It happened again. I shared one of my worst fears about David's peanut allergy and I got a death story in response. Sharing some kind of terrible story isn't helpful. If someone ever tells you that something frightens them, don't share something to back up their fears. It is ridiculous!
Here's the gist of the conversation. I ended up talking to an acquaintance the other night about David having a peanut allergy. This friend was not aware that he had the allergy and she began to share that a child in her child's preschool was allergic to nuts. I told her that sending him to school scares me because it is a difficult environment to protect him in. She said, oh, well you know a kid died a couple of years ago in Seattle on a field trip. What? He was on the bus with the kids and when they were to have lunch he was given a peanut butter cookie. He died right there on the bus.
Wow- now that's absolutely devastating to hear about... especially when I am already trying to imagine how I will handle all sorts of situations when David gets older...AND especially when I just expressed that his allergy frightens me.
I am not controlled by my fear of not being able to protect David. I am annoyed by people who respond to my fear with a worst case scenario.
2 comments:
I worked in a preschool with many kids that had allergies. Most kids by Kindergarten pretty much know what they can and can't eat safely. If you teach him as he gets older not to accept food from classmates, which was always a rule in our classroom, then he should be fine. You just need to be conscious of reminding him about his allergy. He'll learn. And most teachers are very aware of kids with allergies.
On a side note: Is there any chance he might outgrow the allergy?
Thanks for the advise. David is very aware of his allergy. He knows what the EpiPen is for and when we are not home he readily asks if something is safe or if it has nuts in it. I suppose there is a small chance that he could outgrow the allergy. Initially (when he was 1) he was allergic to wheat, fish, eggs, and nuts. He outgrew the other allergies by the age 2. However, his reaction to the nut protein got worse. The information our allergist gave us is that only 1 in 5 kids outgrow a nut allergy by the time the reach school age. We still hope he will outgrow it, but it seems unlikely given his test results and his reaction to traces of peanuts.
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