Teach him how to use a crockpot and bulk cook, then he can cook and freeze and not have to cook very frequently. Just thaw and reheat.
Oh my gosh. So much great information. My daughter will be heading out to college in the fall with food allergies and asthma as well. Does anyone have first hand experience with UCONN and food allergies?
âThe roommate became malicious about it and would deliberately smear peanut butter on handles and washcloths in the room hoping to get D to have a reaction because she said she was âfaking itâ.â
Some people should just be shot. Iâm sorry your D had to go through that.
Mom2aphysicsgeek, yes those are great ideas, I also considered getting a rice cooker and a grill plate for quick and easy mealsâŠthis means he cannot live in the dorm but we will have to get an apt for him. I am concerned about him living alone in an apartmentâŠuntil he can find some one to share the apartment, then it may work out. But as a freshman he will not find a room mate easily.
Your ds has a lot of allergies which intermingle across multiple foods groups. It is probably going to be next to impossible for him to ensure no cross contamination without almost the equivalent of a personal chef. Isolating 1 groupâŠnuts or peanuts or dairy or eggsâŠis typically what you find available. Finding daily variety covering all of those constantlyâhow bad are his allergies? Our dsâs throat swells and he canât breathe. I used to cook separate dishes of food for him and prepared food on a separate surface when he lived at home. Living alone would have been less dangerous for him than eating food prepared on campus. But our ds didnât end up alone, he had roommates.
Have you contacted the schoolâs housing dept? They might have roommate searches available for off-campus housing. If you are a member of a church, a local church group might be able to help. We are Catholic, and most campuses have a Newman Center or other on campus presence. I would not hesitate to reach out to a group like that for assistance in finding housing or roommates. (Some Newman Centers even have rooms that they rent out to students.)
Okay, time to take a deep breath.
Yes your son will likely have problems. A lot of kids do even the super healthy. However you need to keep a perspective. I assume your son has a cell phone. He can reach you 24/7 if needed. RAs are trained to provide help in a medical emergency. He will survive. I speak from experience. It can be tough be on the other end of the phone when your kid is being taken to the ER due to breathing problems. However, he will likely surprise you and handle it well. We came close to doing a medical withdrawal but so far she survived.
My daughter has chemical sensitives that trigger her asthma. She had little issues with a shared bath on a tradition dorm floor. She learned quickly when the showers are not used and avoids peak showering times. That would be harder to do in a suite setting where there are small common areas (like a small common hall). I would suggest a single room that is located away from the bathroom. Single rooms can be more isolating so your son will need to make a effort to be social. However, you do avoid the roommate drama. What concerned us about roommates is what happens when the roommateâs friends or SO are not willing to avoid your sonâs triggers. Really canât expect that from people. Roommates maybe but not others.
As for the distance issue, you need to take a realistic view of the risks. If you son can eat take out food or is willing and able to cook then food should be manageable. If the allergies are so severe that you need to supply food from home, then 5 hours away could be pushing it. As for the asthma issues, they can be managed if your son has the maturity to take control of his health. If he doesnât (unwilling to avoid triggers, forgets to take medicine, wonât get medical help when needed) then I would rethink having him that far away.
I would STRONGLY recommend living in the dorms the first year for social and support (RA, being able to easily get to campus health center, point to point services) reasons. Freshman year can be a tough adjustment time. Having health issues adds to that. Having to deal with an apartment and possibly being isolated would not be good as a freshman. While having an apartment is idea for controlling your environment, you need to consider issues like how does he get to class and the health center. If he needs to take a bus or walk, can he handle the cold air and the humid spring air? If he is having minor breathing issues, could he do it. We opted for dorm living since the dorms (as part of the disability accommodations) are very close to the classrooms.
I am in your shoes. We put a distance limit on the college search. The top pick was turn down partly for that fact. I hated doing it but that was our reality. You need to determine what is best for your son. Based on what you wrote, 5 hours away sounds doable but I donât know you son.
This is a tough thing to balance. You need to be realist and be willing to let go. Most kids step up to the challenge when they have no other choice.
Sorry for the long post but we are dealing with the same issues and I felt the need to point out some of the issue we missed the first year.
Adding to the above, if your son plans on relaying on public transportation make sure that the fumes from the bus will not cause a problem. Take a few bus rides (on the school system) and see how it works out. Sounds silly but better to find out now.
Something not a lot of people think about is the social aspect of it. Itâs hard enough on these kids that they canât order pizza or just relax and eat at a buffet with their friends. Many of them are embarrassed and donât like to cause a fuss when somethingâs wrong, so they just go without.
My daughter has Celiac & canât have gluten. She attended an honors scholars overnight at a school recently that has on their website that they can accommodate gluten-free diets, but we found when we got there that reality was very different. We spoke together with the head & sous chef, and although they couldnât swear there wouldnât be any cross contamination they said everything was very clearly labeled, they used best practices in the kitchen and had dedicated utensils, etc. Usually understanding how important it is is 99% of the battle, and I felt comfortable enough to leave her.
It turned out that she had some lettuce and a hard boiled egg for dinner, and some cereal for breakfast, and was starving by the time I picked her up. She said there was pretty much nothing she could eat. We had to cross that college â which was otherwise her favorite â off the list immediately.
Great discussion, and thank everyone for sharing their experiences and tips. My sonâs asthma is triggered by cold air, strong smells, dust, old musty clothes/books and of course exercise. He passed his milk challenge and baked egg challenge as early as four weeks ago. So that has made a HUGE difference!! He tasted great chocolate for the first time and ate cheesecake and loves takeout pizza!! Food is certainly intermingled with all our social interactions, and I am so grateful we have been able to strike a few things off his list.
His allergist agreed to an egg challenge next month altho the numbers were slightly high. We are keeping fingers crossed. The rest of the foods - peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, sesame and chickpeas are too high.
One thing that concerns me is that sesame and chickpeas are not commonly flagged as allergens, altho usually the allergy to these is very high. Also this past week during a tour at Penn State, I realized my son did not know that Tahini was composed of sesame. Also he did not know garbanzo was another name for chickpeas. So I will need to make a list of other names for his allergens. Does anyone know of a database that has other names for allergens that I can borrow from?
We have limited his college options to no more than 5-6 hours away from home, and ofcourse he picks the furthest one! I wish he gets into Case Western which is only 2.5 hrs away for usâŠhe is wait listed there. But for now we are focused on evaluating Virginia Tech tomorrow.
So after reading all the comments, I feel it would be unfair to put him in an apt. where he will be isolated. We will work with the Student Disability Office and Dining services to best address our needs. Also feel we have kept him so protected for so long, he really has never had to use his epi-pen. I am not sure how he will manage and know when to use to it.
Each meal for these kids is liking walking through a minefieldâŠyou never know where the danger is lurking. I am sure I will be wreck for the a long time worrying each day.
Going to meet staff at V-Tech tomorrow, will update on the weekend.
I just found out that the dining hall at Tulane is 100% nut free. Makes it so much easier when there are no nuts in the dining room or kitchen.
Wow!! Great news about Tulane. Wish there were more schools that had dedicated nut free dining halls. @supermom2 my daughterâs allergist directed me to FAREâs website years ago. They have laminated cards the size of credit cards that you can carry for each allergen listing other names, common foods, etc. It was helpful for my daughter to refer to.
Wellesley has a nut-free dining hall though students are allowed to have peanut butter in their rooms (provided no roommate issues, of course).
Peebers, if that school was a favorite, I think it might have been possible to make the experience at the college work out. It is a shame it was crossed off the list.
Living off campus is probably not a good idea for the first year.
I myself have multiple food allergies and my daughter has celiac, diabetes and a few other serious health issues. Please believe me this can work out. I think the real issue may be educating your son on how to be careful.
Think positive but always consider worst case scenarios preventatively. Thatâs my mantra.
In our experience, many schools really are good with this stuff. Liability concerns are a factor.
Does your son do a peak flow meter? Is he on inhaled steroids? Does he have a nebulizer?
Okay a few more suggestions.
Regarding the Epi-pen, You son needs to know how and when to use it. He has to understand how important it is to seek immediate medical help even if he thinks he has fully recovered by using the Epi-pen. We have struggle with the âwhenâ issue. It really is a judgement call when you are asthmatic since throat tightening and shortness of breath can be a daily occurrence at times. I would have a talk with your doctors about this issue.
Do you have prescriptions and a supply of nebulize type medicine (pulmicort, duoneb, Xopenex, albuterol, etc) if you need them? My daughter carries a battery operated nebulizer at all times along with medicine since she cannot use inhalers. It is completely silent and extremely portable. She cannot use inhalers.
Look to see if your school has a point to point type car service. Cold air for early morning classes can be rough. Might be wise to avoid these until you see how your son does. Disability might be able to arrange for priority registration if this is a concern.
Talk to disability/housing about getting a room close as possible to the classrooms. Freshman dorms are often the furthest from the classrooms. You might need to consider an upperclassman dorm. Far from ideal but worth considering.
All this sound scary and it is but most of what you posted can be managed. The nice thing about a large school like Virginia Tech is that it has the resources and a well staffed health center that should be able to deal with your sonâs medical issues.
So after visiting schools, I have concluded they have some systems in place where by the menus have a nutritional breakdown, with the 8 major allergens identified. But for a few allergens which we are looking for like Chickpeas and Sesame are not identified. Most campus dining dieticians want the student to meet with them once a week and go over the menu and select what they can eat. Then the chef will prepare those foods separately to prevent cross contamination. The student needs to communicate clearly and stay in regular touch with the chefs and dieticians to make it a safe place for their meals.
Youtube has some good videos about how to use an epi-pen.
D knows that use of epipen=911 call, no exceptions. The secondary reaction can set in as long as 24 hours after the initial reaction. Typically weâll keep her on benadryl for a day or two afterwards just to keep her immune system quiet, although (knock wood) she hasnât had a reaction for years because sheâs careful.
Some schools also post menus each week that list every ingredients in each meal. It is worth checking to see if the chefs like to put some ingredients in everything (such as pepper or margarine (soy)).We ran into this at our school which eliminated almost everything on the menu. Occasionally, mistakes were made in the specially prepared food since the habit of adding these was so ingrained.
I would suggest sitting down with your son and finding out if he is wiling do what it takes. After a while, my daughter got tired of fighting the system. A friendâs son with celiac couldnât resist the ice cream machine and ended up have to take a medical withdrawal due to illness due to cross contamination issues.
Your son can make this work but it does take work and the willingness to speak up.
Me and my daughter have a corn allergy so I always afraid that she eats something with corn in school.
http://stopallergyguide.com/corn-allergy/
I teach her all about allergy - what she need to do if she has allergy attack. Also I always remind her to read menus very carefully.
@negirl508 I came across this article about the top gluten-free campuses that mentions UConn specifically in regards to gluten free issues. If they are tuned in on that issue, I am guessing that they are accommodating in other ways. http://udisglutenfree.com/2013/05/02/the-top-10-gluten-free-campuses/
@MotherOfDragons OMG what a beastly human being⊠who raised such a heathen???