Please do me a favor, and don’t send any goodies to school with nuts in them.

I picked my child up from daycare this evening and she was excited to show me her valentine’s day bag. While I was gathering all her coats, papers and backpacks, she grabbed a chocolate heart out of the bag and took a small bite. I grabbed it and looked it over noticed it looked “crispy.” I took a bite to confirm and then noticed the wrapper said “butterfinger” on it. She has a severe peanut and tree nut allergy. We quickly got some Benadryl in her. And her teacher apologized profusely as they thought they had checked everything in the bags. Looking at the heart, with the way the print was, it was an easy mistake to make.

I drove home in a panic—do I need to pull out the Epi pen? Is she breathing okay? Should I just drive her straight to the hospital? What kind of reaction is she going to have? I called my husband and we decided for us to just come on home. She is resting quietly now but we had a tense hour or two while she threw up and we tried to keep her and ourselves calm.

Until her diagnosis and I started working to keep her safe from all tree nuts I had no idea how much pervasive nuts are in our food. And now, especially at holidays and parties where baked goods and chocolates appear I have to be vigilant. Every party I have to ask the host about ingrediants. Every halloween, easter and Xmas food gift now becomes a potential threat.

Apparently, nut allergies are on the rise and they don’t really know why. We have no family history with it.

But please, while it is my responsibility to make sure my child is as safe as possible, please do me a favor and just don’t send anything with nuts to school. You will be doing some child, parent and teacher a favor.