Preparing Your Child for a New School Year

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As a new school year gets underway, take advantage of this opportunity to sit down with your child to reinforce food allergy management practices.

Here are some topics to cover with your child:

  • Symptoms. Go over the symptoms of an allergic reaction with your child, in terms that are easy to understand if your child is younger (for example, itchy, red bumps on an arm, tickly feeling in the throat after eating). Make sure your child fully understands that any symptoms are to be reported to his teacher, other school staff, or an adult.
  • No food trading. Teach your child to never swap food with classmates or accept food from classmates that a designated adult has not approved.
  • Cafeteria. Come up with a signal that your child will use to alert a cafeteria worker or school aide if he or she is not feeling well and needs help. Share this signal with the school’s dining service staff and volunteers.
  • Epinephrine. If your child is old enough to self-carry, go over the rules, such as not allowing classmates to handle an epinephrine auto-injector, and coming up with a system to ensure that your child does not leave the epinephrine at home or at school. It is always useful to have training sessions with an epinephrine autoinjector training device.
  • School nurse. Introduce your child to the school nurse and be sure that he or she knows where to find the nurse’s office.
  • Speaking up. Let your child know it’s okay to speak up about his or her food allergies if he or she is offered food, and that it is okay to decline. Your child should also know to always speak if he or she is not feeling well, or something doesn’t feel right.
  • Celebrations. Talk to your child about the potential for food in the classroom. If your child’s school has classroom celebrations involving food, consider supplying the teacher or school nurse with safe treats in case an unexpected celebration takes place.

Have a great school year!