Teacher Training: How To Protect Students With Serious Food Allergies

By The Food Allergy Initiative for GuidanceChannel.com of Sunburst Visual Media

Food allergies are a growing concern in schools. An estimated two million American school-age children have life threatening food allergies. While it may seem challenging to protect a student with severe food allergies, it is entirely manageable with the support of administrators, teachers, nurses and parents.

Here are some tips to help keep each child safe:

• Have parents give you a list of the child’s offending foods to avoid. Review it with them in case of any questions.
• Ask parents of food allergic children to send a small supply of safe foods (foods that the child is not allergic to) in case of an unexpected special event. This is also helpful if the child forgets his or her lunch one day.
• Make every effort to not allow the more dangerous food allergens in the school at all, but if that is not possible, having a “safe” table in the school cafeteria would be the next best alternative. This table only allows foods free of offending allergies and is wiped down before anyone sits down to eat. Ideally, it would be the same table day after day with the same staff person supervising every day.
• Require every student to wash or wipe their hands before entering the classroom at the beginning of the day, after meals or at any time after children might have been in the presence of allergens. Of all places, the classroom truly needs to be kept the most allergen aware. Since students often come into physical contact with one another and share supplies, wiping can reduce the risk of accidental exposure to a food allergen in a classroom setting.
• Make every effort to limit food being brought into a food allergic child’s classroom or any areas outside of the cafeteria for sharing/eating and/or a cooking demonstration. The exception would be if food allergic parents would like to work with other classroom parents to help provide allergy free food for classroom birthday parties.
• In the case of special classroom events, make sure any classroom or parent volunteers are aware of any allergies that effect students in the classroom. Someone familiar with the food allergic child should be designated to give food to the allergic child.
• Implement a no-trading policy for lunches and snacks in the classroom. Many foods have hidden ingredients and individual snacks, such as mini candy bars taken from a larger bag, are often not labeled.
• Make sure the student knows how important it is to come to you as soon as they feel they could be having a reaction. Reiterate that there is no reason to be embarrassed.
• Rethink lesson plans that involve food. Is there another way to teach the lesson? Ask the parents of the food allergic child if there is a safe food alternative.
• Make sure that substitute teachers or anyone who might supervise the students in your class (i.e. gym teachers, music teachers, etc) has a comprehensive list of all children with allergies and what to avoid.
• Without scaring students, explain why certain precautions are taken in your classroom that may not be done in other classrooms. Speak to the food allergic child’s parents to determine the best way to do this without isolating the child or bringing negative attention or blame. Bullying from other students is never appropriate.
• Keep a copy of books that explain food allergies.
• Is there a fulltime nurse on staff? If not, have a list of everyone else at the school trained in administering EpiPens. A school nurse should be responsible for training other school employees and for administering an emergency medical plan.
• Have elementary classroom teachers and any other teachers who are caring for the food allergic child (including school cafeteria monitors) trained to administer epinephrine. The food allergic child should always have an adult trained in administering epinephrine in close proximity to him or her, regardless of whether they are in a classroom, in the cafeteria, at recess, on a field trip, or anywhere while in the care of the school.

On Field Trips

• Determine if food will be provided by the school, destination location, or brought by students. If the school cafeteria or field trip destination can’t provide a safe meal, be sure parents send a lunch or snack from home that does not come in contact with other students’ lunches.
• Are volunteers needed? Ask the child’s parent to help and make sure all staff and volunteers are aware of anyone with food allergies.
• Do not allow any eating or drinking on the bus.
• Have the student’s medications (Benadryl, Zyrtec, EpiPens, Twinject) with you at all times and know how to use them. These items should be close to the student at all times and never left on the bus.
• Bring a copy of the child’s Authorization of Emergency Treatment form (sample available on the Downloads section of our website).

Special Consideration for Teenagers

As if going through adolescence weren’t difficult enough, being labeled as different can be especially hard to deal with. Peer pressure is hard to deal with and tweens, preteens, and teenagers often feel that popularity and being cool are more important than sharing information about their food allergies. Here’s some advice and caveats for dealing with older students:

• Take all symptoms and complaints seriously. Most teachers have heard every excuse in the book from a student trying to get out of class. With food allergies, it is better to be safe than sorry.
• Remind a food allergy student that the earlier he or she lets someone know he is having a reaction, the less likely it is to create a commotion.
• If your school has an open campus for lunch, suggest to the student that they designate a friend who can spot the signs of a reaction and knows how to react.
• Look for changes in behavior from a food allergic student. Is he or she being harassed or bullied? The school should have a policy for dealing with this type of behavior. Besides being malicious, it could become life-threatening.
• Does the food allergic student have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Kissing becomes more prevalent for teenagers and it is possible for offending allergens to be transmitted in saliva. While kissing is not appropriate at school, pay special attention to food allergic students.