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At church, the nursery is pretty good about food allergies.  They have a place to write them down and special stickers to notify workers that a child has food allergies.  Our children's pastor has purchased name brand Cheerios because he knows of my son's allergies to wheat and that he can have Cheerios.

Initially, I hated having to put a special sticker on my son's back.  It's neon yellow with big black letters saying "Allergy Alert".  Every time he wore it, the teachers talked about it and he became the 'kid with the food allergy' instead of just another kid in the play area.  So I don't always put the sticker on him.  They always give Cheerios as a snack which he can eat, so I haven't worried.

Today, I learned that he needs that sticker.  He had three young ladies as his teachers today.  I stayed with him as I have been the past few weeks.  They were short on teachers so the 2's and 3's were grouped together.  The ladies did a great job teaching.  There was actual class structure with songs, a story, and bible verse.  I loved seeing them implement that.  Usually in the 2's class, the kids play randomly without any structure until the last 15 minutes where they clean up and have snack.

My little guy was having a pretty good time, and I was too -helping out and using my childcare expertise in assisting with the large group of kiddos.  Then they broke out the playdough and suddenly everything changed.  I realized the young ladies were not aware of my son's allergies to wheat or hadn't correlated the allergy to a "non-food" item such as playdough.  I nonchalantly took him out of the class so the other kids could enjoy their time with the playdough and my son could stay safe.  He wouldn't think twice about munching on some playdough.

We later came back when they were done with the playdough, and I explained to the ladies why we had left.  They were surprised and apologetic, which I brushed off with understanding that they didn't know.  No harm, no foul...and then I got to thinking.  If I hadn't been there, he would have been given a chunk of playdough like everyone else.  He probably would have at least tasted it, and then he'd have been reacting and miserable all afternoon.  I'm going to have to get used to him having the "kid with the allergies" label so he can be safe and still have fun when he is in group care.  Little things can make such a difference.