Parenting a Child with a Food Allergy

« Communication During a Food Allergy Reaction | Main | Good News Regarding Peanut Allergy Research »

November 29, 2006

Changing of the Guard - When someone new is in charge of your food allergic child

We all know how much work it is to create a safe, well informed environment outside of our home for our children. With regard to child food allergies, sometimes it takes years of education and diligence to get comfortable with our school, our church or our karate studio. So, what happens when there is a changing of the guard, so to speak, at one of these places?

Here's the situation... the person at the top (a principal, a director a studio manager) moves on to greener pastures and a new leader comes in. Maybe this leader is well versed in the dangers of child food allergies, maybe they're not. Maybe they say they know "all about food allergies" and what they know and what you know are two very different things. Maybe they say, "oh, my brother had a peanut allergy when he was a kid, so don't worry about it, I'm very familiar with allergies." What does that mean really?

I'll tell you what it means to me... squat! Look, I'm not excited about having to "re-train" someone, however, I don't take anyone's word for it when they say they know all about children with food allergies. I'm from Missouri when it comes to that... show me. Demonstrate to me that you understand food allergies by asking the right questions of me. How do you deal with menus and cross contamination? Explain to me your specific experiences with a food allergy emergency. Talk to me about the training you've received and how to administer and Epi-pen or Twinject.

A changing of the guard to me is an opportunity to brush up on our communication skills and make sure our epinephrine isn’t expired.

Posted by David at November 29, 2006 10:04 AM

Comments

Posted by: Laura F. at December 7, 2006 1:59 PM