School is about to begin again, and many parents really start feeling anxiety and fear creep up at this time of year as they send their children out to learn. If you child struggles with allergies, it can seem impossible to keep them under control when they aren’t at home all day. The good news is that there are ways for you to help cut down on allergy-related issues, keep your child comfortable, and get their educators in on the process all at the same time with almost no hassle!
There are two steps to creating the perfect back to school experience for your child with allergies: education and preparedness.
EDUCATION
As registration, meet and greets, and other events happen with the beginning of the school year, it’s the perfect time to pull your child’s teacher aside for a few brief minutes of education. Let them know candidly and clearly what allergies your child deals with and give them practical tools to help handle them. If you don’t feel like explaining it all, grab some pamphlets or print out some literature from the internet to hand to the teacher. Make sure they know how to contact you through phone and email in case they have any follow up questions. You may also want to schedule a meeting with the school nurse to arm them with all the information they need in case an allergic reaction happens.
PREPAREDNESS
Now is a great time to assemble an allergy kit for your child to use at school. Trial sizes of creams and lotions, back up supplies of medications, inhalers, epi-pens, and other essentials can all be placed in a plastic box or bag and labeled. Give this to your school nurse. You may need to sign paperwork giving them permission to administer to your child should problems arise – this is very common. Make sure that the school nurse knows what’s in the bag, how to use it, and is comfortable talking with your child about the subject.
As with all school related issues, communication is key. Check in ever couple of months and make sure that medications are up to date and not expired, and get some feedback from your child’s care takers about their overall health and performance.
This can be an allergy-free school year with just a little preparation!
Here’s to another wonderful year of learning and growing!
For more resources that you can read, print out, and share, visit the ScratchMeNot information page at: https://www.scratchmenot.com/info-overload