Another article

It must be 'interesting article day' for CNN because as soon as I logged in again, I saw this one.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/24/teddys.struggle/index.html

Food allergies are a nightmare for parents, teachers, and students. Kids with especially harsh allergies, like Teddy here, require a lot more attention to detail than your average kid with the pollen allergy. In the article, Teddy's mom states that they have to be very specific with his teachers and even ask that some foods be kept out of the classroom completely because exposure could cause him to go into shock or even resperatory distress.

Kids are strange creatures. They often know what they can and can't have but their selective memory kicks in and suddenly they've forgotten that they're allergic to chocolate, and OOPS! Here come the itchy hives and sneezing. At my last school, we had a mass/assembly with students from another school. At mass, the priest blew up a ton of balloons and started bouncing them around to different students. He even passed out balloons to students so they could help him blow them up. One of my students got so excited and distracted by the balloons that she forgot that she was allergic to latex. One inhalation from a balloon and she was itching and having trouble breathing in about 30 seconds. We all kept a few pairs of plastic gloves around in case she was bleeding and we needed to treat her; using latex gloves could have been deadly if some of it got in her blood stream

Some kids are very good about it, and even now and then you'll come across a classroom that's very understanding and empathetic and willing to bend to accomodate their classmate. If William can't have chocolate, Susan and others will bring vanilla cupcakes for their birthdays. If Anya is allergic to wheat, the kids will find a wheat-free treat to bring to school. That's so empowering and uplifting, to see kids who are all about helping one another and standing together. It's clear they've been given the right role models to look to and follow.

For teachers, it's most important when the parents are clear and upfront about allergies, even for dust or outside allergens. If a parent came to me and said that Sally was allergic to dust, I'd try a little harder to keep my classroom cleaner. If another parent came to me and said that their son Chuckie was allergic to citrus products, I'd definitely make sure to ask and remind parents to keep citrus juices and products out of our classroom for the safety of all students.

My school is supposed to provide a first aid kid to all classrooms, but as a specials teacher I've been overlooked (fairly often the case). I'm working on my own, and I've got to get some more plastic gloves, but I've got children's tylenol in there as well as some benedryl and plenty of gauze and band aids. I've never had to use any of it, thank God, but you never know.

That leads me to my next point: meds. If a student has medication that they have to take at a certain time, I'd leave it with a teacher or in the school office or with the nurse. That's not to say that kids aren't responsible enough to take care of it on their own, but sometimes kids forget if the schedule is a little different, and sometimes kids don't know that it's not okay to self-medicate if they 'need a little more'. Parents will probably need to give written permission for the school to give any kind of medication to a student. Sometimes I wish it was the 1940s again when teachers could dole out medication as necessary and parents didn't need to sign a waiver. Paperwork has clogged up the entire system, man.

Parents, teachers, and students NEED to rely on one another when dealing with allergies. Teachers can't keep an eye out for problems if they don't know, and a parent can't be angry with a teacher for not knowing what the problem is. If I know that Charlotte is allergic to milk and give her a carton anyway, sure! Get mad at me! But if I DON'T know that Charlotte is allergic to milk, I can't be held completely responsible; I can't watch out for the problem if I don't know that there is a problem. Food allergies are hard on everyone, but I firmly believe that there's a solution or compromise to be found as long as everyone is upfront at the very beginning.

If a teacher doesn't feel comfortable giving medication or dealing with meds, there has to be someone at the school who does. If a school is lucky enough to have a nurse, that person should be able to deal with anything minor or mildly major enough that comes along, and a nurse will know when an ambulance needs to be called.

I feel so bad for kids with allergies. I think that especially with something simple, like milk, kids feel as though they're the weird kid or that they're different and in a bad way. That's simple not true, as we all know. I've heard that your allergies can change and develop into deeper or weaker allergies every 7 years or so, and that allergies can fade and that new allergies can develop. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but if it is...what a blessing for parents! As a teacher I'd love to hear that Junior is no longer allergic to chocolate. As a parent, I'd be delighted if that meant I didn't have to dig through the annual Halloween Candy Haul to find what Junior can eat through all the chocolate.

Bottom line: if parents are upfront and the child is old enough to be a little vigilent, and the teacher is aware of the situation, there's no reason that the teacher and student can't have a 'normal' year. It might be a stretch for all involved, but the child deserves to have fun and the teacher can make that happen with cooperation and a little more awareness.