The one thing that bothered me is the comment you made about banning foods on field trips, while that may seem like an answer, the facilities these schools are visiting are public buildings in which other schools and the general population visit. Unless you have the facility ban the foods that cause the issue, there is still a potential they can be exposed.

I would agree, that if someone has a small child with this type of allergies, it might be best to attend with them. One of my questions with older kids, are they allowed to carry their own Eppi Pens? I know with our schools, older kids with Asthma can carry their inhalers with permission, do they allow the same with the Eppi Pens?

Thanks for the link! I think I’ve got you on my blogroll, too!

http://www.allergysafecommunities.ca/assets/common_beliefs_faan_2003.pdf

That is precisely where I was yesterday–at Plimoth Plantation with 2 busloads of 2nd graders. My PA son is not yet in elementary school so this was actually my non-allergic son’s class. There are three PA students in his class of 20. There are other PA kids in the other 3 classes as well. Here are 2 things that bothered me during yesterday’s field trip.

1. Only the teacher had the epi-pens and the three PA kids were with 3 different chaperones (sans epi-epns) wandering in 3 separate groups all over Plimoth Plantation. How would the epi-pens ever have gotten to those kids in time?

2. The PA/TNA child in my group ate with us at tables in an enclosed outdoor tented area. His brother (also PA/TNA) is in a different class. His teacher made him eat standing, away from all the other children, outside the tented enclosure, with her because she was worried about what might be on the tables. While I appreciate her effort to protect him, I am under the impression that all one needs to do is wipe a table down and you’re “good to go”. I felt bad for him having to eat away from his buddies. Maybe he didn’t even notice, but I made a mental note of it for my PA son’s future field trips.

I am planning to follow in Libby’s footsteps and attend all field trips. Fortunately, this is one of the few food allergy issues the school has addressed–they prefer the parents of food allergic children come on field trips.

My former school was so used to me calling the health office regarding field trip procedures that they were literally waiting for my call after the first 2 times. But they always had the action plan in place–I think my nagging worked!

Our new school now offers a health aide to attend field trips with non-allergic kids if the parents aren’t chaperoning. This is amazing to me, but I still want myself or my husband to attend a field trip just to see how it all goes.

It’s a wonder we let them out at all, isn’t it? But, at least they’re learning how to cope with their allergies w/out us around. I’m glad everything worked out for your son and let’s be glad our kids are so well-versed in their allergies.