allergies and school dinners

[mintyneb]

I posted recently about how primary schools deal with allergies and allergic reactions and got some great replies.

I'm still thinking about DD starting school in September (probably because the 15th January application deadline is looming and school is one of my main focuses at the moment :) ) and I've been wondering about how schools generally deal with allergies and hot dinners.

I will be giving DD packed lunches until I get to know the school better and have confidence that the caterers can provide dairy free food (DD is allergic to CMP and reacts on contact)but would love to be able to consider school dinners as a real option over time as DH doesn't get home from work til after 7pm so there's no chance of us all sitting down to a hot meal in the evening together.

Anyway, I will obviously talk to the school/caterers when the time comes but just wondered if any of you have gone down the school dinners route and found that the caterers can actually provide 'safe' food for your DC to eat?

I would talk to the canteen before picking a school. That might help with your decision.

Good luck.

ah! have already picked my schools based on other factors and am happy with my choices.

I am happy to give packed lunches as I know what she will be eating and have had loads of tips on here of how the school should handle things if for some reason she ended up eating someone else's lunch say!

When I was chosing schools I spoke to the Head and looked at the current caterers website but their contract runs out this academic year so who knows will be taking over in September

Schools can cater easily for CMP diet. I would however, make the decision based on what your child likes to eat and how fussy they are.
My DS had school dinners - dairy free - for a while. We stopped when my elder DS said that if he didn't like what they offered him (1 choice) - he just ate an apple. For this i was paying £2.20.
It was OK when there was something he liked though.
Schools seem to have a problem with the 'pudding' side of school, so it will invariably be fruit. Fruit is also offered in school for key stage 1 in our area anyway.
If there is a contact problem as well, i would also make sure that they have a safe area for her to sit and eat lunch - without isolating her from her friends. This will also apply to milk time as well.
The school dinner service would not do dinners for my eldest son as i don't think they had any idea of how to arrange a healthy meal for him - CMP, fructose and sucrose free, so i gave up and did packed lunch for both.
Can't wait 'til ds3 starts in september. he's currently dairy free and puree!

Can't answer your question about school dinners as we don't live in the UK and the schools here won't provide dairy-free meals.

But just to say that if you don't feel comfortable with what the school provides, you can get a wide-necked thermos flask and put heated-up leftovers in it so that your child is still getting a hot meal. We do this for DS and he loves it.

Problem is in some LEA s they do not allow flasks with heated items. It is something to do with health and safety. Packed lunches are not supervised in the same way as school dinners and if the item was too hot it could cause an accident. You then have the issue of if you allow them, not all parents would use an unbreakable one etc etc.
That would have been ideal for me with DS3 on puree. It would have been nice to give him warm savoury puree. Looks like it will be fruit only!

auntevil, I'd heard that about flasks of hot food, not sure what my LEA position is on it.

just picking up on your earlier comment about school puddings, I had a feeling that that might cause problems. Whilst DD loves fruit it would be a shame if she had to miss out on hot puddings like her friends could have.

presumably then things like breaded fish and chicken come in a dairy free variety? In my experience most pub/restaurant foods like that have dairy in the coating. what about mashed potato tyoe dishes, I guess they won't be able to do dairy free ones?

my DD has other health concerns so needs to take some medication with her lunchtime meal. The head of the school we want her to go has said that she could go with a friend to where they have a 'lunch club' which is properly supervised to have her sandwiches. Hopefully the issue of her coming into contact with something dairy based will be minimised because of this. Not sure who her 'friend' will be in the first week though as I don't think she will know anyone going to the school! But that's a different matter

ps auntevil, I really feel for you with your DCs needs, that must make for a lot of time spent in the kitchen trying to cook for them all?!

Tied to the kitchen!
My DS school did make great efforts, but on the whole, desserts were tough. There was always something he could have in the savoury line. The problem comes when they see all their mates having puddings with creamy custards and ice cream - and they have a piece of fruit!
It depends very much on how they cope with minimal choice - and level of blandness. Although on that one they did try, but went a bit OTT in spicing things up (curries etc) - which with IBS is not ideal!

oops! Well DD is a fussy little thing but loves spag bol and pasta with tomato type sauces. Also fish fingers / breaded chicken etc and chips and rice. She's just started getting into roast potatoes which at least adds some variety to her diet.

So I guess she could cope with the blandness but maybe not pudding envy!