Hooray!!
Wow, what a difference a few days make. Gone are the stomach pains, the constant, low-grade headache and the frown that was permanently stamped on my forehead. Now that Declan is in the care that he deserves, I can breathe again. With wonderful teachers, and some old familiar faces he is in preschool heaven.
The centre has not banned any of the offending allergens, and we have never asked them to. Lets face it, when dairy is the allergen, it is unrealistic to expect a policy banning all milk, yoghurt, cheese, butter, calcium enriched breads, calcium enriched juice, cakes, biscuits…….etc, etc, etc. While it would be an ideal situation, we would prefer him to learn how to deal with his food allergies, whilst under great supervision, before he enters the big world of school next year. We want him to be as prepared as possible, to live his own life with confidence and a great ability to assess situations, when he is not under constant supervision next year.
It is not easy for us to “let go” of the control, but we can not control every situation for him in the future.
As a result of this preschool change, and a new found confidence, I was able to take my daughter to her first playgroup. She too has food allergies, but thankfully not as severe. She loved it. As always they had morning tea and we stayed for that, just to see their routine. Ordinarily in such situations, we would leave before the food came out, or immediately after. But, Bianca leapt straight for the water table where other kids had started playing with food on their hands, which swiftly contaminated the water. Consequently, she ended up with a few hives on her face. Needless to say, next week, they are adopting a new routine of washing their hands straight after eating - all on their own accord, before I had a chance to suggest it myself. It is such a treat to come across people willing to understand, and be flexible, to keep our kids safe.
Hooray!!