Note: the term ‘babysitter’ will be used to refer to a person who is taking care of your child. This includes a paid or an unpaid babysitter.
Taking care of a child with food allergies is a team effort that involves educating your child’s babysitter. This will help keep them safe and reduce the risk of an allergic reaction when your child is not with you.
Below are some important safety steps to help you prepare others to care for your child with food allergy:
1. Organise a meeting with the babysitter before they look after your child.
It is best to do this several days beforehand. Let them know your child has food allergies and ask them what they know about food allergies. Explain what food allergy is and the food/s your child is allergic to and cannot have. It is important to give the babysitter enough time to ask questions and understand how to best care for your child. Encourage them to do the ASCIA anaphylaxis online training first aid for the community before caring for your child.
2. Use your child’s ASCIA Action Plan to help explain the signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis.
Tell them to use the ASCIA Action Plan to help them manage any allergic reaction. You can also discuss the best way to position and hold your child if they need to give the adrenaline injector. Practice using an adrenaline injector training device that is the same as the one prescribed for your child together. A&AA videos are a great visual way to teach the babysitter how to position your child if they are having a severe allergic reaction and how to administer the adrenaline injector.
3. Talk to the babysitter about foods you give to your child.
At first, you may decide to provide the babysitter with all of the food for your child. This helps the babysitter feel more comfortable when looking after your child and teaches your child to only eat food from their labelled lunch box. This also helps children with food allergy prepare for childcare, preschool and school if they are not already attending one of these. Our Food Allergy webpage provides more allergen specific information.
4. Educate the babysitter about food allergen management.
When you are ready for your babysitter to offer your child food that has not been provided by you, discuss how to read food labels and the risk of cross contamination when preparing food. Talk through:
- Checking ingredient lists, allergen summary statements and precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) statements such as ‘May contain egg’. Practice reading a few food labels with the babysitter. Helpful videos can be found on the Food Allergy Education website. Remind them they can always call you to double check a food label.
- Preparing food for people with food allergy and cross contamination. See Making food at home for food allergies – Food Allergy Aware.
5. Involve your child with food allergy in the conversation with the babysitter and when teaching the babysitter.
This will help your child learn how to talk to others about their allergy in their own words and teaches them food allergy management skills from an early age. This increases their confidence in telling the babysitter if they think they have accidentally eaten something they are allergic to or are having an allergic reaction.
6. Make it easy for the babysitter to contact you.
Leave your mobile phone number or another number that the babysitter can contact you on. If there is a land line, share that phone number as well. Provide the babysitter with the contact number of another person in case you are not able to take a call. Remind them if your child is having anaphylaxis, to follow the ASCIA Action Plan and call triple zero (000) before they call you.