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Nurse Educator at Seattle Children's Hospital

Food Allergy Initiative Northwest and Seattle Children's Hospital have been in partnership over the last several years in our Food Allergy Community Health Education Program. Part of this program funds a nurse educator, who does FREE presentations at schools, camps, day cares (anywhere, really) on food allergies. Ann Wahl, our new nurse educator, has made dozens of presentations to almost 2,000 attendees this year alone, all across Washington state. In addition to her presentation tailored to lay people she also has a presentation targeting health professionals.

We are lucky to have such a wonderful, free resource available in our state, and I want to make sure everyone is making use of it!

To schedule a no cost visit call or email Ann at (206) 884-1012 or foodallergy@seattlechildrens.org
And as always feel free to ask me (or any of the other FAI-NW board members) any questions about our nurse educator or the other initiatives we're working on. We're happy to help and grateful that our state is at the forefront of this program!

More information at http://seattlechildrens.org/foodallergy/

Thank you to our guest blogger, Wendy Heipt. You can contact her at wandeheipt@gmail.com

Thank you for a spooktacularly fun afternoon!

It was great to see so many families out today. I have not had a chance to look at our check in sheet but we definitely had 20+ adorable costumed food allergic kids and their families enjoying the festivities at Montlake Community Center today.

I must plug Montlake Community Center. When I told them we had food allergic kids coming to the event, they asked the custodian to clean the floors last night with a machine and he wiped surfaces and mirrors down really well. The only group using it before us was a karate class so we didn't have nearly as much pre-event clean up as we expected. Whew! On top of that, I am very grateful that the City of Seattle granted us a nonprofit rental fee discount (not as easy to get as one might think).

Now I must thank 3 members of the WA FEAST Board for their commitment to making this happen. Desi Tucker is responsible for the cheeky signage and flyer as well as the cool carnival games and the portable PA system and she was assisted by husband Trent and kids on loading, decorating and clean-up;, Teisha Stiles brought 6 members of her family including her artistic and helpful children (and their friend Patrick) who turned the hall into a festive space in no time and helped with the carnival games, and Tiesha whipped up the cutest homemade Wishing (fishing?) Cauldron I have ever seen; Jenny Nolan kept us all organized and oversaw a very successful craft and coloring area. My family made good on their promises to me (OK, so maybe I did a little begging and bribing!) and did a great job with their DJ Checkit Skit and my kids and I played dance music for Dina Blade's family dance which was a lot of fun.

Everyone pitched in on clean-up - THANK YOU! We were out by 4:30ish!

I am privileged to also say thank you to the WA FEAST Board for a very kind and unexpected gesture. They decided that they would like to help my 13 yo PA daughter and I attend FAAN's Teen Summit in Washington DC. We may not be able to go this year, due to jazz band commitments, but I am touched and honored and feel that I barely deserve such generosity. If we do go, I hope to bring back some first hand knowledge of how to run such an event and perhaps try to do the same thing here on the West Coast. I am humbled. Thank you.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the businesses who made donations to the door prize raffle. I think this is the complete list but please let me know if you took something home that isn't listed here.

Allerbling,http://www.allerbling.com - two bracelets

Allermates, http://www.allermates.com - 8 bracelets, two lunch boxes

Allergic Living, http://www.allergicliving.com - subscription

The Bugabees Friends with Food Allergy, children's book by Amy Recob, http://thebugabees.com/

Princess and the Peanut Allergy, children's book by Wendy McClure, http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Peanut-Allergy-Wendy-McClure/dp/0807566233

Sophie Safe Cooking, Cookbook by Emily Hendrix, http://www.sophiesafecooking.com

Food Allergies and Children (3) /Food Allergies and Schools (3) - Pocket Guides from the Allergy Free Table series. http://www.allergyfreetable.com/

Flourishing with food allergies, book by A. Anderson,http://www.flourishingwithfoodallergies.com/

And last but not least, the "oh so adorable that I wish I had an epipen to put in it for myself" the Epi-Puppy, http://epipuppy.com/

Now the good news for those of you who did not make it today is that we did not send all of this stuff home which means that you may have a chance to win some of it at a future FEAST event!

Be sure to check out "How to have a not-so-spooky Halloween." It was created by Thanita Clancy of Loudoun Allergy Network and is being share with WA FEAST members with her permission, thanks to the magic of the FAAN Food Allergy Support Group Advisory Commitee Facebook page.

Kelly Morgan

Washington FEAST Halloween Spook-tacular

Join us Saturday October 29
1:00-4:00 PM at the Montlake Community Center
1618 E Calhoun Street, Seattle, WA 98112

Please click for our Registration Survey and Waiver and Release for our Halloween Spooktacular! We hope you'll come! There will be carnival games starting at 1:00 PM, followed by a costume contest, a Detective DJ Check It skit, and a puppet play by Giraffe and Staff http://giraffeandstaff.com/. We will finish the day with a short hoedown style family dance. Tweens and teens will have access to the gym starting at 2:00 PM and we'll have someone organizing games for them as well, but hope we'll all gather back in the main room for the dancing. We will add a schedule of events to the website soon.

We would be very grateful if everyone who is even considering coming to please respond to a Registration Survey and print and sign a waiver form for everyone who plans to attend the event. Apologies if you have already responded on MeetUp but we would be very grateful if you could also fill out the survey. If you are not 100% sure that you will come, please register and just mention that in the comments section. ALSO, make sure you go through all three pages of the survey - the third page asks if you are willing to volunteer at the event. Also, we will have waiver forms at the event, but if it is convenient, please print and sign ahead of time and bring to the event with you.

There is a suggested donation of $5 per child but we won't turn anyone away.

HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR VOLUNTEER JOBS:

• Game station - need 7 -8 adults or tweens/teens
• Set-up - Arrive at Montlake CC at 11:15 AM
• Clean up - we'll be out of there by 5:00 PM.

NOTE: This is a great opportunity for anyone middle school or high school students who need service hours for school.

Here is the link!

http://wafeast.org/2011/10/wafeast-halloween-carnival-sat-oct-29-2011/

We hope you'll come out and join us even for a little while. Watch the website and our various social media sites for a schedule of events. The day is shaping up frighteningly well!

Food-free and latex-free fun!

Kelly Morgan on behalf of the WA FEAST Board

From WAFEAST Events

Milk Allergy Study in Babies in Seattle

Milk Allergy study in babies birth to eight months. Please visit http://www.asthmainc.org/ or contact studies@asthmainc.org

From Blogger Pictures

WAFEAST presents Halloween Carnival

Lots of food-free fun planned for Saturday October 29, 2011!
Games, prizes, contests and more!
Join us 1:00-4:00 PM at the Montlake Community Center
1618 E Calhoun Street, Seattle, WA 98112



From WAFEAST Events
Contact leader@wafeast.org

Back to school tips – Plan! Plan! Plan!

As children, we all remember having butterflies at the end of the summer as our parents prodded us to pick out lunch boxes and try on new clothes. As parents of food allergic children, we may feel those butterflies return, as we think about turning over responsibility of our children’s well being to school staff. If we aren’t careful, our anxiety can spill over and increase the butterflies that our kids are feeling as a natural part of returning to or starting school. While seeking out a therapist in anxiety management may be something to consider, much can be achieved via good planning. There are several vehicles for planning for accommodating food allergic students in the school setting, including the Individualized Health Plan (IHP) and 504 Plan, in some cases they are one in the same.
· Emergency action plan. This plan is developed in conjunction with the school nurse and is based on written prescription orders from your child’s physician. This plan describes the symptoms of anaphylaxis that your child may exhibit and instructs staff about what actions to take in the event of a food allergy emergency. If you are in a state where nurses are not allowed to delegate judgment authority to staff, you may find that the staff will be advocating that all reactions are treated with epinephrine.
· Risk reduction plan. This plan informs school staff about how to AVOID having to implement the Emergency Action Plan. The goal is to address as many plausible risky situations as possible and contingencies for unanticipated situations. The topics you might address here include what allergens are allowed in the room for parties and snacks, review any food used in class projects or science kits, assess potential risks associated with field trips,
· Inclusiveness plan. This plan addresses steps to be taken by the school and staff to avoid exclusion of your food allergic child and can layer on top of a risk reduction plan, but in some ways I think it is beneficial to think of it as a separate exercise. Many parents supply safe snacks/treats for their food allergic children. However, due to the fact that this is a “separate but equal approach,” more and more parents are requesting that all celebrations and snacks be inclusive. This can be achieved by implementing non-food rewards and celebrations and, if food is allowed, only food listed on an approved snack/party list is used.
Where to start? See if your state has food allergy guidelines in place. If not, guidelines from other states can be very useful. Finally, there are many 504 planning resources on the web. For more info, check out http://www.foodallergy.org/.
Kelly Morgan