Dairy And Soya Allergy.

[Annie-pops]

Hi - just wanted to pick all you clever peoples brains! We will have a child starting soon who has severe dairy and soya allergies. (And may also have reduced tolerance to gluten) Obviously we will be consulting with mum to make sure his well-being is assured. Just wondered whether any of you had experience of this and how you managed it - for example, did you plan snack for the whole group based on what that child was allowed; did you buy separate snack which was as close as poss to what others having; did you ask parent to bring own snack ( parent will be supplying 'milk' substitute product which child is prescribed). We have had children with allergies before but they have been more specific and more easy to avoid - it's the danger of less obvious things which I am particularly concerned about, eg. I was reading a packet of rice cake ingredients and they have 'soya lecithin' listed. Are there particular products which you have found to be good substitutes. What we were thinking of doing was writing a list of what we have for snack (including brand) and getting mum to say if/ if not these are suitable, and then asking her to suggest to us items (with brand) which she knows he can safely eat, at least then, if we are not sure we can look at the list and choose somethingwith confidence. I am probably over thinking it but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Many thanks x

[Alison]

I dont think you can over think when it comes to allergies especially when looking after other peoples children

 

we have had varying allergies in the past and its daunting when thinking of things the child cant have so I think asking mum for a list of what the child can have is a great start its a more positive approach.

 

check E numbers because I suspect that soya is used in quite a few like the soya lectin as you mentioned

 

from what you have said you sound like your on the right track, we used a diet sheet each day stating what was going to put out for snack that morning and then mum would sign it to say she was aware and say whether their child could have the snack it helps cover your back if later that parent trys to say that the child was given the wrong food.

 

I dont know how sensitive your childs allergy is but some children can be sencitive even to touch or smell in which case if may be necessary to consider when the child has their snack along side other children who may be eating foods they cannt have

 

I personally avoid totally banning the allergy food from snack time because I feel it is important that the child learns right from the start that they need to be careful with foods. I would as much as possible have snacks that all the children can have most of the time.

[Fredbear]

Hi we have had children with mild and complex allergy needs, we always sit with parents as part of our induction process to list foods they are able to have and those to abstain from.

We then issue a list of the snacks all children will be offered and they can tell us of the alternatives and where we can purchase these from. Some are perscribed alternatives and parents bring those in, or we offer to purchase them, generally parents are more than happy to supply them which is great, and are stored separately from other food items to guarantee no cross contamination .

Once we have all the relevant information we are then able to evaluate and set up a plan to support each individual child.

If a child has been issued with an Epi-pen it is essential to have named staff trained each time by their health practitioner and letters to be obtained from the GP, with name of drug, dosage and when to be administered. These must then be forwarded to your Insurers for specific named cover for that particular child.

Parents would also have to fill in our medication record book and sign.

The key is to see it as any other need, and work with it together, i totally agree that the child depending on the age needs also to take ownership of this too.

Good luck and if your ever indoubt check with their Health Visitor.

[suebear]

Hi, we have a little boy with dairy, soya and nut allergies. Parents very support they provide child friendly milk and butter (as we don't use it often enough to have in stock before goes off) we provide flour and snack (think tesco do a friendly rice cake in free from aisle). Child has snack with others and we try and make it that his snack is the same as the other children.

[Annie-pops]

Thanks everyone, it's reassuring just to hear other people's opinions and to find out what other settings do. x

[Lyanne]

with the possibility of gluten allergy, you could have issues with playdough (this is what I posted about earlier this term!)

 

Our little one with multiple allergies has snack provided by parents, & at first was having drink supplied by them too - we offered him a choice of that or water (rest of children have choice of milk or water), and he has as much of his snack as he wants, and more that he takes at first if he wants. (His biscuits etc come on prescription so parents are not having to pay for them whichever way he has his snack.)

 

We offer a platter with various snacks for the children to take and discussed it with mum and agreed that the cross-contamination risk was too high for him to be allowed to select what he could eat from the platter - this is something we will review each time we review his care plan.

[Hello Kitty]

We're lucky and this year just have one who 'may' have a cheese intolerance.... he's not in on a Monday so we tend to put cheese in that day However we have recently noticed he has cheese in his packed lunch!!

 

Do you have a set snack time or a rolling one? I think if it's the latter you have to be a bit more wary as it's easy for them to slip through the net and have something they shouldn't but agree with the comment above that children need to be aware of what they (and others) can and can't eat.

 

When we did have some allergies I made little laminated cards with a photo of the child and a speech bubble saying 'I can't eat this' or something similar then attached them to clothes pegs. Then we would peg them onto that section of the snack tray so the children and any parent helpers/students/new staff could easily see what they couldn't have.