Snacks for hypoglycemic child in nut free school

[WhisperingAutistic]

My son has an organ transplant, so is immunosuppressed and has just been diagnosed with hypoglycemia. The doctor says he needs to eat slow release carb type snacks at play time at school but the school is nut free and I can't for the life of me think what to give him.

Due to his immunosuppressive status, he cannot have something like a sandwich in his bag as he's not allowed something that should really be kept refrigerated. It needs to be something shelf stable.
At home he would have a cereal bar or something, but the vast majority say 'may contain nuts'.

Any advice?

You could make your own? Google breakfast bars or healthy muffins type stuff. We make both abs they are easy / for the muffins I buy self raising whole wheat flour, use honey instead of sugar and frozen berries. The breakfast bars are usually oats, honey, dried fruit type of concoctions.

Marmite sandwich on whole meal bread? No need to keep that in a fridge.

Oatcakes and cheese/cream cheese, hummus and veg in a whole wheat wrap, porridge in a thermos, a cheese sandwich - all of these would be absolutely fine out of the fridge for 2-3 hours or send with an ice pack.

Sorry, I've just seen you said that he can't have something that needs to go in the fridge due to health reasons. In that case, if finding suitable things is challenging, I think you can make a case to the school that they need to accommodate him by providing access to refrigeration. There is certainly a fridge somewhere where he could put food for a few hours.

Also came to recommend Nairns Oat Cakes
Would he like Seaweed with cucumber sticks? Itsu has seaweed in the crisps and nut snacks isle.
If he eats pork how about pork puffs?
Quinoa salad?
Bell pepper and celery strips, wholegrain puffed brown rice.
Kidney beans, salsa and avocado wrap or guacamole dip and salsa with chips. Would they allow air popped popcorn?
There are crisp type snacks made from lentils or beans or veggie crisps.
Flaxseed muffins
Green smoothie in a thermos that keeps it cold (frozen spinach, frozen banana, unsweetened oat or coconut milk or vanilla yogurt)
Wholemeal pita with cream cheese, olives, cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

That's actually a really good point.
I know they definitely have a fridge as he's used it for medication before. Thank you

Also OP - if he has only recently been diagnosed with hypoglycemia make sure both you and school have a glucagen hypo kit which is in an orange box. School may need to be trained to use this kit and if so the diabetes nurse may be prepared to help with this ( I know your son doesn't have diabetes). Also consider a libre sensor (available on NHS) this makes checking blood sugar levels a lot easier - can use it with the reader provided or link it to your phone and an alarm will go off if blood sugar levels go below 4 mlmols. This sensor will help to give you piece of mind during the night.

I am sure you have thought about the above but thought I would just mention it. Also don't forget that as your son has a disability he is covered by the equality act and therefore the school has to make reasonable adjustments for him. Ensuring access to a fridge would be included in this - my son had access to a fridge to store spare insulin. Xx

I am wondering this too, no dairy in the entire school? That's a difficult one!

My own son is allergic to nuts. As in he has two epipens on us at all time allergic.
I still give him oat bars/ crackers/ bread that’s says ‘May contain’ as otherwise everything is unavailable. I avoid actual nuts and nuts in things or made nearby ie bakery. It ridiculous to make someone else avoid also

Sweet potato crisps would work well? Rice cakes, oat cakes, cheese (hard cheese doesn't need to be refrigerated), yogurt (if you get the pouches of baby yogurt - ella's kitchen or similar - they don't need refrigerating).

For DS, we use ella's kitchen fruit pouches. He doesn't get hypoglycemia per se, but he has a very fast metabolism and SEN, meaning he gets extreme hanger issues.

Can you bake? I'd look at recipes for sugar free vegan cakes and flapjack, they are easy to make as bars. They often replace the sugar with something like grated carrot or banana.

I have a nut allergic child and we make our own flapjacks etc.

Apple, pear, carrot/pepper sticks?

Look up the glycemic index and glycemic load - this will help with working out what is slow release.

How about chestnuts or coconuts? Both have carbs but not the usual white bread/pasta carbs, and they are not nuts

You could bake a batch of flapjacks each weekend. I make with chopped cooking apple or unsweetened cocoa powder. Then you will know they are nut free.

Or dried apple rings.

an alarm will go off if blood sugar levels go below 4 mlmols

It's even better than this with a Libre, you can set whatever minimum and maximum levels you want. Of course 4 is the norm as @Cheekychop rightly says, but you can change it – DD is pregnant and has set minimum at 3.8 and maximum at 8, it goes off a lot at the moment!

And yes, she had access to a fridge for her insulin at school, and was allowed a mini fridge in her room at both universities she went to.

Apple and a banana? Less sugar, no preservatives and much healthier than store bought bars.

Nature Valley bars (not the nut flavours) - but they do have the “may contain” wording. Not very low GI as they do have sugar but better than some things.

Or Kabanos, Peperami, or other mini salamis, these are fine out of a fridge - not the healthiest to have every day but definitely low GI.

I wouldn’t go for any kind of biscuit, muffin or anything else flour based, or rice cakes, these will be high GI.

I agree you need to push school on the fridge and the “may contain” stuff. Your son has a medical need too.

If you can get access to a fridge it opens up all sorts of options - hummus & carrots, cheese, falafel, hard boiled egg for example.

Can he take fruit & veg? Apples & carrots aren't especially high GL compared with a lot of snack foods.

I'm sure you know to be aware of the sugar/high GI content of a lot of so called healthy alternatives.

This should help xx

The rest of that states to eat biscuits. Xx

Or a glass of milk xx

Does he actually get hypoglycaemia as in he would need medical treatment? As pp said to the point of needing glucagon rescue and hospital?

or is it more low blood sugar and he gets a bit shaky etc but isn’t in medical danger?

it’s a bit different from the school pov, and agree with pp that a glucose monitor would be useful in the first case.

Sugar waffles?