Friday, August 21, 2009

Armed


Monday morning found me at school, schooling the staff in the art of emergency Epi-pen usage; I taught them how to stab my peanut-free girl using my collection of expired Epi-pens and a couple of oranges. They've been truly great and accommodating regarding changes they've had to make to become "peanut safe" for us, asking for my input at every turn.



Peanut-related issues have been a part of our lives for so long now, I don't always think of new things we should be doing, talking about, or adding to our already 'in place' routines. Like teaching E3 to recognize the word 'peanut'...five is plenty old enough for her to know that so she can help us read labels, but it didn't occur to me do that until a few weeks ago.

I read the two peanut story books we have again last week. When you add that with a new shirt for her Build-A-Bear you get some serious inspiration:

Teddy is ready for school.


She's wearing her allergy bracelet...




and carrying her Hello Kitty! bag.


This is E3's old Hello Kitty! bag:



So sad, but it's had a nice long life.


We picked that up for her back in...2006, while in Savannah, GA, for Rob's annual work conference. It was the perfect size for a diaper, a travel-pack of wipes, E3's Epi-pens, and a few other odds and ends like a mini box of raisins and some small books. It went EVERYWHERE with her - literally.


For school, we needed another bag and decided to upgrade from the Hello Kitty! Now we have a simple black bag from Allergykids.com for home use, and a screaming neon green bag for school use...






3 comments:

Glenda said...

That's pretty cool that the school has been accommodating, and that you have been so involved in doing what you can to make it as peanut-safe as possible and also instruct the staff on how to use an Epi-pen.

How much of a challenge will it be, do you think, when it comes to other parents sending stuff for the classes (cupcakes, cookies, etc.) that might contain peanuts? Would E3 be tempted to try something a classmate brought for lunch that might have peanuts in it in some form or be processed in a non-peanut-free facility?

Nancy R said...

Glenda, we are not allowed to bring in home-baked items to the classes so at least anything sent in will have a label to read. The parents have been asked to try and avoid sending items (birthday treats, mostly) that have a peanut warning on the label. However, if something is sent in that isn't okay, or if Mrs. R isn't sure, she's got pudding cups and fruit cups (E3 loves both) to give as an alternative. E3, is so used to getting an alternative it probably won't phase her.

Glenda said...

What a great advantage to being in a smaller school environment!