The question of how to handle birthday treats at school comes up every year for Sophie. Occasionally parents will make the effort to find out what they could bring that she could have, but like many other kids with food allergies, our fall back solution is a box of safe treats kept by the teacher for those surprise birthday celebrations. This year is much the same. But it might not be that way for allergy kids forever...
My younger (non-allergic) daughter has a September birthday and she wanted to bring a birthday treat to share with her class. I had heard that there is a child with allergies in the class, but I don't even know his/her name. Being a procrastinator by nature, I didn't even think about asking the teacher about the child with food allergies until the day of--too late to contact a parent and buy an appropriate treat. Instead I suggested to my daughter that she choose a little toy to pass out instead. She brought bouncy balls--one for each student in the class--and the other kids LOVED them.
The next week, another student had a birthday, and he brought toys instead of food as well. A new trend perhaps? One can always hope!
I wish more parents were like you. My son's birthday is today and he wanted to bring apples to class for his birthday treat. The teacher was thrilled that it wasn't cupcakes or cookies again. Last year my son gave a book to his classroom library for his birthday instead of bringing a treat. The teacher loved that too!
ReplyDeleteThat is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine what a good surprise the balls were for your younger son's classmate! I would love for my allergic son to come home and say, "Mama, today is so and so's birthday and we all got a bouncy ball!" Which is much better than some kind of sad remark about feeling left out! Great!
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