PEORIA (25News Now) — Having kids return to the classroom can bring mixed feelings, especially for parents of students with severe allergies.
According to FARE, 1 in 13 children suffer from a life-threatening food allergy, and more than 60% of food allergy reactions in schools occur in early childhood education centers.
One UPC Discovery parent made an extra effort to ensure other children like her had a free, safe and fulfilling school year.
Lindsey Spangler, a parent and co-founder of Red Sneakers Peoria, was hesitant to send her daughter to preschool for the first time three years ago because of her life-threatening allergies.
“That's the scariest part: You know your pet is at home and you know everything is safe, and then you're bringing them into an environment where they could have a life-threatening allergic reaction,” Spangler said.
Working with UPC Discovery Preschool, she wanted to ensure her daughter had a safe kindergarten experience.
“At that point, we knew we had to be very careful about the food we were bringing into the classroom and what we were doing to keep our daughter safe,” said Laura Taylor, director of UPC Discovery.
The learning centre already had allergy guidelines in place, but this year UPC wanted to go a step further to ensure all parents could feel at ease leaving their children there.
That's where FARECheck training, a free service from Red Sneakers Peoria, came in handy.
The 1.5-hour training will provide school staff with in-depth lessons on food allergy reactions, signs and symptoms, ways to keep children safe, cross-contact, hands-on epinephrine training and free emergency EpiPens for schools.
Taylor said this will allow all students to experience a more inclusive and safe classroom environment.
“Epinephrine injections can be very scary, so the more you practice, the more comfortable you'll feel about it. And the better we understand food allergies in our program, the better we can treat them and keep kids safer.”
The Emergency EpiPen provided by Red Sneakers Peoria is a voice-guided auto-injector that helps staff administer medication more quickly in an emergency.
Spangler and co-founder Chris Horan have been working since March to provide these resources for their children and families like them across the region.
“No child should die from severe anaphylaxis, but we need to educate those around us, educate children about food allergies and keep them safe,” Spangler said.
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