Soy Sunday 128; Food Allergy must haves for Daycare
Since the birth of my first child in 2008 I have been extremely fortunate to have a job that allows me the flexibility to work from either the office or at home when needed. I have also been extremely lucky in that I haven’t had to worry about a non-family member watching my children on the days I when I had to go into the office. Over the course of the last two months, I have needed to be physically at the office more and more which has increased my time away from home and my need for a babysitter or daycare center for Mr. D who just turned 4 in January.
After much consideration and debate, I went to the daycare/latchkey/preschool offered at my daughters elementary school and discussed my options with them for Mr. D. I was surprised and relieved to hear that they were well versed in the allergy community. In fact the teacher is dairy/tree nut allergic and there is one other little guy who is allergic to peanuts in the room too. Because of Mr. D’s allergies, I will have to pack him a lunch and snack for the two days that he is there so I set about prepping for his two days in daycare and his future preschool.
I have been pinning ideas on Pinterest for when this day would come, although I had hoped it would come later rather than sooner. I had several different ideas and plans in place but the one I kept going back to was from Keeley Mcguire http://keeleymcguire.blogspot.com/2013/08/back-to-school-with-food-allergies.html?showComment=1375400692899#c6143123943904802260 I found her website while doing research on allergy free/ friendly lunches for Mr. D. for home and school (I was pre-planning)
I went to my local Kroger and bought him a new set of Rubbermaid Lunchblox containers that we have labeled just for him and are to be used just for school. Because we use the LunchBlox for Miss Z and have several different types already on hand, I was a bit hesitant to but another set. But I love these ones and the large blue ice that everything fits into.
AND these fit perfectly in his Allermates lunchbox that I found at Kmart last year. I have not seen them around since but you can find them here: http://store.allermates.com/index.html. This is the one that we have with the little allergy snack bag attached, which we use as intended- for snacks, except it goes in his backpack.
Allermates also makes these awesome bracelets and epipen bags which I found at my local CVS Pharmacy. Mr. D loves his bracelet but only wears it for part of the day usually so I have one attached to his backpack as well.
We have had one of these epipen/ med bags for Miss Z for about 3 years now because of her allergies to those pesky little Mosquito’s that wreak such havoc on her little body. The epipen bags come with an instruction manual and an emergency information card to fill out. Because neither of the kids require a dose of epinephren with their allergies at this time, I have only filled out the emergency information, a dose of children’s Benedryl and a dose of Tylenol in the bag for Mr. D.
I also have a travel card of items to avoid which have milk in them that I found here and printed out for his bag and his teacher. These travel cards came from this website http://community.kidswithfoodallergies.org/blog/hidden-names-for-milk-on-labels-avoidance-list-for-milk-allergy I have the PDF version of the cards I use here Milk-Allergy-Avoidance-List-Travel-Cards
All of these opinions are mine and are in no way influenced by anything other than my own research and personal choices. I did not receive compensation in any way for the items listed and this is in no way an advertisement for the items listed.
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