Webinar: managing your child’s food allergies in primary school

Do you have a child in a primary school?

Join us to find out what Allergy Aware primary schools should be doing to manage the risk of anaphylaxis.

Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia (A&AA) is partnering with the National Allergy Strategy to hold a webinar about how to manage food allergies and anaphylaxis in primary schools.

The will include a short presentation from Dr Katie Frith, paediatric clinical immunology/allergy specialist and Dr Wendy Freeman from Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia. The presentations are followed by a question and answer session. Ms Briony Tyquin, an experienced clinical nurse consultant in allergy, will also be available to answer questions.

Webinar Details

Recorded: 1 June 2022

Questions

1.  Can my child have an allergic reaction if another child has had peanut butter on their hands and they’re sharing sports equipment or playing on playground equipment? (watch at 38:15)
2. The school asks for the new action plan but the GP tells me that I need to get it from the specialist. Is that the right process? (watch at 40:14)
3. Can children carry their EpiPen around with them in their bags? (watch at 42:30)
4. Is the school required to do peer education? Can I demand it as currently the school doesn’t do any? (watch at 44:50)
5. What’s the best way to deal with child’s birthdays and parents wanting to bring in cakes? (watch at 47:38)
6. Where schools plan activities with food, should they try to plan for children with allergies or is it okay for them to exclude the child with allergies? (watch at 49:43)
7. Do young school age children, usually grow out of their allergies? (watch at 53:01)
8. My son has a tree nut allergy. Packaging often has contains traces of tree nuts and I’m very cautious and avoid these foods. This labelling is however very widespread, to the extent where it feels devalued. Is this reasonable? We just want some advice about precautionary allergen labeling statements. (watch at 54:24)
9. My child’s school did not have individual management plans and their anaphylaxis plan was poor. They rectified these, but not without some push back and a lot of work from myself. They haven’t done any allergy education for the students or school community so far and I suspect they won’t. Any tips for approaching them on the education issue, given the frosty reaction regarding the individual management plan?
   • We recommend you request a meeting with the school to discuss their implementation of the Best Practice Guidelines for Anaphylaxis Prevention and Management in Schools. Best Practice Guidelines Schools April 2022 PDF. On page 15 is recommendation 5 “Community and peer education” and further resources and information are found on page 30 in the implementation guide.
10. Wendy spoke about resources we can use to educate our little ones at home through books. Could you provide some good books that would be useful?
    • There are free e-books available at the Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia (A&AA) website allergyfacts.org.au under the “Resources” tab.
      • Tommy’s Big Birthday features the Wiggles.
      • The Jeremy’s Children Book Series. Note the Jeremy’s cake book in this series is also available as an app (android devices only).
    • There are also books available for purchase through the A&AA online bookshop.
11. Why are we complicating things by promoting foods that look like peanut butter or other nut butters. Labelling them as being safe for schools?
    • There are some foods on the market that look like peanut or tree nut butter but are made from other foods (for example chickpea) and they can be a good option for people with allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. It is important to remember that any food can cause an allergic reaction and substitutes of those foods often look like the original food e.g. dairy free cheese and regular cheese. It does not matter if a child has a look alike food as they should not be sharing food. Importantly, we need to remember that children need to be taught not to share food with children with food allergy and children with food allergy need to learn they can only accept food from a trusted adult (with parental permission) when they are at school.
    • We do not recommend that schools claim to be peanut or nut free or ban foods, but some schools choose to request that peanuts and tree nuts not be sent to school (or to certain class groups) as a risk minimisation measure. An ‘allergy aware’ approach which focuses on implementing a range of appropriate risk minimisation strategies is recommended for schools as this helps keep all students at risk of anaphylaxis safe, rather than focusing only on those with a peanut or tree nut allergy.
12. Can a nurse practitioner update plans?
    • Yes, a nurse practitioner can update ASCIA Anaphylaxis Plans for Anaphylaxis.

Presenter