Food Allergy

Food Allergies & Day Care

For those of you who send your child to day care, did you pick somewhere that is specifically food allergy friendly/knowledgeable?

 My DD has been going to a small in-home day care who is DH's cousin's wife - 3 days a week for about a year. I love that she goes to family and she's been pretty good with DD's allergies until now it seems she's getting too comfortable. DD is allergic to dairy, eggs, peanuts and Friday I picked her up to find her sitting next to another child at a table who had a bowl of mac n cheese - they were left unattended while she answered the door to let me in. All it would have taken was DD to grab a handful of that while no one was looking! The kid also managed to dump the mac n cheese all over the floor - twice. The dog cleaned it up but not fast enough in my opinion!

I guess my question is is there such a thing as allergy friendly places or is it a matter of finding somewhere that has food allergy experience? Also what is reasonable to ask of her regarding allergic foods? Such as, can I ask that the other kids not eat things she's allergic to at the same table as her? I'm not sure how I'm supposed to avoid this. I don't think I can ask that she not serve her kids mac n cheese just b/c my kid is there.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

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Re: Food Allergies & Day Care

  • That would be enough for me to pull my LO out of that day care. Ugh, I'm getting anxiety just reading this post - how scary if she would have gotten her hands on the mac & cheese!

    To answer your question, my mom takes care of DD while I work, and if for some reason she couldn't do that anymore, I would definitely only go with a place that is a day care center with clear allergy protocol and training (CPR, EpiPen administration, etc) and controls in place. I would also recommend a peanut-free facility if your child has a peanut allergy; a lot of them are. An in-home day care wouldn't cut it for me - what if your DD had a reaction and needed to go to the hospital? A center will have enough staff to maintain ratios if a worker needs to accompany your child in an ambulance.

    Mom to E, 11/2011 - Severe egg & dairy allergies, soy intolerance *** Stepmom to G, 2001
  • pawcallpawcall member

    It's perfectly reasonable to ask that she be at another table, and supervised, while there's food out. 

    My son goes to a Goddard, and they are not specifically food-allergy knowledgeable, but they try.  Aidan sits in a booster (buckled in) away from the table while kids are eating.  

    There are also "medical daycares" that have experience with this.  

    Ultimately, the stress is too much for me, because we're pulling Aidan out of daycare and going with a nanny.  When he's a little older and can understand his limitations, I'd like to send him back.

    ~Mom to an amazing Jan 2011 boy~
    ~EDD Nov 18, 2017 with my IUI success story~

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  • blue33blue33 member

    Yeah, daycare was my worst fear. Mainly because some teachers don't get it. At my son's old daycare, they sat next to each other to eat, which I hated, because like you said, they can grab other children's food. My son did grab another child's food on an occassion. I was pissed and sad. Pissed because he could have gotten sick, but sad because he realized his food was different from his classmates and tried to take theirs. In his current daycare, he is usually put in a high chair in the same area as the other children. I LOVE THIS. DS doesn't mind, and I asked his teacher does he cry or fuss when she puts him in the highchair, and she said no. He just says Eat Eat. So, that made me feel good. Our new daycare has been awesome with DS' allergies. The Director has made accomodations for him. I told her that he could have tyson chicken nuggets, and veggies with olive oil, and fruit. She got bags of safe foods especially for my son, wrote his name on it, and let me come into the school's cafeteria so that I could see how the food was prepared. She also bought disposable aluminum pans and paper plates so that my son's food would not come into contact with an allergen. Now, I know that this is not the norm, but we were blessed with a very caring and concerned daycare director who works with us to keep our son safe and to include him in lunch time, so that I don't always have to pack a home lunch which helps tremendously.

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  • I had issues with my daycare with my lil man sitting next to other kids while they eating also.. and it was frustrating- I would express my  concerns and they would voice they didn't want him to be alienated. And yes, It made me sad bc he was realizing other kids had different food. {which we used to eat other food also, bc allergy food is so expensive, but now that he is older and noticing a difference we are changing that- I don't want to be a hyperactite around him, why not eat the same stuff as him to make him feel more 'normal')

    But, now we have a great relationship with the day care, they listen to my concerns and do what a request. It is an NAEYC accredited day care which I HIGHLY suggest! they can have a lower ratio of adult to child so your kid will have more exclusive attention, and they are up to date on all the current child development... its wonderful. They even have special gluten free foods and things that they  buy on their budget to feed my son.

     But... now we have to move. So, I am looking for another day care, I am a bit nervous to start this all over again but I have been calling many different centers and just asking them about the practices for allergy safety and seeing how familiar they are with that. Also visiting with my son so he sees how he likes it and I can check it out.

    Also another major major bonus to NAEYC accredited is they have a nurse practitioner on site at all times!!! Ours helped me so much! SO someone is there to monitor your child in case they break out or anything.

    And I would try to find somewhere close to your work or home so you can quickly drive to the center in case something happens.

    Good luck, I know it's scary, But I personally felt that this will help me adjust when my son starts school in the future. 

     

  • and one of the reasons that we're on daycare #3.  But they "get" it.  Finally.

    Our last daycare I literally came in to find him throwing up---and a full on rash all over his face/neck---he was going in to anaphylactic!!!!  I don't know what they gave him--or rather what he grabbed--but apparently something bad---my guess is regular milk  (my son has the same allergies as yours)

    Reality is that at some point the child must understand that they can not grab other kids food----but until they reach that age, it's the daycare's job to watch them.  I would definitely talk to her and ask if perhaps they can just be spaced out a bit or on opposite sides or whatever.  I also explain that until my own child had allergies I never understood the worry--and now I know--- so I try to educate.  Explain what will happen and what she can expect---vomiting/rash/possibly having to give epi pen.

    Trust me--no one wants that--they will watch.

     

  • Thankfully DD is really good (for her age) about not grabbing food and not putting things in her mouth. The mac n cheese thing was total common sense tho, my DCP knows what that would do to DD and that while she walks away DD could have easily shoved her hands in the bowl. And the thing is it was 2:15pm, it wasn't meal time and that boy was the only one eating. My DCP doesn't run a schedule so each of the 3 "babies" (ages 18-24 mos) has their own schedule. I think that makes it difficult because they all eat at all different times. With a lil work they're all old enough to be put on the same schedule like most D/C's I've heard of run.

    I think the other problem is she has her 21 mo old there as well as her 4 yr old so there are special rules for her own kids, and since it's small there really aren't many rules for anyone regarding walking around with food and milk. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the other kids sippies sitting around with cow milk in them.

    I know what I need to do, it's probably move her to a center that's more structured and knowledgeable of allergies. I've looked into 2 yr old programs at pre-schools. I'm having a baby soon so I'll be leaving my job so she won't need to go during my working hours which will give us some flexibility with trying something new. 

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