Reasons For Keeping Allergens On The Menu

As we all know, most early childhood educational settings such as childcare centres and preschools are nut-free zones. And many are zones free of other foods as well, like eggs and dairy because these, like nuts, are also common foods that children are allergic to.

This practice brings a lot of comfort and sense of safety to educators and families who firmly believe there won’t be any episode of an allergic reaction with a child while under their care.

However, that sense of safety can be deceiving… I have mentioned in another article, a nuts-and-sesame-free childcare centre I used to be a casual educator at, had – unknowingly – sesame oil-containing sunscreen applied on the children and we were very close to applying it on a sesame-allergic 4yo girl if it wasn’t for her stopping us because she had been educated to recognise the sunscreen bottle.

That episode is great as an illustration of how much more effective EDUCATION is over food bans for the safety of allergic children and adults. In fact, that’s what research and the country’s peak bodies recommend: education over blanket-food bans (1,2). The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) released in 2022 the Best Practice Guidelines for Prevention of Anaphylaxis in Schools and CEC Services in which there are warnings about the banning of certain foods that contain allergens.

False sense of safety

Taking certain foods completely out of the menu is not recommended for many reasons. One is what I have mentioned above: the false sense of safety that the allergen isn’t present when it can sneak in under different forms.

Exclusion of core foods

Another reason is that core foods may be excluded from the children’s diet. While nuts are good source of important nutrients such as protein, fibre, healthy oils, vitamins and minerals (3), it is consumed in much smaller quantities than staple foods and those nutrients are easily supplied by other staple foods such as meats, dairy and vegetables.

Now, when services remove dairy and eggs from their menu, it may reduce significantly the intake of essential nutrients in many children’s diets. Let’s say a child attends the centre five days a week and is not very keen on meats. Not having access to egg nor dairy may significantly reduce that child’s intake of protein.

Exposure to allergens early in life increases protection against allergy development

Avoidant eating

Taking foods out of the menu can significantly reduce the opportunities children will have to learn to like those foods. At this age, when eating habits are being formed (4), children need regular exposure to a wide variety of foods. The later the introduction and regular exposure to certain foods, the harder it can be for children to accept those foods.

Allergy development

Another important aspect related to taking allergenic foods away from young children’s diets is the increase in the risk of them developing allergy to those very foods.

The current body of evidence (5,6,7) has a very clear recommendation for early AND often exposure to allergenic foods in order to prevent allergies from developing. So, feeding weaning babies and toddlers a diet that excludes certain allergens can actually induce the development of allergies and is not recommended.

There are safe ways to cater for food allergies and intolerances in an early childhood education setting while also keeping our duty of care and commitment to provide appropriate nutrition and promote healthy eating.

The key to achieving that is EDUCATION

There are several resources and training available. You want to look at ASCIA (Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy), Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia, ACECQA (Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority). These bodies have several resources that can help you and your team to skill up and to create food policies for your service.

Eat Play Learn Nutrition offers a workshop for educators and cooks to help keeping nutrition on the menu while still looking after all allergic people at your service. You can check details here.

References

1. Food allergy management in Early Childhood Education and Care Services in Australia (Study, 2019, Australia)

2. Best Practice Guidelines for Prevention of Anaphylaxis in Schools and CEC Services (ASCIA) (2022)

3. The Choice Guide to Food (Book, 2011, Australia)

4. Factors Influencing Children's Eating Behaviours (Study, 2018, Italy)

5. Prevalence of Childhood Celiac Disease and Changes in Infant Feeding (Study, 2013, Sweden)

6. Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) – The ASCIA infant feeding for allergy prevention guidelines (2019)

7. Testing and diagnosis of coeliac disease in children. Coeliac Australia (2024)