FOOD Allergies

A food allergy is when the body's immune system reacts unusually to specific foods. Although allergic reactions are often mild, they can be very serious. In the most serious cases, a person has a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), which can be life-threatening. 

It's still unknown why people develop allergies to food, although they often have other allergic conditions, such as asthma, hay fever and eczema.

Symptoms of a food allergy

Food allergy symptoms can vary widely from person to person and range from mild to severe. They typically occur shortly  after consuming or coming into contact with the allergen and can affect different parts of the body. Common symptoms of a food allergy include:

Digestive problems - nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, cramps

Skin reactions - itching, hives, eczema, redness, swelling

Respiratory issues - sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chest tightness

Swelling - of lips, tongue, throat, face or other parts of body

Cardiovascular Symptoms - rapid or weak pulse, light-headedness, dizziness, fainting

Anaphylaxis - A severe, potentially life-threatening reaction involving multiple systems of the body, characterised by a drop in blood pressure, loss of consciousness and difficulty breathing. Anaphylaxis requires immediate medical attention.

FOOD ALLERGIES AT ALL CANNINGS

Nuts

As we have children who attend All Cannings who are allergic to nuts, please note that we aim to be a NUT-FREE school. This means that our caterers provide a nut free menu for school lunches and we do not use nuts within classroom teaching.

In addition to this, we regularly remind staff and parents that nuts should not be brought into school and that the packaging of items should be carefully checked to ensure that nuts are not on the list of ingredients. Items that staff and parents should be to be particularly wary of are: cereal bars, chocolate spread, pastries, biscuits/cookies, chocolates e.g. celebrations and truffles, pesto (although we are aware that some pesto does not contain nuts, we ask that you do not provide this for your child as it is impossible for us to know what variety  it is).

Eggs

We have a child in school with a very severe egg allergy and we ask that all our school community (staff, parents and children) refrain from bringing in any food item containing uncooked, raw or loosely cooked egg. 

All parents/staff should check the ingredients of any food items they provide for their child to eat in school and avoid bringing in food which contain higher risk egg products found in Step 2 and Step 3 on the  Allergy Ladder. Examples include: eggs, egg sandwiches, coleslaw, mayonnaise, salad cream, horseradish, tartare sauce, hollandaise, lemon curd, quiche, homemade mousse, egg custard, homemade products where egg has been used to stick breadcrumbs to fish/chicken etc.

Staff Training

We have a number of staff members who hold paediatric first aid certificates and half the staff also receive annual Administration of Epipen Competency training. This ensures that we have staff across every area of the school who are appropriately trained to deal with an allergic reaction if and when they occur.