Something that happened at school w/ my peanut allergic son

May 5, 2010

My son recently turned 3 and transitioned from EI to the school district's spec

ed preschool for kids with speech and language difficulties. They didn't offer

him 1-1 speech, but instead have him in a group preschool class that focuses on

language, as well as a phonology class.

Well last week, just 2 weeks after our son turned 3 and started his new classes

at the school district, he came home from school and I checked his backpack, and

found a peanut butter sandwich in there.

My son is allergic to peanuts! (And the district/teachers all knew this, it was

in his IEP, etc.)

After some mild freaking out on my part, I had to wait til the next day to talk

to the teacher about how that got in his backpack. When I asked her, her

response (said with a smile) was " Well you put it in there! " It turns out, my

son somehow got someone else's snack at snack time, which was a peanut butter

sandwich and some fruit snacks. And she LET HIM HAVE IT! She said she and the

aide thought it was strange that he'd have a peanut butter sandwich, but

shrugged to each other and said " oh well, his mom must be okay with it " and let

him have it. LUCKILY, he only ate the fruit snacks and then just took one

nibble off the sandwich. I have no idea if he had any sort of reaction to it --

clearly the teacher wasn't looking for one.

Anyway, I just wanted to post about this experience in case there are other

parents of apraxic kids who have food allergies. You can never be too careful

to review policies with the teachers about how food is handled in the class.

In our case, I had spoken with the teacher on the first day of class about his

allergies (to remind her again after our IEP meeting), and she had asked me if

I'd like her to send something out to the other parents about not sending in any

peanut food items for snack, and I told her yes. Apparently, that hadn't been

done. The thing that just boggles my mind is the complete lack of common sense

on her part and her poor judgement in letting him have it.

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