“You’re a Lifesaver!”
Millions of kids suffer severe, even life-threatening, allergies,
but keeping kids safe is easier than you might think.

By Paula Allison

Parents who have kids with life-threatening allergies understand what a hassle it can be for non-allergic kids and their families. Frankly, until my husband and I had our daughter—and almost lost her to an anaphylactic reaction—we thought the whole food allergy hullabaloo was crazy. All this freaking out over a little peanut butter? Please! But for our daughter, a peanut butter sandwich left lying on a lunch table can be every bit as dangerous as a loaded gun lefty lying around with the safety off. As our little girl moved into the realm of school, sports and play dates, we had to prepare her to grow up in a world that contains nuts, and just like any parents with a child with a medical condition, we also had to educate ourselves and others about how to keep our kid safe.

Unfortunately, for reasons not known, food allergies are on the rise. According to The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (www.foodallergy.org), over 3 million children have food allergies, so most people will know at least one child with a severe food allergy. The idea of inviting an allergic kid over for a play date can be daunting for a panicked mother wondering what she needs to do to prepare her house, but it needn't be.

Here are some safety tips for protecting kids with allergies in your home or at school:
• Ask if snacks are okay.
Find out exactly what the child is allergic to and what foods to avoid.
• Keep it clean.
No need to go crazy cleaning, but you can clean off kitchen surfaces with soap and water. Note: alcohol-based sanitizers do not remove all proteins from allergens.
• Check labels carefully.
“May contain” and “packaged in a facility that handles peanuts” pose meaningful risk, and these warnings are easy to miss. “Someone close to our son gave him some seemingly benign gummy bears and missed the fine print on the label that indicated they were processed with nuts,” says Rex Briggs, an El Dorado Hills father of twins, one with severe allergies. Briggs also points out that, “Labels change all the time,” so it’s important to read a product’s label every time you serve it. Even if it has been fine in the past, factories and processing conditions can and do change.
• Be prepared.
Learn what to do in an emergency and what symptoms to look for. Ask for an EpiPen and Benadryl if necessary, and make sure you have emergency contact numbers.
• Educate non-allergic kids.
If your school has a special allergy-free table (i.e. no nuts), encourage your child to periodically bring an allergy-free snack or lunch and sit at the special table to keep an allergic friend company. Remind your child it is not safe to sit at the table if he has something with the allergen in it.
• Create solutions.
Kristine Nations, a Folsom mom, developed a fun way to protect her two allergic daughters. “I now send my girls to school each day with a large linen napkin to spread out like a mini table cloth to keep them from eating off a table with nut residue. They have fun picking a different embroidered napkin every day, and I have peace of mind.”

While my husband and I carefully plan for situations in which our daughter might be exposed to nuts, we realize that ultimately we have to rely on other people to help keep our daughter safe. People in our community, especially kids, are terrific. They go out of their way to protect our daughter, and for that, we are extremely grateful.

Paula L. Allison is a local mother of two and Executive Director of Allison Consulting, A Professional Law Corporation.