Nursery refuses 1-year old packed lunch - despite severe allergies

A Drumchapel mum's taken her toddler out of nursery because he's not being allowed to take a packed lunch to control his suspected food allergies.

22.year old Chantelle Devlin's 22-month old son, Junior, has ended up in hospital twice after taking reactions at Drumchapel Early Years Centre.

There's reason to believe he's allergic to nuts, peas, and possibly carrots, and she wants to give him a packed lunch, but bosses at the nursery have refused this.

It began in February this year when she picked him up from nursery and his eyes were swollen. He became unresponsive so he was taken to A&E.

The allergy clinic tested him in July for allergies to nuts and peas after he took a reaction in nursery from having vegetable soup - and the tests came back positive.

Chantelle took the notes from the clinic to the nursery who demanded a GP letter in order to accommodate this.

His second reaction happened at the end of August, when the nursery contacted to say he had a slight swollen eye.

Chantelle said: "I walked in and his face was like - it was as if he was in a boxing match.

"It's quite scary to see because he's so wee. He couldn't open his eyes, his face was all clawed, red raw, weepy."

Chantelle's had to start a food diary in order to keep a track of what the toddler's been eating, which the nursery are given every day to also fill in.

However, she's now refusing to send him back after claiming the nursery aren't taking the allergies seriously.

She said: "I wasn't letting my son go into an environment where I don't know if he's safe - what's it going to take for the next reaction if he goes into anaphylactic shock or ends up dying really - that is the severity and I don't think they realise that."

Glasgow City Council says it's working with her to mitigate every possible risk, but they can't allow packed lunches because other children there have allergies.

A council spokeswoman said: "The most important thing is the health and wellbeing of all the children attending the nursery and that the staff have all the information and support to do this.

"Staff have been working with mum and dad to support them through this obviously worrying time while medical staff carry out test to confirm what allergies trigger a reaction.

"There’s a full support plan in place with agreed procedures in place for all the staff to follow .

"This includes a food diary that’s being completed in the nursery that then goes home as a process of elimination for different food items.

"The nursery will continue to work with the family and health professionals to reassure the family that we are all working together to make sure that we mitigate every risk possible.

"We understand there’s been some discussion around packed lunches but we need to make sure that the food being consumed in the nursery is prepared under a controlled environment as any food being brought in might contain allergens that could affect children attending the nursery with other allergies."

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