Lost over daughters chemical allergies - Allergies Message Board

itsmeheather · 01-13-2009, 09:19 AM

I have a list of chemical names that my daughter is allergic to. RIght now its causing her problems at school. She seems very allergic to the copy toner. Her hands keep getting worse and worse and now she is congested. She cleared up over the holidays when she was home and only a week and half back at school and its bad again.

She wears white cotton gloves to do all of her work. She is only 7 years old.

Short of pulling her out of public school and schooling her at home does anyone have suggestions? I just can't seem to get any ideas of what I can do. The dermatologist and allergist like to tell me to have her "avoid" these things. Do they realize this ink is everywhere? The kid doesn't get her hair dyed - its her school papers. If the ink touches her it now looks like she has poison ivy ( its all I can think of that looks similar ).

what do I do? She has tested positive via True test. Also she has a latex allergy we deal with. They are all documented allergies so I can ask the school for help but what the heck do I ask for? They make sure she wears her gloves to work on papers.. any other ideas? I'[m at my witts end. I just don't know what to do now.

THanks
Heather

mysixpack · 01-13-2009, 11:31 AM

Hi Heather,

It's hard to do anything at the school if it is not anaphylactic shock related. They wont help you unless it fits a certain criteria. We have a girl at our middle school that is allergic to latex(which is found in a lot at school-erasers, containers?, ect.).No one is allowed to bring balloons anymore for birthdays and we have been given a list of items our kids can not use. They have provided us with alternatives. She will die if she comes in contact from what they said.
I was never aware of allergies-I personally have only two. Until I had my kids. I have three kids with red hair, left handed, and allergic to the world. I also, have a blondish 2 year old who looks like a burn victim if she has eggs. Three of my kids are deadly allergic to bees. My oldest is allergic to red food dye-which is in everything! He just get real hyper!
All my kids go to public school. I have two of my kids on a study for seasonal allergies. It seems to do the trick. We also use benadryl, clariton, and some homeopathic dissolvable pills daily around here. You could even try the homeopathic pills for skin irritation. Also, creams are a daily part of our life.
Hang in there-try some other things before you pull her out. Not that I think home-schooling is a bad thing. I just think that we can also build immunities to things if we have them in small amounts. If it was a life threatening or quality of living issue-I WOULD PULL HER OUT!

itsmeheather · 01-14-2009, 05:42 AM

Wow... I am sorry your school is not cooperative. I met with my daughters school yesterday and they came up with tons of great ideas for us. I wasn't expecting any of us would know how to help her avoid the ink since no one has dealt with it but the school nurse was great. We will be putting all of her worksheets that are copied into plastic sleeves for right now and she will do them with soy based dry erase markets. The school is switching over to soy toner cartridges for their largest copy machines and they will only copy her papers on there. They will no longer use the same disinfectant on her desk at night - the nurse is going to wash her space with soap and water instead.

I've always know we had a wonderful school and now I really feel blessed. My daughter is also allergic to latex and has been for some time. The school has been wonderful with that as well. She has had a reaction that sent her to the hospital via ambulance so I take her latex allergy pretty serious.

I'm sorry to hear that your school will not do things to help children be comfortable. I was hoping to find some ideas on line to goto the school with to help come up with a plan. I really didn't find a lot but we seemed to come up with a few things to get started and see if we can get her rash better under control. ( as well as the major overhaul we have done at home )

Best wishes to you.