Year 2 teacher not acknowledging my child's allergy!

[101waystoworry]

Hey guys, I am really not sure what to do here! My DD is in year 2, she is very allergic to chicks, she cannot touch them at all. Yesterday they had some chicks in class, parents were not informed, and DD was told by her teacher that she was fine to pick them up, ect. Luckily she was ok, last time she was incredibly poorly. I don't understand why the children's notes where not checked, surely teachers are meant to check when doing a safeguarding check?
I spoke to him this morning and he did not apologise, he just stated the children all washed their hands after!! This is the second time the class has not looked after her properly, last month at the end of the day, they lost DD and to make it worse they didn't even notice. She had gone off with her friend! ( I have spoken to her about this obviously and she understands this was wrong) My friend notice her and took her back to school! So AIBU to be worried they are not safeguarding properly? Would I be unreasonable to write an email to the head expressing this worry? I am at a loss at how someone could be so unbothered about an allergy!

If a school is informed a child has an allergy, it is their responsibility to safeguard that child. It is not the responsibility of the six year old.
It may be the case your little girl has grown out of her allergy, which is fantastic. Do you have yearly skin prick tests? I was amazed when my son grew out of a couple of his food allergies, even though I know it was probable. For what it's worth, I have always found showing a photo of my child in A and E looking like a hive ridden swollen balloon, was all I needed to do to get people to take me seriously. It is amazing how otherwise people are so skeptical.
You must definitely address this with the school, whilst simultaneously arranging testing to see if she has grown out of her allergy. Good luck OP.

I’m dreading this.

My son is anaphylactic to eggs, intolerant to chicken meat and very allergic to feathers.

One might say he will most definitely be “allergic to chicks.”

And they are hatching eggs and chicks soon and I’m freaking the fuck out about it. It stinks the classroom out while they are incubating so I’m worrying that the chick stuff will get into the air.

For those who are guffawing over “chick allergies” I don’t mean to patronise but do you know that chicks are covered in feathers? Do you also know that feather allergy is incredibly common?

Use your logic and brain before you bitch.

Sadly WhoUpset, there is often bitching instead of empathy and support. Should be called Bitchnet instead of Mumsnet!!

its not reasonable to expect a teacher to trawl through each child's notes before any excursion/incursion 'just in case', parents with serious allergy concerns should be communicating to a teacher regularly rather than just expecting them to check their child's notes

No, that is EXACTLY what the teacher should be doing. That's why you fill in these forms giving medical information and dietary requirements.

I'm allergic to feathers of all varieties. I haven't heard of a specific chick allergy but people can be allergic to all sorts of things.

It does seem like she might have gotten over her allergy which is a good thing.

I would be extremely upset if the school lost my child.

You know there’s nobody forcing you to be here, right @Falmer? If you feel everyone’s a bitch, you could just not mumsnet.

I didn't say everyone's a bitch Fenella. I said 'there is often bitching instead of empathy and support'. Get your facts right!

Who I've just lost a long post but would be really worried in your position.

Have you asked to see their risk assessment for having hatching chicks in class with a dc in there who is severely allergic to all things eggy/chicky?

If not, I would ask to see it, and include as many possible scenarios as you can - from the obvious to the less obvious - things like cross contamination from other dc touching eggs/chicks and not washing hands properly and then touch something your dc touches or eats, need to inform you that there should be more epic pens in school, protocol for if/when your dc suffers anaphylactic shock over and above normal issues e.g. Removing dc from the room away from allergens, decontamination, ensuring teacher not all chick-ified (will other staff need woo pen training?), etc etc

Suspect they won't have thought of many if any issues so it will give you a chance to go in and blast educate and inform them.

Maybe also raise it as a safeguarding issue that they are deliberately and knowingly putting your dc at risk of serious harm or worse by going ahead with this activity. There's no way they would grow a peanut plant in class if anyone had a peanut allergy for example - why the hell are they doing this?

Or threaten to remove him from school while the chicks are there - put in for authorised absence with a reason of 'not wanting my dc to suffer from and potentially endure serious harm or die from anaphylactic shock from a reaction to the chicks in the class as there is a high risk of this' to see what they say...

Either they say fine - bad as it means chicks more important than your dc - so you can then complain to council education officer that your dc is unable to access his education and you don't want to get done for low attendance.

Or they don't grant permission at which point you complain to governors, ofsted, etc that they don't care if they kill your son. Sorry to be very blunt about it but I think you need to use those words to make them realise how serious the effects can be - which it doesn't sound like they do at the moment.

L

Schools shouldn't still be doing the bloody chick project thing, causes all sorts of animal welfare / rehoming issues /misses point of thread/

@Falmer well, the fact you propose renaming the site Bitchnet would imply that you feel it is at least a majority share. So if you don’t like the fact there’s “often bitching”, you could just not use it. There’s always NetHuns.....

Fenella and there's always the choice of showing empathy and support instead of bitching, goading and speaking for other people as in your 15.57 post.

@Falmer whilst I’m flattered you feel the need to pay such close attention to my posts, I don’t think it says much for your reading comprehension - I spoke for no one else, I flagged something that people had already said earlier in the thread. I have the utmost empathy for allergy sufferers - again if you’d read my post properly you’d note I am one. This is why I feel it is very important to be clear about the language used around allergies, so that non-allergy sufferers don’t get blasé as a result of spurious statements. The OP has clarified in response to my question that she did indeed mean a feather allergy, ergo the question was correct.

I hate the hatching chicks stuff anyway. It’s not a learning experience that justifies using live animals in this way.

Few people really get allergies unless they have experience themselves. I am allergic to most animals, and came out in a terrible reaction to raw wool on a school trip when I was in primary school. I spent hours wheezing, and no one really bothered except to send me to bed, alone. I’m totally horrified by this now. Asthma and (non-anaphylactic) allergies are often not well-understood or considered in planning.

Fenella, so OP has explained herself to your satisfaction? How condescending!

How did the school respond after they let your DD go home without an adult? I presume you made a strong complaint?

Bit of goady attention seeking there, Flouncy?

@Falmer The OP has to explain herself clearly in general, in order to be understood and taken seriously - you do seem to be having some comprehension difficulties today, are you feeling alright?

Allergic to chicks? Come on. She even handled one and was fine.

Last time she wasn't which is why she shouldn't have been handling them At All.

If she had had full blown abaphalaxis this time would that satisfy you she was allergic enough? Hopefully she has grown out of it but the ignorant teacher didn't know that and played god.

Fenella, are you sure your allergies are real? As I understand it, they can sometimes be psychomatic? Either way, my sympathies.

@Falmer actually technically I don’t have an allergy - I have coeliac disease. It’s an autoimmune condition rather than psychosomatic, but it’s a documented condition diagnosed by a medical professional, which puts me one up on a ‘chick allergy’.

Fenella, sorry to hear you have coeliac disease but it's not a competion with OP, you know.

@Falmer You asked if my allergies were psychosomatic. I answered. I don’t need to compete with anything.

Fenella, you said your condition
puts you "one up on a chick allergy"