

Does DD react severely around classmates who own dogs/live with dogs and are accidentally but inevitably carrying trace amounts of dog dander and fur on their clothes?

If not you should be fine sending her the next day but have her carry her medication as a precaution.

I'm allergic to cats and have mild reactions to people who own cats but can sit comfortably in vet offices where cats have been previously. I'm imagining the school doesn't have much in the way of soft furnishing/carpeting?

Yeah can definitely tell the difference now shes started school as oppose to over summer. No inhaler or rashes over summer at all and now 3 times a day needing inhalers and skins a mess

And yes most floors are carpeted and theres lots of comfy sofas and cushions etc it is a pre school and one big room if that makes a difference?

In that case I'd maybe leave it until after the weekend when the schools been vacuumed a few times.

If it's any consolation OP I, and many other allergy sufferers, find we build a tolerance after a while. The more I am around people who own cats the less I react to people who own cats. Hopefully, your DD is the same. If she's taking her inhaler more often than usual take her back to the GP and ask for a stronger preventative. Ask about antihistamines while you're there.

Thank you. We have antihistamines but find they worsen a different health problem 😬 so try to avoid as much as we can. I hope it lessens over time, it just seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on! First skin prick was a tiny little hive and the recent one it was huge and irritated for ages.

Seriously, the school are going ahead with this? They need to trisk assess it, put the dog in a sensible place (ie not her classroom or a hard floor area) and hoover afterwards.
But i answer your question, id leave it till i was sure it was cleaned properly.

I think it’s really bad that the school are doing this if they know how bad her allergy is. I would ask that they keep the dog away from places she is likely to go.

They didn't think about it when they booked it and they said the room gets hovered every night and they'd clean it all properly but I still feel uncomfortable but wasnt sure if I was being a bit over protective

Thanks everyone. I'll tell them I'll leave it at least the full week then.

Actually I'd make a fuss. It can't be that difficult to have the dog stay in the hall rather than her classroom surely? And that floor to then be mopped several times afterwards.

Your daughter will be constantly in contact with pet hair when at nursery on other children's clothes. I honestly can't see how a dog being in the room for a short period of time, after which the room and furniture will be vacuumed, will be any worse.

School need to address this and not put the dog in areas where the OP's daughter is going to be!

This isn't an educational visit from a guide dog or police dog or whatever. It's a marketing thing. Why can't the dog stay in the hall or something, on hard floors and away from classrooms?

Totally inappropriate. I react in the same way to cats and would be furious if someone was bringing a cat into my workplace "just because".

I can’t believe they’re going ahead with the visit despite knowing how severe your daughter's allergy is. No school in the country would freely hand out nuts knowing that there was a severe nut allergy sufferer in the school, so why is it deemed okay to have a dog there with a potentially similar outcome?! I’d make a formal complaint. Your daughter shouldn’t have to miss a week of school to keep her safe from a hazard that shouldn’t even be in the school.

There isnt a hall unfortunately. I suppose the difference would be she would be playing on the floor where the dog was lay/drooling etc? To me in my head. I don't actually know. The nurse wont give me more than for the severity of the allergy all they can do is say the official guidelines of how long it takes dog dander to leave an environment which is much longer than I could keep her off.

My daughter does suffer quite a lot already just from the dander on other people as I said earlier. Impossible to avoid that though but I can at least avoid this for her? As best I can anyway.

Yes the school is not free. Which I 100% agree with. And I'm very careful about that even though nuts dont effect my child.

Could you ask that the dog sits on a blanket so it minimizes contact with the carpet.
Given the care taken over nuts this does seem unfair.