Her teachers are very aware of Lucy’s needs, and they are very helpful. There were a couple of little boys that were teasing her because of her eczema patches, and she got very upset. The teachers explained to them how it bothered her and this is something you don’t tease someone about, so she’s very appreciative of that as well.
We set up safety nets for her in school
When Katie went to preschool, her dad and I worked very diligently with the school to educate them and set up a safety net for her. The school was so receptive. I think it was hard for them, but they were kind, and so they wanted to be helpful, especially once they realized that we weren’t kooks and that we had documentation of her food allergies and her asthma.
We’ve been very fortunate in putting safety nets in for her in school systems. It’s been very important for us to know what our legal rights are, and I always made sure when walking into a meeting that the members from the school knew that I knew what our rights were.
In a public school system, for example, food induced anaphylaxis and asthma can both be considered disabilities under federal and state laws. I made sure that they knew that I knew that, and that Katie was entitled to reasonable accommodations, such as a peanut free classroom. I didn’t ask for a peanut free school, but I did insist on a peanut free classroom, to always have her medications available to her, and to have a school nurse on site at all times. And it’s worked. And I have so many people now in the school system who thank me, because they don’t have to fight those battles, and we did.
I did a lot of work with the school nurse
When Jason was in daycare, I did a lot with the school nurse and basically a lot of the research I did helped her. I worked a lot with her to go over a lot of different things. And that made me more comfortable with him being at school. Jason is going to go to kindergarten not this September but the following September, so my goal this year will be to get in touch with the school department where he’ll go to kindergarten, because I want to know ahead of time how they’re going to prevent him from having any type of reactions which would cause the asthma to flare up, or cause him to have difficulty breathing. So that’s what I’m going to be working on now.
The schools have been really great. The school nurses know Jordan has asthma, they used to hold his Albuterol for him and if he needed it, he would go to the nurse. Now that he is older, he is able to carry his medicine on him.
The school contacted me
Tyson tells people that he has asthma, which then reminds the school or somebody to talk to me to get his asthma medication. I wasn’t even thinking when he went to preschool last year that he needed it. He went pretty much the whole year with me just giving him his dose prior to going to school and then coming home. Then they contacted me and said “We didn’t realize he was actually on medication for asthma; we should have his asthma medication on hand.” That’s when I contacted the doctor and got another air chamber, got his medication, gave it to the pre school. Then I went into Tyson’s pre school one day and showed the workers how to actually do his medication.
I have to rely on his daycare providers
Since I’m not with Toby during the day I often check in with the day care providers because they are actually spend more of his waking hours with him than I do. I really have to rely on them, and I am very happy that they are attuned to his asthma needs. That’s been really important. I imagine if he were in a bigger classroom or with less attuned teachers I wouldn’t be able to rely on them quite as much as I do, but they are really very attuned to Toby and to his needs.