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Allergies and intolerances

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Original poster

school trip abroad

12 replies

tatt · 15/10/2005 06:54

my oldest (epipen for anaphylactic nut allergy) wants to go on a school trip to Italy next year. Its a mixed age trip, mainly aimed at older children and I doubt her friends parents can afford it. She'll be 12 then and it would be her first trip abroad without us. She doesn't generally check food herself in restaurants and is shy about asking but she has been on school trips in this country with no problems (I've checked the venues first and all have said they were nut free). Obviously I'm reluctant but we'll have to let her go sometime. I'm not sure what the school's reaction would be but expect they would, after a bit of worrying, take her. What do you think?

OP posts:
auntymandy · 15/10/2005 07:00

'I doubt her friends parents can afford it' how judgmental of you! Will there be someone there traied to use the epipen? Will school actually agree to take her. does she really want to go?

yowlingmonster · 15/10/2005 08:09

tatt, I would talk to her about how important it is she take responsibility for her allergies if she goes and that she needs to show you that she can do this before you allow her to go eg get her to ring a manufacturer and check ingredients, take her out a few places and give her the responsibility to ask. If she is too shy and self conscious with you there then I would say she needed to wait until she was older to go abroad. If she can demonstrate an ability to be responsible with you then talk to the school and if they are happy I would let her go. Hope this makes sense.

mymama · 15/10/2005 12:35

Any chance you or dh can go on the trip as a helper??? I have no solutions as I have not even let ds go to childcare yet!!!

Original poster
tatt · 15/10/2005 14:10

grow up, auntymandy. Her friends are from families with other priorities than a school trip that is not essential to their children's studies and mainly aimed at older children. I'm not judging them, just their finances - but perhaps you were. If I did judge them I'd applaud their good sense.

Yowlingmonster we had the chat this morning and she did, for the first time, use a real epipen to show me she could do it. We had an out of date one, we always keep them to practise.

I think if one of us went she wouldn't want to go but I'm not sure they take parent helpers anyway. She says she very keen but I'm not really convinced, I feel she's testing us.

The school needs extra bodies to make the trip viable and they've been reasonable about epipen training, they probably would take her. If the people going didn't include someone who was trained I could arrange training.

Unfortunately they have to have the deposit in next week if they are going and I'm really undecided.

OP posts:
zippitippitoes · 15/10/2005 14:28

I think it would be hard work to check in cafes, shops and restaurants abroad without a sound grasp of the correct language..even trying to get animal free food is hard, I think you would need to find out how easy it would be to check

auntymandy · 15/10/2005 21:27

'grow up' ha! Why mention it at all?

bobbybob · 16/10/2005 05:20

I believe that Tatt mentioned it as she was trying to stress that her dd may be testing her to see what she would say, rather than be a "must do" trip because all her friends would be on it.

Anyway, it's by the by, lets help tatt make her decision, and leave those other children out of it.

Original poster
tatt · 16/10/2005 07:06

I mentioned it mainly because for an older allergic child friends are very important. They will often remind their friend, or the adult present, to check food and they can sometimes be trained to use an epipen. So her friends not going means she is at slightly higher risk than if they do go. It also means I don't have to worry about whether not going will affect the friendships and it does also mean she may be testing us.

We'd give her a translation from the site we use when we go abroad but I really wish the question hadn't come up yet.

OP posts:
auntymandy · 16/10/2005 07:16

Will there be another oppurtunity when she is older?

Original poster
tatt · 16/10/2005 07:26

probably. If there is not the same trip there will certainly be others. The school do a lot of foreign trips.

OP posts:
auntymandy · 16/10/2005 07:27

then cant you explain your concerns and suggests she waits a year?

Original poster
tatt · 16/10/2005 09:31

partner just told me he'd talked to her and she said she would be disappointed but not really upset if we said no. Anyway one of my friends had a bright idea - said she'd given her kids a budget for school trips throughout their school life. So I said we'd do the same and would she then see this as a priority. The idea horrified her but she immediately said no. So I'm going to say no to this one and talk to partner about what budget we give her. If she wants to supplement that later on by paper rounds or something she can

OP posts:
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