Dairy is poison to my son
As parents we are educated, even when we are still pregnant, to put all hazardous products out of reach of our children. In the kitchen, laundry, bathroom, garage, anywhere there may be toxic substances, you will not find them within the reach of little kids. Everyone has the same basic primal instinct to protect the life of your offspring. We all “get it” at some basic level. To my son, dairy is poison. We treat this liquid with the same respect as we treat any other “poison”. Poison is poison as far as I am concerned, no matter what form it comes in.
Even though we are constantly surrounded by people who can not process that food allergies are a real and dangerous threat to the safety of our children, I still get upset, sometimes, when people complain about needing to be considerate of others. At our preschool, no foods are banned, parents are allowed to bring along whatever they like, knowing exactly what it can do to my son. They make the choice to put him at risk everyday, probably without a thought. The preschool has decided to stop kids from eating cheese dips at morning tea, when they sit on mats in close proximity to each other. They can however, eat them at lunch when they are at tables and a greater distance away from each other. To me, this is a pretty good compromise. The kids still get to eat their “cheese” and Declan is not at such a high risk.
There has been a complaint that someone’s child likes to eat nothing but cheese at morning tea. Well…. my child likes to breathe!
It is not an evenly weighted argument as far as I am concerned.
People can be ignorant about all sorts of things, but a basic level of safety for children is one all parents should be united on.
Poison is poison no matter what form it takes.
I’d like to hear how others deal with such situations, if you are willing to share your stories.
Take care,
Mel
I can relate all you have said regarding your son. My son has a peanut allergy and my youngest daughter has an egg allergy so to us all products containing same are poison. However the Kindy and Preschools we went to were very supportive but now we are at big school it is a whole lot harder. I would be happy to talk with you further, please call me, I also live in brisbane. My phone is xxxx xxxx (ed. - removed phone number)