Homeschool Class at Zoo: What Should I Request?

[Cricket]

Hi,
My almost 8 year-old daughter has had multiple anaphylactic reactions to eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, and a severe reaction to soy due to cross-reactivity with peanut.  We homeschool because of her allergies.  So far, she only has had reactions from ingestion (not contact) but does react to traces of eggs, in particular. 

A local zoo offers really cool sounding science classes.  I talked to the instructor/coordinator, who himself has an allergy to corn syrup.  He welcomes, and in fact, encourages me to stay with her in the classroom to ensure her safety.  He also offered to e-mail me the ingredients that would be used in the class each week.  I think all that sounds fantastic. 

I don't plan on attending if he will be using peanut butter/nut butter or mayonnaise/ranch dressing because I think these tend to get globbed on classroom items more and increase the risk to my daughter. 

He did mention that he tends to use M&Ms a lot.  I replied that Skittles are safe, but didn't push to ask him to substitute.   This gives rise to a two-part question.  First, would you push and ask him to please use Skittles and not have M&Ms in the class on the days your child attended if you were me?  Second, suppose you don't ask or won't make that accommodation, would you still attend the class if he was using M&Ms with other kids, but you had Skittles (or other safe candy) for your own child? 

Thank you so much!

[twinturbo]

Let me start by saying I do believe with enough work identifying the true issues in the curriculum and removing vague assurances made by the instructor this could be a great experience for your daughter or any other child dealing with life threatening allergic reactions.

Until this afternoon I'm without a physical keyboard so my advice is somewhat limited to my phone screen. However please know that you will get concise, clear and actionable solution-oriented advice once more members see this.

The first issue I would attack directly is the use of m&m's, and really all food by extension, should be substituted for something much lower risk. Given such a low threshold tolerance for peanut for anaphylaxis, m&m's are extremely high risk for contamination.

Second is I'm not sure what he means by a corn syrup allergy. Corn can certainly be an allergen, but it is rare and certainly not exclusive to syrup. To me that is alarming in the sense an adult in a custodial role has a dangerous misconception of a student's life threatening condition. A lot of education would be warranted on the medical front at the very least.

The posters here tend to work in tandem making for good peer review and fact checking. You can expect a good framework to develop within about ten posts.

[YouKnowWho]

I would be wary of anyone who has a corn syrup allergy honestly.  Because that sounds like a diagnosis made by a quack.  Problem being that the likelihood of them understanding a true ana allergy might be on the slim side, kwim. 

Of course having said that, I once had a board certified allergist who had a corn allergy that was surprised Cracker Jacks had corn in them and was constantly recommending drinks that had corn syrup in them for my supposedly corn allergic child.  She said she drank them all the time.  (Her advice got consistently worse which is one of the reasons we sought out our current awesome allergist). 

My comfort level would be okay with M&M's in the classroom for other students.  But given DS2's history, that is within my comfort zone.  Not everyone here would have that level of comfort though (as TT stated above).  I would however breathe a huge sigh of relief if Skittles or Sixlets could be used in place though, kwim?

Wait and see what the ingredient list - if it is doable for your child, then I might press for the subs or ask if they could be subbed with a non-food alternative (small stickers are great because you can show others tangible results at the end of the day).

[CMdeux]

Egg could be really rough, depending upon the nature of the curriculum here.

Just noting that I'd pay especially close attention to that. Many science/art/instructional items are risks for egg in ways that simply don't occur to people without food allergies.

Oh-- and I reiterate what others noted about the corn syrup allergy.  That one strikes me as an ""allergy"" based upon a belief that HFCS = the Nexus of All that is Evil in the Universe.    Either they're allergic to corn, in which case they'd NEVER have phrased it that way to you... or they have some kind of weird intolerance which is probably self-diagnosed based on extensive experience and process of rigorous elimination (unlikely, but possible, I suppose), or... yeah.... Food Allergy, the Life Choices model.