I find Valentine’s Day stressful with food allergies.  In the past, when our allergic child was in elementary school, I found it to be the most stressful day of all.  It all came to a head when Megan was in grade 4 and Valentine’s Day became a food buffet of everything she couldn’t eat laid out in front of her.  Score in her head?  Other kids:  30 treats,  Me:  2 (what Mom and the teacher gave her).  And this all despite the teacher having very specific rules in place that virtually all parents ignored and left our child feeling unsafe and very left out.  It led to 3 weeks of  our child being “sick” every morning when she went to school and me wondering if I needed to take her for some counselling.

Thankfully that period passed but the next time a class party was planned, it was very clear that those feelings came up again, and again on the next Valentine’s Day.

I like treats as much as the next person but I wonder when all of our focus turned to food, particularly junk?  As an elementary teacher in my former life, I learned to be very specific about what foods would be allowed in my classroom for parties or I found that everybody sent so much pop, chips and sweets that the kids gorged and made themselves sick.  In my experience, not one parent ever sent a healthful snack.

So I changed how I did things and created a very specific sign up sheet and no one not on the sign up sheet was allowed to bring extra items.  While I still allowed the pop and chips and sweets, it was limited to a certain amount and was mixed in with a variety of fruit and veggie trays, cheeses and more, depending on the kids in my classroom.  You’ll never guess what items went first; yep, the fruit and veggies.

If I had a Celiac student, I made sure there were plenty of choices and with food allergic kids, those foods simply weren’t allowed in.  Period.  And that was before I had an allergic child myself.  But could I have lived without food for any of those events in my classroom?  Absolutely, and it would have been easier on our school custodians too!

Would it really be so bad to take the food component out of schools?  Does every party, reward,  or special day have to have food attached?  I don’t think so.  And you never know, besides making life easier for food allergic kids,  it might have some positive effects on childhood obesity and how children view food.