Should preschools go 'peanut free'?

No peanuts for your little peanut?

With the growing numbers of childhood allergies, parents have many concerns about how preschools handle food allergies.  Furthermore, 3 and 4 year-olds are often difficult to manage because they have tendencies to share foods and be unaware of the severity of their allergies.

Nonetheless, there are a few basic things schools should be doing right off the bat.

*  Supervise at meal/snack times.  Preschoolers need to be watched so that food is not shared.  Even better, try to arrange kids with allergies at the end of the table or at a separate table.

*  Proper cleaning between meal/snack times.  Preschoolers are sharing tables for eating, projects and playing, so make sure tables are cleaned and sanitized.  It's easy for food to stick on tables, so a thorough job needs to be done each time!

*  Refrain from using foods in projects.  Unless its dry foods like pasta or rice, teachers should not use foods like cereals, crackers, etc. for projects because they could carry traces of peanuts or milk.

So should preschools go peanut free?  Some schools in the area have already moved in this direction and don't allow any homemade items, snacks made on peanut lines, or any other peanut products.  Yet these are the preschools that often have their food catered in, so it's much easier to control.

Other preschools have kids bringing in their own foods, so it's hard to monitor what's coming through the doors.  And even with the growing awareness of food allergies, many parents still feel that it's unfair for their children not to be able to bring in peanut butter & jelly sandwiches or other favorite foods.

Moreover, if all preschools went peanut free, it wouldn't be long before dairy products would become an issue.  Yet, with the severity of some of these allergies, the minor inconvience of not allowing peanut products could save lives.  Kids are quick, and you certainly wouldn't want a preschooler dabbling in foods he/she were allergic to.

One of the best things parents can do in the meantime is to make an allergy action plan so that teachers know what to do in case of an emergency.  Go over with the teachers what to look for and how to act, including administering an EpiPen.  And talk to your kids about their allergy; you'd be surprised at how well they can follow Mom and Dad's rules when away from home!

For more info on food allergies, visit www.foodallergy.org.