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complete resource to help parents and professionals include ALL kids in summer camp
We are asking for everyone’s co-operation to
make our camp a NUT AWARE environment. We currently have
a number of children whose allergy to nuts is very severe and in a few cases
life threatening. The simple act of
smelling nuts or being touched by someone with a trace of peanut butter can
trigger an allergic reaction.
If
your child(ren) have a peanut butter sandwich or foods containing nut products
for breakfast during the camp season, please ensure that his/her hands and face
are thoroughly washed.
We STRONGLY recommend that you read labels carefully
and attempt to send foods that do NOT
contain nut products. Our counsellors DO eat lunch with the campers and monitor the group
to ensure that there is no sharing of food and limited/no availability of foods
that contain nuts so that campers who have identified nut allergies are not put
in danger by any cross-contamination.
At
the beginning of each of the camp sessions, the Section Heads are required to
read the book “No Nuts For Me” and to facilitate a discussion with the unit with regards
to being Nut Aware. Our Health Centre
staff, and in many cases the campers’ parents, will also provide in-services
regarding this serious concern to ALL of our staff. The
more aware everyone is the better!
At
Robin Hood we provide snacks and optional lunches which are Kosher and
Nut-free. In this way we know that all
of the food that we provide has been monitored and causes no risk to those
campers/staff who have nut allergies.
However,
we depend on you, our campers and families, to ensure that nut products are NOT brought to camp.
For birthdays,
campers will be called up to mass flagpole (which occurs 2 – 3 times a week) to
celebrate their birthday and receive a token present. If campers and their families wish, we recommend small trinkets
as ways to celebrate a birthday (e.g. stickers, little loot bags not containing
food), rather than a birthday cake or donuts.
Dear
Fellow Parents,
My child is one of many young
children who live with a life-threatening allergy to peanut and tree nut
proteins. An exposure to any food
products containing these proteins may result in an anaphylactic reaction. An anaphylactic reaction is an allergic
reaction so severe that it can cause death.
Other symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction include facial swelling,
hives, rashes, difficulty breathing, choking, nausea and loss of consciousness,
to name a few (there are more).
Recently, my son was involved in an incident where he was participating with other children in a communal play area when a fellow playmate accidentally scratched him on the forehead. This resulted in an open cut that was bleeding. Approximately 5 – 10 minutes later, my son became noticeably uncomfortable and was complaining that his face was itchy. I saw that on the side of his face where he had been scratched, he was breaking out in hives and his eye and cheek had become swollen.
After
a brief consultation with the parent of the child that had been involved in the
altercation, I learned that the child had eaten a peanut butter sandwich an
hour earlier and that the child’s hands, as well as his mouth area, had not
been washed after eating. The child had
peanut butter under his fingernails, and my son ingested the peanut proteins
through his open wound and developed a severe allergic reaction. He was immediately taken to the hospital for
treatment.
We
all want to protect our children. As
parents we consistently strive to keep them safe from all harm, happy and
content in their world, and above all, healthy. We are attentive to the dangers lurking in a society that we
cannot always predict. But for myself
and other parents of allergic children, those dangers are not always obvious
ones.
It
is so vital that all parents and adults understand the growing incidence of
anaphylactic children. Simple precautions
taken are all that is needed to attempt to reduce future problems for allergic
children. After giving your
non-allergic child peanut butter or any other nut products (such as food
containing almonds, walnuts, pistachio nuts, cashews, brazil nuts, pine nuts,
etc), PLEASE WASH THEIR MOUTHS AND HANDS
THOROUGHLY if you know that they will be
attending school or camp or any activity that will include other kids. Nut proteins are oily and may leave residue
on play furniture and toys. Also, when
in a childcare setting, please try to make a conscious effort to pack lunches
or snacks that do not include peanuts or nuts by checking the labels on the
foods you send out with your kids.
For
anaphylactic children, any exposure to the allergens may prove fatal. Cut the risk of any exposure. Help all of us safeguard what is most
precious to us, our children’s’ lives.
For
further information, you may contact the Anaphylaxis Network of Canada at
416-785-5666.
Thank
you for your interest,
A Concerned
Parent
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