The first
day of elementary school should be an exciting time for students and their parents, unfortunately for the King
family their daughter Amelie’s special day turned into a traumatic event that
will be long remembered. Like my
daughter, Amelie is severely allergic to peanuts. Her FIRST day of school ended early being
sent home to her parents just after lunchtime with a face that looked like it
had been used as a punching bag due to a food allergy reaction. If there was any good news to the situation
it was that Amelie had a somewhat mild reaction compared to what she could have
had based upon her allergic diagnosis which may have included her throat swelling
shut, cardiac arrest and organs shutting down from anaphylaxis shock…though looking at her picture
from that day I don’t think many people would consider her reaction “mild”.
My own
daughter went into anaphylaxis shock a few years when she was just 18 months
old after eating some peanut butter which quickly became a very serious situation
involving her face swelling up like Amelie’s but also her throat swelling shut
resulting in a trip to the hospital where a great team of doctors and nurses in
the emergency room saved her life. Since
that time, we’ve had to be very vigilant to protect our daughter from having
another allergic reactions…it really isn’t as easy as some people think. Preventing her from eating food with
ingredients she can’t have is the EASY part…avoiding contamination from food
that has been exposed to allergens while it is made or prepared or from residue
that people have on them or may spill while eating something she is allergic
too is the BIG challenge.
I didn’t
realize until we had to deal with food allergies ourselves through our daughter’s
diagnosis how much candy and food play a part in “celebrations” at schools,
family functions, and community events for dates like Birthdays, Halloween,
Christmas, and of course Valentine’s Day.
This year my daughter’s teacher
invited parents to bake treats to bring in for the kids to have a Valentine’s
Day Celebration. I had to be the bad guy
and complain saying that our doctor warned us not to let her eat treats baked
at people’s homes that we didn’t know and could have potential contamination
issues with allergens. The teachers said
instead of inconveniencing other parents they would give my daughter another
treat we could bring ourselves. That may
seem OK until you take two things into consideration.
FIRST,
treating a 5 year old girl different than her class mates can be very upsetting
for her. It also opens up the other kids
to thinking of her differently which has contributed to what SCHOLASTIC
MAGAZINE has reported is a growing trend of food allergy bullies at school.
SECOND,
there is still a contamination issue in the class room from potential allergen
exposure from contact with the other kids or spilled food. When it comes to triggering an allergic reaction
the cause can be microscopic in size and while the most common and dangerous
exposure is through ingestion, reactions can also be triggered by inhalation or
contact with the skin.
In the case
of Amelie King a boy in her class was eating a bag of peanuts as a snack at
lunch. During recess he played with
Amelie and the peanut oil on his hands transferred to her skin resulting in the
reaction that occurred. In another
recent tragic case involving food allergies, 27 year old Chantel Giacalone from
Metro Detroit, who had an allergic reaction while on vacation in Las Vegas with
friends. It appears that a scooper at an
ice cream shop was contaminated from contact with a flavor other than the one
she ordered with peanuts as an ingredient.
Chantel went into anaphylaxis shock resulting in her going into cardiac
arrest twice until she could be stabilized.
This happened around Valentine’s Day in 2013, a year later this poor
woman is still in a vegetative-state requiring around the clock care.
For parents
with children who have food allergies, no matter what their age, you are always
on edge waiting for an allergic reaction and always have to be vigilant in
educating others to the seriousness of food allergies. In my recent incident, after a lengthy “discussion”
with school teachers and administrators, parents were asked not to bring in
home baked snacks and instead could bring in prepackaged snacks that did not have food allergy warnings on them.
If you child
doesn’t have food allergies, please just keep into consideration that food
allergies result in more than just a rash or sore throat and they can have a very
severe and significant impact on a person who suffers with them; plus cause a
lot of stress for their loved ones too, especially when dealing with young children.
Keeping in mind the spirit of the holiday, please show some love to
people dealing with food allergies on this Valentines Day. Take a moment to educate yourself on safety standards for people with food allergies and please be considerate when confronted with requests that you may think are inconvenient to your family but could save another family from a traumatic event like those suffered by Amelie King and Chantel Giacalone.
If you would
like to learn more about the topic of food allergies, the Center For Disease
Control & Prevention (CDC) has an excellent resources page:
You can also visit the non-profit FARE (Food
Allergy Research & Education at www.foodallergy.org
for information.
No comments:
Post a Comment