Living Allergic

A feature article from Together Family magazine – Back To School, 2011 – By Sheila Street

“She said ‘mommy, it’s itching my mouth!’ and then she started having an asthma attack,” Dr. Valerie Marchand, a paediatrician specializing in nutrition and gastroenterology, describes one of her daughter’s life-threatening allergic reactions. “I had to give her a cortisone shot and Ventalin and the waiter just said ‘but it’s lactose free!’” Dr. Marchand’s daughter has an anaphylactic, type-one allergy to milk. She’s not lactose intolerant.

The added stress of parenting a highly allergic child is becoming all too familiar to people across North America. A study, published June 20th in the journal Pediatrics, found that as many as one in 12 US children could be suffering from food allergies. Food allergies are not only getting more common, they’re also becoming more severe. According to the same study, which was written by Dr. Ruchi Gupta, more than a third of allergic children suffer from severe or life-threatening allergies. Because of the increased risk of developing severe food allergies, they’re becoming a challenge for our entire society to face. Daycares and schools especially are on the hook to safely accommodate allergic children. Though Ontario has a formal law in place to protect allergic children (more on this later) other provinces are not so well equipped. Parents and educational administrations debate the extent to which educational facilities should protect allergic children, and how to minimize the amount it interferes with educational time.

Noha Elkar, from Haliax Nova Scotia, is the mother of four-year-old Maya who is severely allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts. Elkar started the blog Allergy Mom in the hopes of spreading awareness of how difficult it is to find proper childcare and education for a highly allergic child.

“Most daycares won’t take her,” explains Elkar who has enrolled Maya in several daycares, which have all subsequently asked her to leave finding her allergies too big of a challenge.  Elkar believes this is in part due to parental complaints but also because the daycare teachers do not have the time or ability to make adjustments for her child. When Elkar has previously enrolled her daughter in a daycare, she would hold an information session for parents and teachers. In one such session Elkar said the parents “were very rude, they were very judgmental and many of them were not interested in helping.” Many parents suggested that Elkar keep Maya at home if she has such severe allergies, which is an infuriating suggestion. “I don’t think I should have to,” explains Elkar of her reluctance to home school her daughter. “It’s like asking parents with autistic kids to home school their kids,” says Elkar, and “I don’t want to isolate her anymore then she already is.” Having severe food allergies makes social gatherings very difficult and Maya is already behind in her social development.

As a mother of one child with a life-threatening allergy to peanuts and another child with a dairy intolerance, Jessica (Ottawa, Ontario) was alarmed to learn that parents and daycares could lack so much understanding.  When a child’s life is on the line, it’s shocking to see how insensitive some parents can be. Dr. Marchand, however, can see how parents get annoyed. “Some parents think that the school should accommodate their allergic child by not having eggs or milk, and I think it’s unfair,” Dr. Marchand explains. “I agree asking that there are no peanuts or shellfish for example,” because these things are more easily avoided. To eliminate dairy or eggs is more difficult and Dr. Marchand does not believe in “punishing the whole class for one allergic child.” This is why Elkar fights for an allergy policy that does not require banning foods but rather, works to prevent cross contamination with the allergic foods in question.

Parents, daycare supervisors and teachers are struggling to figure out the safest, least disruptive ways of monitoring severely allergic children in their care. Elkar has done extensive research on the educational policies regarding allergic children and anaphylaxis. She explains that, even though most provincial governments suggest allergy guidelines, “every school can set their own policy.”

Ontario was the first  and only province to implement a law regarding anaphylaxis policies in schools and this was only done after a student, Sabrina Shannon, lost her life in 2003. Unfortunately, Elkar believes the same trigger will have to occur in her home province of Nova Scotia before an allergy law is passed. “It’s not happy, it’s not good but I think the likely scenario is that someone is going to get really hurt, really bad, someone is going to lose their life before the province is going to do something about it,” Elkar predicts.

It’s unfortunate to see the progress on provincial allergy legislation happening so slowly. The obvious benefit of formal allergy policies is to make allergic children safe at school but there are so many other benefits as well. First, the attention to personal hygiene is reinforced by allergy policies. Preventing cross-contamination (which, in Elkar’s view is the most effective way to protect allergic children) requires careful and regular hand washing. Second, allergy policies help teach young students about empathy and consideration for others.

Meghan Burston, an elementary teacher in Ottawa (and therefore an adherent to Sabrina’s law) talks about the additional benefits of having to accommodate a classmate with an allergy. “We’re all about instilling respect for others,” explains Ms. Burston of the elementary curriculum, “I think having this care for others helps students to learn tolerance and feel empathetic for other students.” Ms. Burston goes on to explain that even children as young as four years old in her school understand the severity of allergies. “They would be very quick to tell you to put something away if it contained nuts!”

Early childhood is the most difficult time to monitor children with severe allergies. Jessica, whose two and a half year-old daughter Julia has a dairy intolerance, explains that her little girl “is able to tell people that ‘milk makes her barf’” which is quite insightful, but as Jessica explains it still “wouldn’t stop her from eating a bowl of ice cream!” The fear of sending allergic children out into the world when one food molecule could be harmful or even fatal, is something no parent should have to deal with. Since so many do, it’s time formal policies were in place to protect allergic children around the country.

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