The Allergen-Free Cake that WASN'Thttp://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/the-allergen-free-cake-that-wasnt/?ref=style&_r=0
I've held this position for a LONG time: nobody should be feeding ANYBODY's kids in school WRT "celebration" or snack or ANYTHING.
This was a more "unusual" situation: not your Top-8 allergen situation.
PLEASE: Look at the numbers so far as "first time" and IN school reactions. (They are seriously HIGH -- nothing to bat eyelashes at -- and something you'd better think about as you look at liability insurance, including umbrella! Oh, wait. Did you think of that?)
The price of "keeping the peace" and providing food for everybody in effort to have own kid included and accommodating the food in schools . . . is potentially ANOTHER CHILD'S LIFE. It is not just the price of the food you buy and provide . . . it is not just the cost of your time and effort to "OK" a food someone else brought in.
The PRICE may be another child's safety and life.
And we come back to "atmosphere conducive to a fatality" . . .
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"The Allergen-Free Cake That Wasn’t"
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/the-allergen-free-cake-that-wasnt/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=style&_r=1After much consultation with me and two other mothers of food-allergic children, her mother made a dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free and peanut- and nut-free poundcake.
despite our collective vigilance, we missed the legumes listed in the gluten-free flour. Who knew that flour might contain garbanzo and fava beans? And so one of the children in my daughter’s class, also one of her good friends, had an allergic reaction later that day.
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Would you provide all of the classroom treats, if that were an option?--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meeting with the principal about Heritage Feast and FA in generalTotally agree that you must work on individual accommodations for your child and that you must tread lightly and not speak for any others, regardless of their "diagnosis" or status.
When we were boxed into these sorts of situations (when kids were very young & at private school) we were religious about disclaimer that we were NOT an authority on any other child's LTFA needs and were NOT claiming "safety" of items for anybody other than our own child/children. However, it was really hard to get this through to staff as they often wanted to leap to sweeping conclusions as to "ALL" children with XYZ allergy or other condition.
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504 plans, party food, & confidentialitythe administration needs to rein her in. Not you, personally.
Besides, you can INNOCENTLY explain if she whines about it that... well, you never know who ELSE might have 504 provisions relating to FOOD USE. You are BOTH obligated to check rather than ASSUMING that something is okay. After all, privacy concerns also dictate that YOU may not know every restriction in place, yes?
Just something to consider and make use of as needed.
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