Peanut Free Playgroups

My daughter attends a peanut free kindergarten classroom. This means there will be no PB&J sandwiches this year. It's alright with me, but I have an advantage; I've been avoiding peanut butter for a while now. Thankfully we did find out that she is not allergic to peanuts, but even so, her kindergarten classroom has five children who are. One of the children is deathly allergic--- meaning if they even smell it they can have a reaction.

The child care facilities I worked at also have peanut free policies--- peanut allergy is becoming a major concern....but is it concern enough to make your playgroup peanut-free? If your group is small, it will be relativity simple to just ask the parents about allergies. If your group is large, however, it gets tricky.

When I lived in Tucson, I ran a military moms group, and mentioned that peanut butter items would not be allowed at potlucks because of my daughter. I also asked the group of 30 moms if any of their children had allergies so we could be aware of them.

Little did I know that a drama mama was just waiting to attack! "That's not fair. My children won't eat much, they are picky eaters...It's unreasonable to tell me my children need to starve because your child has an allergy."

OK. In my defense, I only said potlucks. I didn't want *all* the children to have something with peanut butter and tell my one year old daughter she couldn't. Now she's five, and understands (sort of) what an allergy is. Since my daughter's allergy is not life-threatening I had no problem if we had a brown bagged our lunches and someone brought along a PB&J. What if it was life-threatening?

This is the way I've handled it, and I'll continue to handle it, but it's not the only way. Since we meet up multiple times a week, I put a disclaimer on any event that involves food. If your child has a food allergy and you wish to attend this playdate, please inform the organizer.

Plain and simple. It's the responsibility of the parent. Why shouldn't it be? For the three years we thought my daughter had an allergy I made sure she stayed away from it. If other people are involved there is a larger possibility for mistakes.

Here are some common allergy foods (pictured above):

Wheat
Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Soy
Shellfish

So, what happens if you need to adjust? The best way is to talk to the parent. For the longest time I used almond butter in place of peanut butter. Then I found soy butter, and I love it! Most parents will know a possible substitute if the original cannot be used. You'll also have to find out how allergic the child is for safety measures.

If all else fails, fall back on your leadership team for a voted decision. Remember not every group is the same, and while one group might be allergen free another group may not. So whether your group is allergen free or not there is probably a group the opposite of you close by.