Allergies in child care centres?

Im a little bit new to the child care centre side of things and was just wondering if some others with allergy children could give me some information?

Are all child care centres created equal in regards to their policy and procedures in regards to allergies in children? Is there anything in particular that I should be on the look out for when looking into different centres in regards to the allergy side of things that I might not have considered?

DS has quite a few allergies not all food related.

I know that the FDC he was in ages and ages ago was not equipt to handle allergies until DS came about.. is this more common to FDC then to larger centres?

Also do I need to give them a management plan for all his allergies not just food related?

Any information big or small is muchly appreciated! :)

Yes to the management plan for his allergies. No to all centres being the same - you will definitely need to ask their policy on whatever foods your DS is alergic to and see how they will handle them.

I found most places were equipped and happy. My DD's both have food allergies and even sometimes things slipped through.... DD2 kept swiping other kids drinks at lunch and would drink milk *insert groan* and they would find her hiding with someone elses drink.... I don't blame them as they were pretty fastidious with her care relating to allergies. I always stressed to them that she was NOT anaphylactic and not to focus on her as much as the other children with severe reactions. She did react and it was severe enough to us, but I understood that there were others in her class that had worse reactions.

I had to hunt around a bit to find one that could deal with dd's allergies, she is lactose intolerant amongst other things. One centre told me they only cook with a little bit of milk, and couldn't see why it was a problem! They have management plans in place and staff are trained with an epi pen.

Thank you all for that! We ended up putting him into a centre that I thought was well equipt for our circumstance.

Should there be some sort of formal report or something put onto his file if he does have a reaction while he is in their care? when I picked him up this week he was having a reaction (which until I pointed it out they hadnt even noticed! Nor did the carers even relise he was allergic in the first instance :doh:) should there be some formal record somewhere that this has happened. I called the director and we had some stern words about it.

I definitely think there should be a report, same as if there was an accident if he scraped his knee etc. Sounds a bit strange they didn't realise though - what happens when he has a reaction? My DS has an allergy chart up on the wall - he reacts to egg. At my centre they use eggs but now that he is there the kitchen make egg free foods on Wednesday and Thursday when he is there. They also know what to do if he does have a reaction. Maybe your centre could put some information up about what the reaction looks like and what to do if it happens.

My centre have been great about boytwin's milk allergy, and the chef always makes sure he gets a milk free alternative (they won't even serve him pies because of the butter in the pastry which is not something I even considered.) I would have thought you should get a report if he had a reaction, and if you are not happy with their response to his allergy then shop around for a different child care centre.

we had a few teething problems with the allergy thang. they seemed to be fairly well equipped in the egg and peanut (in that the centre is free of those).

DD1 has an anaphylactic allergy to kiwi fruit. this built up over time until last year where it produced this severe reaction. her centre was slow on the uptake so instead (for example) of keeping the room free from kiwi they thought that it was OK to 'pick' out the pieces of kiwi fruit :rolleyes:. Her allergy then began to include passionfruit and watermelon (but not anaphylactic). and again, this was nigh on impossible to get through to the centre. but we were persistent and consistent and called anytime that it occured and, like you, showed them her reactions when i would go to pick her up (how they miss the body full of hives i dont know lol).

BUT, have to say that it paid off eventually. they are now awesome and just dont have that food in there on that day and it has transformed her experience there! she can now go and not come back with an allergic reaction YAY! (because we were finding that even if she didnt ingest the food, if she came into contact with it either directly or indirectly...even through brushing past someone with the juice on them...she would have a reaction).

Our daycare is great with P's lactose intollerance.

For pasta dishes and stuff where they use milk/cheese etc, they cook her portion seperate. Showed us in the fridge where 'her' stuff is kept and it's all properly labelled and etc. No cheese in her sandwiches and etc, they do a pretty good job.

I think they reaise that if they accidently give her dairy or have a 'cant be bothered' attitude about it, it is THEM who have to deal with a screaming, sad, sore tummied, runny pooed toddler for the rest of the day.

They seem okay and on the ball with the food allergy side of things, I guess because its more common? Unfortunately we arent limited to just food allergies :(. As part of the centre they have activites where parents will bring in pets for the children to play with. I spoke to the director extensively about this because I knew going into the centre environment that this would be the case. He is meant to be excluded from the room if and when these activites occur, for some reason unknown to me, he wasnt. And talking to his carers for the day, they had NO IDEA that he wasnt even meant to be there, they actually allowed him to run around with the animal. That's the part that concerns me, that and the fact they didnt recognise the beginning of the reaction.

The director was going to raise it again with the room he is in, but seemed to be passing the buck on why it happened. Do I just put it down to one of those things and hope that they get it now? Im just not sure what the protocol is with these things as until now he hadnt attended day care.