School

[athomeagain]

our 4 year old is anaphylactic to peanuts ,other nuts ,eggs and sesame.She also has hayfever and is allergic to most sun creams.And also reacts to shea butter and some plastics.

We have been home educating for lots of reasons and were planning on carrying on with this but we did get a place at a good local school due to feeling we ought to and to leave our options open.

Now through being asked by lots of people when she is starting school ( for the past two years ) she looks and acts very grown up she has been asking if she can go so we are going through the motions as we do not want to make the wrong choice for her.

So we went to the parents evening saw the school nurse and made an appointment
for a further meeting,spoke to the head who seemed unable to tell us where she would sit for pack lunch apart from in the hall.

we then went to see the teacher who when we said we have some questions as are DD has sevre allergies just said see the nurse.

Then yesterday when we took her for story time luckily we took her into the classroom instead of leaving her at the door as we were being urged to do as there was a table of playdough,we managed to get the TAs attention to say she must not play with it as it had noy not been checked .1stly some playdough is not safe for her and 2ndly the teacher still had not asked what she was allergic to.

We are feeling really worried

Thank you

You just need to be really assertive and clear about your child's needs. I have a ds, also 4 starting school in September, who has a life threatening allergy to nuts/eggs plus also reacts to suncreams and some materials. My husband and I had a chat with the teacher before his taster session (2 hours at the school). Here, we spoke of his medical needs and checked the teacher knew what to do in an emergency. Plus we have arranged a longer formal meeting with the teacher prior to his start in September to discuss in detail his needs and to make sure that all parties within school are aware (dinner ladies to admin staff). We have spoken to school nurse and will be writing a care plan for the school. I also met with the head and asked about her experience with allergic children. I aim to be as pro-active and asserive as possible including making sure that the staff are trained in using an epipen. I am also a primary school teacher and I know that the parents that are most 'in your face' about their children's needs are the ones that will ensure that their children get the best possible care. I had a child in my class who was diabetic. The child's parents had almost weekly meetings with me and if any litle thing affected their child's care, they would be in straight away to complain. As a teacher, I found the parents difficult but the effect was I was hyper aware of all the child's needs.

I agree with keresley. You have to be assertive and proactive and if the school seems lacking in knowledge you need to fill those gaps for them.
When my daughter was diagnosed I arranged a meeting with the headteacher telling her what procedures I would like to be followed. I also draughted an "In case of emergency plan" setting out her allergens, what symptoms to look for and what action needs to be taken. The school were happy for me to do it and I felt reassured that I had an input. Maybe for the first term and again with any new teacher you might need to have some alert badges/stickers on him to make his allergies visible and specific.
The Anaphylaxis campaign will have some good advice and they also run training and awareness programs.
Good luck.

yes agree with keresley. Am also primary school teacher. Generally schools now are v aware of allergies and do listen to parents. Perhaps a little talk to the teacher and the TA's attached to your dcs class would be in order along with a couple of copies of what they should/n't have and what to do if it happens. A couple of places I've worked in have had a photo of the child with a clear allergy list and action plan underneath. These were placed in school office, first aid room, classroom, dinner hall. Don't need to be too obvious though if you're worried it will upset your dc just somewhere adults can see. IMO it will be a good thing for your dc to go to school as the allergy sounds like one that won't just ' go away' so how long do you try to keep her at home for? I guess you may be hoping she will be more self aware as she gets older and keep her home till then?? Good luck.