Posted by: Janelle205
« on: February 25, 2012, 01:46:42 PM »There's another adult here with fruit allergies who's worked in childcare positions involving food prep; she may have some more specific advice for you.
That's me. Until next next week, I work in a daycare. I kind of do everything - I cook the food as well as fill in as a classroom teacher. I'm allergic to a lot of things (you can see in my signature line.) Luckily the only one for me that I'm nastily sensitive to is apples. Unfortunately, apples are in EVERYTHING.
My center does not serve apple products, and requires that food that is brought in to the center is apple free. This happened after I had a reaction requiring epi, ambulance, and an er ride when a preschooler accidentally smeared applesauce on my face. I will say that this was sort of my fault...they offered not to serve apples, but I said that it wasn't necessary. My previous experiences were that my contact reactions were only localized, but things change.
I'd ask your boss about not serving pineapple at the center. Being the cook, I can say that it would be really easy to eliminate it from our center as we only have two products with pineapple - canned pineapple and sweet and sour sauce. If that isn't an option, and you have a daily break, I would ask about arranging the schedule so that you can take your break during lunch so that you wouldn't have to serve it and the classroom would be cleaned before you returned. I don't know about your center, but our tables and chairs are cleaned thoroughly after each meal - they are wiped three different times in a row.