School Bans Packed Lunches Containing Dairy or Eggs

School Lunches

My heart goes out to the community featured in this article at The Record. The piece, titled "Father of Boy with Severe Food Allergies Says He Never Intended to Restrict what Other Children Can Eat", seems to have turned into a huge misunderstanding.

The main characters are a well-meaning dad of a food allergic kindergartener, a seemingly sympathetic, well meaning school board and a bunch of parents caught totally off-guard.

Reportedly, a letter went out a few days before the start of school to all kindergarten parents. It stated that "their children could not bring dairy items or food containing eggs in their lunches because of a kindergarten child who has an anaphylactic reaction to those foods". In addition, these parents were given a list of acceptable items including soy yogurt, vegan margarine, whole grain bread, some lunch meats and brands of cookies. There was also a list of stores where these items could be purchased.

No wonder the dad's upset and feels like this has turned into a spectacle for his child and the other parents are mad. The school board is saying, "no comment".

This is the kind of scenario all food allergy parents fear. Fortunately, it's not typical, and with good communication, can usually be avoided.  We've had a great experience dealing with our school district throughout the years.

My advice is to start the communication the spring before the start of school. Meet with the principal and school nurse and any other school staff that may be helpful. Find out what measures are already in place and how food allergies have been managed in the past. Use this as an information seeking session.  After you've gathered all of the information, determine what your child needs and request a healthcare plan. In the U.S., a 504 Plan makes the most sense. In other countries, including Canada, there are similar plans available under other names. Regardless of the name, you are looking to protect your child in the least restrictive way. The plan needs to clearly state who does what and who is responsible for what. Everyone's rights need to be considered and respected.Try to be open and flexible during the process. Everyone wants what is best for the citizens of the school.

I hope for this little kindergartener's sake, the community mentioned in the article can come together and do what is best for all.

My Food Allergy Back-to-School Checklist

Food Allergies at School

Ah yes, it's that time of year. One dollar notebooks, one cent pencils and buy one/get one composition books jump off the pages of glossy advertisements. 

Back to school ads are also my prompt to pull out my yellow "Food Allergy School" folder. In it I'll find:

• Copy of 504 Plan
• Form giving permission to carry EpiPen
• Food Allergy and Anphylaxis Action Plan

All of these papers and forms need to be updated annually, so here's my back-to-school checklist:

__ Review 504 plan. Is it still relevant for upcoming school year or are changes needed?

__ Schedule 504 meeting several days before school starts. Invite school nurse, guidance counselor, teacher (or team of teachers)

__ Get doctor to sign form giving permission to carry epinephrine at school.

__ Review Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Action plan with doctor. Attach updated photo.

__ Get prescription for EpiPens as I'll need two extra to send to school.

__ Prepare bag for nurses office to include EpiPen, bottle of Benadryl and a copy of the Action Plan. 

We also meet with the director of the school cafeteria each year to review ingredient changes in foods that have been safe to eat in the past and to see if there are any new foods to add. 

I remember feeling overwhelmed by all this when I first sent my food allergic child off to school. We've been doing this for 8 years now, and it's just become part of the routine...just like shopping for notebooks and pencils.Be sure to communicate early and often and have a great back-to-school send-off.

If you're new to this, check out some of the posts I've written over the years about preparing for school with food allergies:

• Food Allergy Back to School Guide 
• Food Allergy and 504 Plans at School
• Food Allergy at School
• Food Allergies at School: More Tips
• Food Allergy Lingo When Talking to School Administrators

Food Allergy Resources for Schools

I just sent these links to the school nurse director in our school district:

Schools@Allergy Home

Allergy Ready Care Course

Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network School Guidelines

Managing Students with Food Allergies During a Shelter-In-Place Emergency

National Association of School Nurses Food Allergy Toolkit

Managing Food Allergies in the Cafeteria

The above was accompanied by a short note acknowledging my awareness that the district was re-evaluating its food allergy policy in the coming months and my offer to assist during this process. I also pointed out that the first two resources offer free online courses for schools.

Feel free to copy the above information and send it to your school. The ideas of staff training and epinephrine availability for any student or staff member should be universal at any school. Help spread the word!

Food Allergy Friendly PTO

As a PTO president, I really appreciated, and loved, this article showing an Ohio school offering allergy-friendly food at their annual PTO Pancake Breakfast.

The PTO noted that over 175 children in their schools deal with food allergies, and that these children, and their families, are often excluded from food events. They will have a pre-sale for allergy meals and will offer a separate menu and designated food preparation area.

Great idea, Hudson PTO!

I hope you raise tons of money at your Pancake Breakfast and that other schools follow your lead!

Update Food Allergy Bill

Below is a note I received about Pennsylvania's efforts to make schools safer for food allergic children. Thank you to all of you who wrote letters on behalf of this bill. I hope it continues forward through the PA House Appropriations committee and becomes law providing a model for other states and countries. We need to make schools everywhere safe for all children!


Please forward to your membership and friends who assisted with our efforts on HB 1148.
The bill was unanimously passed by the Education Committee.

Thank you one and all for your support of HB 1148!!

The bill will now move to the PA House Appropriations Committee. As the legislature is now engaged in producing a budget, we will wait for the budget to be passed before we begin our communications with the Appropriations Committee members.

I will communicate with you soon about our next steps to obtain support

Happy Fourth of July!

Bill Dixon
Legislative Aide
PA State Representative Thomas Murt's District Office
(215)674-3755

Update on Food Allergy Bill in PA

Here's the latest on HB 1148. According to my contact at PA State Representative Thomas Murt's District Office,

"HB 1148 was tabled because several Education Committee members were concerned about the wording on the the bill and it's impact on existing laws. The bill was tabled to allow for further research and clarification. We are working with the Harrisburg legislation unit to resolve the concerns. We may have a vote as soon as July 1."

I just sent a response asking if they needed any help from families who deal with food allergies every day. I believe in the power of the moms and dads who know what kind of help they need when trying to manage their child's food allergies in a school setting.

I'll keep you posted if there are ways we can help.

School Carnivals, Picnics and Parties, Oh My!

The school carnival is this week. I'm in charge of food this year, because I figured if I organized it, I'd be in the know. Yeah, not so fast. "We must have popcorn", I was told because the smell of the popcorn popping is "so carnival-like". Okay, I rented the machine and got the popcorn. Does artificial butter flavor contain any dairy? "No" says the popcorn company representative. Of course I have no way of knowing what else has been put in the rented machine and no idea how well it's been cleaned. Confidence level on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being totally confident?- a 2. I'll bring safe popcorn.

We're also serving water ice which is basically sugar, high fructose corn syrup and dyes. Our school has started distributing, via e-mail, ingredient lists of foods served to students at these special events. Interesting responses. Some parents who don't need to look at food labels on a regular basis are surprised about what's in some of these foods (ie: long chemical names, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) One mother of a diabetic son asked if carbohydrate and sugar content could be included in the lists going to parents.

I think our school needs to develop a form that captures all food concerns that families have. That information then goes out to all families so they can plan appropriately.

How do your schools handle this? Is it working?