According to the Spanish Society of Clinical Immunology, Allergology and Pediatric Asthma (SEICAP), between a four and eight percent of school-age children in Spain have one or several food allergies. Unfortunately, in recent years the numbers have not stopped increasing, so it is important that schools become aware of it.
It is precisely in school where children spend much of their time, and when they are food allergic they should face potentially dangerous situations for them, but they go totally unnoticed for the rest, such as mid-morning lunch, certain recreational or educational activities, birthday celebrations and other festivities, or the school canteen itself.
Birthdays and holidays
The other day, my daughter had her first birthday celebration at school. A partner turned years and To celebrate, he invited all the little friends to a juice without lactose and gluten.
Leaving aside the fact that packaged juices are not the healthiest snack for a child, the fact that industrial or homemade confectionery and confectionery are avoided (which is still in force in many schools) seems like a Very successful measure when there are students with food allergies.
My oldest son was allergic to cow's milk proteins for six years. Six long years in which we live all kinds of situations at school: from problems in the dining room, to marginalization by staff in charge for his lack of training in the subject, and even hurtful comments from other parents They did not understand the complaints of families with allergic children.
When my child was a child, students' birthdays were they celebrated in class with salty snacks that the birthday boy's parents bought, and on other dates designated as Christmas or important holidays, sweets and goodies were never lacking.
On more than one occasion, my son was left without celebrating his classmate's birthday because the bag of chips they had brought was not suitable for him. And is that when you enter the universe of food allergies, you realize that even a simple bag of salty snacks can contain traces and my little one did not tolerate traces of milk. Solution? Keep him from the celebration.
During his first Christmas at school, Santa Claus paid a visit to the children. It was for all classes distributing candy and enthusiasm among the kids of the Infantil cycle. When he arrived at my son's class, before distributing his candy, he asked about the food allergic students.
And you know what? Well, when my boy raised his hand, Santa Claus told him that he was very sorry, for him there were no candies. So cruel was the situation that my son had to live, with only three years, because of the malpractice of adults who do not know how to act in this type of situation.
Increased awareness
If there is something that hurts in the soul when you have food allergic children it is that, from a very young age, they have to witness this type of displacements, lack of touch and no foresight on the part of adults because of "fault" of a health condition.
Because both birthdays, as the anecdote of Santa Claus, would have been solved by looking for an alternative suitable for all in which there was no distinction or discrimination and, in passing, was healthier.How about celebrating a birthday with colored streamers and music to dance instead of making it revolve around food? What if Santa had distributed a small symbolic detail (stickers, colored pencils, a dog-shaped balloon of those that children like so much ...) instead of candies to some and nothing to others?
As published by the association of allergic AEPNAA in its "Guide on food and latex allergies for schools and school canteens", the 20% of allergic reactions occur in schools, according to data offered by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and some of them are poorly prepared to deal with emergency situations.
According to SEICAP in an article published last September on its website, a 30% of children with food allergies have reported having been victims of bullying at some time and harassment for your problem.
We saw a few months ago the terrible event that was lived in a London school with an allergic student, so it is very important that from school work to adopt prevention and education measures that guarantee a safe environment for all children and, especially, for allergy sufferers.
And this safe environment for the allergic begins with the empathy, information and awareness of teachers, monitors and staff in charge.The situations I have told myself have been going on for quite some time and if I have noticed something in these years, it is that the social landscape around food allergies is changing, Fortunately
The number of allergies grows year after year, and it is important to adapt to this reality. In my opinion, I think there is more social awareness on the part of parents, hotel establishments and schools, although there is still a long way to go.
In Babies and More Nine tips to face the return to school when there are food allergies, Eat at school: what should we expect from school canteens ?, What do you choose for your children? Great sign about the hidden sugar in baby food, How to know if my baby could be allergic to cow's milk proteins, A food allergic child has died in a London school because of an alleged case of bullying related to his allergy
