How annoyed should I be (school and food)

[tacal]

My ds has always had sensory issues when it comes to eating. He also is not very good at chewing his food. He choked a couple of times at nursery. He has also choked in a restaurant. It was a horrible experience.

Someone from salt came out to our house to assess his eating last summer. I was sent a report that said I should not give him anything to eat that causes him difficulty. When he started school I gave them a copy of the report and it was agreed they would not give ds any food without letting me know in advance.

So, first time the school forgot about this they apologised and convinced me it would not happen again. Yesterday they gave ds a difficult to eat sweet. I had mentioned at our initial meeting that he does not chew these sweets properly so I don't want him to have them. The salt who assessed him looked very worried when she saw the way he swallowed them whole without chewing.

The whole class were given a sweet and ds was very happy that he was given one. He has now informed me he is great at eating them and wants to eat them all the time. I am hoping to get some advice from his o/t regarding his chewing.

How should I approach the school about this? What would you do?

The school definitely shouldn't have given him a sweet. I'm surprised they give them out anyway but they should have systems when it comes to food/sweets as there are a range of reasons why children might not be allowed certain foods with potential devastating effects. You definitely need to go back to the school and be that broken record again. Has your ds improved at all since last summer? They have also made you the bad guy taking away something ds thinks he can do.

I'm afraid I had to at your ds response. Most dc would also say they are great at eating sweets and should have them all the time too; much better than normal food!

thank you Bilberry and zzzzz
I just wanted to check I wasn't over reacting before I speak to the school. Sometimes I think I do over react.

Bilberry I think ds is making progress with his eating but I still don't feel comfortable letting him eat chewy sweets without an adult watching him. Sweets are everywhere so I think I am going to have to work on this with ds over the summer.

zzzzz I was thinking I should make a formal complaint. I have an appointment at school today so will speak to them.

I agree with zzzzz.

At my school, if we have a child who has allergies, intolerances or feeding difficulties, we find out what the child is able to eat instead and ask the parent to provide a supply of that food instead so that we can give them something to eat/take home if another child brings in some kind of treat.

In Nursery, if sweets come in, we send them home with each child so it's the parents' decision to give them to the child or not. If it's cakes for snack time, then we would have a stash of foods which the particular child could eat.

thanks zzzzz you were right! Just mentioning the complaint seems to have made a big difference. They have suggested a procedure to stop the mistake happening again and are being very nice and helpful when discussing future plans for ds.

hi littlefish thank you for your reply. I have asked the school to let me know if they are having food in class so I can provide substitutes for ds. I would have thought they would have been used to this kind of thing but maybe there are not many pupils at ds' school with allergies or special diets. Food has always been a huge problem for ds. Hopefully it will get easier as he gets older.