School and food allergies

[Newuser75]

I'm just wanting a few opinions on whether to mention this to the school or not.

My reception age child was yesterday given an item of food in his bag that he can't eat due to a food allergy.

It was put in his school bag wrapped in a napkin.

He wanted to eat it but obviously there were no ingredients on it so I had to go back to the classroom to check with the teacher what it was made with.

He was then very upset as he couldn't eat it.

I'm just concerned that he may have got it and eaten it before we figured out what it was.

For context this isn't the first time something similar has happened as he came out of school one day eating something he can't have.

I just think a reception age child shouldn't have had an item of food given to him that he is allergic to?

Was it made in school or brought in by another child?

YANBU, but I think it's odd that they are putting food in your child's bag to begin with.

Yes you should raise this. Something has gone wrong with their procedures and they need to review them before someone is harmed or worse.

It was made by the school.

Yes I guess it is strange that they would put food in their bags.

Just to check - I'm assuming we're talking about a food intolerance type of allergy here, rather than an anaphylaxis type of allergy? Just thinking of my friend whose kid has a severe nut allergy - if he came out of school eating something that contained nuts, it would mean a 999 call, an Epipen and a blue light ambulance ride. If your son has that kind of allergy, then this would be life-threatening negligence on the school's part.

However, even if it's more along the lines of being sick or getting diarrhoea from dairy products or something like that, of course the school should still be taking it seriously.

When you say it was 'made in school' do you mean they'd been doing baking as a class activity and were then given one of the cakes to take home, or something like that? That's the only reason I can imagine that the school would be giving them food to take home. But if he has a food allergy then obviously they should be aware of that, and he shouldn't be cooking with or being given things he can't eat.

If they are just randomly handing out bits of food for them to take home for no real reason, that's just plain weird, as well as risky for kids like yours.

@ManateeFair food intolerance and allergy are not the same thing. There is no such thing as a food intolerance type of allergy.

Allergy is when the body has an immune response against something you are allergic to. It can be mild to severe to life threatening (anaphylactic).

Food intolerance is when your digestive system can’t process the food you are intolerant to or the food irritates your digestive system.

They are not the same thing.

Even a mild allergy can progress to a more severe allergy. It is absolutely essential that allergies are taken seriously and not trivialised with misinformation regardless of whether the person has mild allergies or anaphylaxis.

@Newuser75 YANBU. You really do need to raise this with the school.

What is the allergy?
Is there a medical care plan in place?

@ManateeFair not all allergic reactions require an epipen and trip to the hospital. Vomiting and diarrhea can be symptoms of an allergic reaction. A mild reaction to peanuts such as hives doesn't not mean the next reaction will not be anaphylaxis. It doesn't mean the hives are not an allergic reaction.

OP you need to inform the school of the allergy and have an allergy management plan in place. He shouldn't be given foods he is allergic to.

This isn't ok. I would raise this to the school, firstly from a safety point of view and secondly its not very thoughtful or inclusive of them, as will obviously make a child feel left out and sad they can't eat the item. I'd also ask if an alternative could have been made for him, even if it meant you provided the ingredients

Seems to me they did some kind of cooking/baking activity at school. If a child had an allergy at our school we would try to find an alternative eg oat milk, dairy free chocolate etc but if no substitute could be used then we would let the child made the item along with everyone else and then let the parents decide if they wanted the child to eat it or not at home time.

Are you 100% sure they haven’t used a substitute that your child could eat and you just haven’t realised? If it was a crispy cake for example and he was dairy free they might of used dairy free chocolate?

"There is no such thing as a food intolerance type of allergy." Just a polite way of referring to "Islington Intolerances"...

That seems pretty poor practise to me. Children with allergies shouldn't be baking with the thing they are allergic to. And why send it home if they are allergic to it? No parent is going to feed it to thier child, they'll just be feeling annoyed at the school that they didn't think to find an alternative. What have you ever had to bake where an alternative couldn't be sourced?

Thank you everyone.

Just to clarify, no it's not an anaphylactic
Type allergy but still one which can cause him unpleasant symptoms.

The children didn't make these at school. They were handed out to all children as part of Diwali celebrations.

I will contact the school.

Can you clarify? Was he given something with his actual allergen in? Eg cake when he’s allergic to gluten?

Are you under the nurse/allergy team for this? Is there a medical care plan in place?

If there isn’t, then perhaps there should be.

Yes the item contained milk which he is allergic to.

Yes currently under care of both dietician and paediatrician.

I'm actually not sure about a medical/allergy plan. I can clarify this but the school do know he isn't allowed any food containing milk.

That’s totally unacceptable then. You need to write to the school.

The allergy action plan should be put together by the nurse/paediatrician and then you fill out forms for school. Do you have anything in writing from paeds?

See here under “action plan for those not needing aaai”
https://www.bsaci.org/professional-resources/resources/paediatric-allergy-action-plans/

The allergy action plan should be put together by the nurse/paediatrician and then you fill out forms for school. Do you have anything in writing from paeds?

This-you should have given the care plan to the school when he started, then everything is laid out for staff.

Yeah, that would lead to my son having a closed airway and death without medical intervention. I’d be interested to know if this was both approved and advised on the child/rens allergy plans created by the HCP. If you work in a school and view allergy plans when planning lessons involving food, you would be aware that you cannot give an item to a child with an allergy without ingredients listed, so if the item was dairy free the school would have personally informed the parents of this.

Yanbu this is a serious incident and needs to be properly looked at by the school.

It doesn't matter how "serious" your child's allergies are, their processes should be to take food very seriously and check everything and every child 's allergies every time

Surely no school would be stupid enough or insensitive enough to let a child bake with ingredients they are allergic to?

At any school I’ve worked in, when the child arrives and parents inform us they have an allergy, we ask for the care plan from the allergy team. We then put this on our own school care plan format (which is clearer and includes a photo etc) and it’s shared with staff. If the parent hasn’t given us the information and allergy plan, then this won’t have taken place.

Exactly. My daughter had only ever had mild hives. Then she had a full blown reaction out of the blue. People shouldn't get complacent l.