If your dc's teacher fed then something they were allergic to...

[superoz]

...would you take it further or leave it?

Dd is allergic to dairy, egg, nuts and fish which is well documented at school. Class had a picnic today, and the teacher had given dd a cake which she said was safe. After a few mouthfuls she then reacted and started to get an itchy mouth and throat, they gave her an antihistamine.
I was told this at the end of the day, dd was fine and back to normal and wasn't too bothered. Teacher apologised and said she checked as it seemed to be free from but admitted she made a mistake. Should I bring this up with the school? Or would I be creating a fuss? I'm not sure what I would achieve in doing so.

fed them* something

Typo!

I would take it up with the school in a 'this is extremely serious, how can we stop this happening again' way. It could be fatal and this teacher needs to take it far more seriously, however ranting almost certainly won't help (though it would be totally understandable if you did as I imagine you are furious, as I would be in your situation) Hope your DD is ok now.

I've got a multiple allergy child. Ive made mistakes. I'd accept the apology and hope it didn't happen again. If it did, I'd raise it further, though I appreciate it depends a lot on whether I actually felt the teacher realised she'd made a mistake and was going to try 'harder'. If I felt they were dismissive of the issue I may consider differently

I am very worried about this issue with my dd. She has chronic atopic eczema and urticaria. She can be fine with something on day 1 and by day 3 is swelling, itchy, and covered in rashes.

Personally in your case I would leave it, the teacher checked it would be OK, she can't be held responsible if the manufacturer hasn't declared everything. She has apologised.

Short of your dd being excluded from Any food orientated task you can't be certain that it won't ever happen. All you can do is manage the risk.

Flip the tables. If you bought something and had checked the ingredients and it looked fine and she reacted would you be reporting yourself?

I'd definitely bring it up with school - in writing.

I wouldn't take the position of wanting justice, but would approach it from the angle of wanting to keep my DD safe in the future.

I would be making sure the incident was formally recorded, asking school to arrange more staff training throughout the school before my daughter returns after the holidays and check that whoever decided not to call you at the time of the incident was properly qualified to take that decision. I'd also take the opportunity to get school to double check that they can lay their hands on your DD's antihistamines and epipens (if she has them) immediately - no matter where in the school grounds she is. If she has a care plan in place I'd also ask for a meeting to reassure you that all staff involved in your DD's care are aware and fully understand its contents.

Hope your DD is ok now and that you're feeling ok. It's a horrible thing to happen and I'm sure the teacher is upset, but as a parent of an allergic child it's really hard to trust people who have been careless with your child's life when they were in a position of responsibility.

My brother and also 2yo dd has severe nut allergy so I know how scary this can be! You should bring it up with the school. As others have said that could be a life threatening mistake. People who don't have experience of severe allergies can be far too relaxed about it but a school should be aware. Also they should have let you know when it happened. Some reactions can come on slowly and turn anaphylactic once the allergen has hit the digestive system so it may appear as just swelling of lips and rash at the time but still affect breathing later. This is what happens with my DB & DD. You have no idea how closely they monitored her throughout the day. Again a school should be more aware of this. I would want to go in and talk it through in a less formal way and make sure they know how to use epipens ect,and that they have a more formal proceedure in place if a mistake is made that certainly involves telling the parent/carer. Just in the interest of keeping kids safe. Allergies are quite common these days so your child probably isn't the only one in the school with one. Its pretty easy to avoid allergens these days. There's not really an excuse but mistakes will inevitably happen sometimes which is a constant fear for parents of allergic children.

I would definitely take it further. Does she have a care plan? Only I'm surprised that staff are allowed to give her food that hasn't been checked by you or discussed in advance. DS1 has multiple allergies and his teacher lets me know if they are doing cooking, and I supply a box of 'treat' snacks for unforeseen circumstances eg if a child brings in birthday cake.

Thanks for all your replies!

The teacher said the packaging said it was dairy free, but I reminded her dd was also allergic to egg and it must have had egg in, so this made me think maybe she had got it wrong.
dd is 9 and is perfectly capable of checking labelling herself, so either her or I could have checked the ingredients.
She does have a care plan in case, and ironically last week I had an appointment to put together a care plan for September, which was much more detailed than before.

It's the last day of school tomorrow so I am thinking of how to handle this in a non aggressive manner. I'm not angry and know mistakes can be made, but I can't help thinking what if the child was anaphylactic (fortunately mine isn't)?

Yep, it's clear that the proper procedure was not followed and the school (and your DD!) are lucky the consequences weren't worse.

I would ask for a chat with the Senco to clarify what the procedures are - eg staff should be carefully checking all ingredients and not just looking at a 'dairy free' label. (Incidentally, a great deal of 'Free From' labelled cakes etc seem to contain egg, which has always surprised me as it's such a common allergen.)

It should be obvious to the school that an error was made and quite understandable that you'd want to discuss it.

I went to the school office this morning to check their protocol on contacting me in the event of an allergic reaction. Person on duty yesterday wasn't there but they should have rang me and they didn't.
I then tried to get more details on their policy on checking if food is safe when given out by the teacher, and consulting the parent beforehand would have been feasible. It was at this point the lady got a bit tetchy and said "Well, dd is going to be in Year 5 and she needs to take some responsibility for herself and not accept food from anybody".
What?! I explained that dd doesn't accept food from anybody unless she knows that it is safe, her teacher told her she checked and she trusted her judgement. In fact, if they had actually given her the packet she would have checked herself and spotted the declaration of egg!
As the day has gone this comment pissed me off more and more. Fuming now

I would be really upset by the incident and ask for some kind of review meeting. As a mum of a boy with multiple severe/ life threatening alllergies this would be my worst nightmare. No need to go in on the attack, just to ensure it doesn't happen again. People are well meaning but I've discovered many people (intelligent, well educated people) who really just don't get it.

I would press them a bit further on this - I think it's fair to assume that her teacher would have checked properly and realised about the egg or given her the packaging so your DD could have checked herself. Did you know about the picnic in advance?

Slightly off-topic, but my DD is booked on a one day course next week and we've had a note about the food they can take because someone has severe allergies - no nuts or seeds - I'll definitely be checking labels carefully!

write a letter to the head and the governors and EA outlining the exact issues.
Not following policy re phoning you.
Not informing you as parent about food.
Teacher not knowing full extent of allergies by missing the egg. (which is obvious in a cake usually)

Ask sch about care after reaction, for instance :observation after reaction, and not running/ walking around after anti histamine halted reaction

Go over in letter what steps need to be in policy if not in there and what steps needed to take after a reaction.

Ask for list of adults who have had allergy training. and what extent of training.

IMO you should not let this drop. They were very lucky they didnt have full blown anaphylaxis on their hands !

I think I'd be taking it further, as much for the sake of other allergic children as for your own. Reading a list of ingredients isn't always sufficient to establish safety and if the teacher couldn't be 100% certain then she shouldn't risk it.

I'm at the school's reaction to it. If their policy is that DD should not eat any food unless supplied by home then the teacher should not be offering it!

Yes to asking for a review meeting - the list of questions below is a really good one.

I'd be taking it further now after the attitude of the person you spoke to.

It doesn't need to be full on complaint but just state what happened and suggest ways to improve policy in future.

I would add though that you'd tried to do it face to face and what happened.

That's utterly crap. My DCs have multiple allergies, and their teachers would have vetted everything in advance. So the teacher didn't even remotely herself of all the actual allergens to look out for before checking it? That's so dangerous.

I would be asking for a meeting with SENCO and head to ask how on earth this happened, and getting a VERY rigourous step by step policy in place for the future. I'm really shocked anyone in charge of a child's welfare would be this slapdash!

Sorry missed the update re office response; I'd be speaking to the governors as well as the head. 9 is not that old, ingredients lists are complex, and that attitude tells you all you need to know about how seriously they take it!

Definitely take it further. There was a case recently in the news where a child died in school due to food allergies and being served something they were allergic too

Yep, happened to us too. The school wasn't particularly bothered as DS has a delayed reaction so they thought we were overstating. I went a bit nuclear, especially as he had a really bad reaction, and was off school for three days.
I would insist on seeing the school's allergy protocol in the new year. Her allergies should be on a sheet that is displayed on/near the teacher's desk. Also, make sure they have an official letter on file about it.
So sorry this happened. It's a bit scary knowing they have jurisdiction over this for several hours a day!

I would take it further. This happened to my DD at nursery and although she was fine (ish) vomiting etc. I framed my concerns as "how would they stop this happening again", also, in her case she was ok but I worried how the lax attitude of her carer could impact a child with anaphylaxis.

Thanks, I used to be a member of the anaphylaxis society as the information on allergies from them was really useful.

It was definitely the teacher misreading the ingredients, or forgetting dd's allergies as I asked the teacher what she was given specifically - checked the ingredients label from the supermarket website and egg is in listed in bold. Also when I was first told teacher said "I checked it was dairy free", which made me think maybe that was the only thing she checked for.

I have sent an email to the coordinator of allergy care plans in school stating what happened (or didn't) and asked to improve training. Now contemplating my response to the school in September. I never, and I mean never make a fuss about anything but we are now into the holidays and I'm still annoyed by it.