FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK
FACTSHEET
Playgroups
and food sharing
Failsafers often comment about the problems of taking food intolerant
children to playgroup. It’s hard to keep a child on a restricted diet while
surrounded by endless temptations of non-failsafe food and for children with
true life-threatening allergies, it can be even more of a nightmare. But you
don’t have to avoid playgroups. The aim of playgroups is caring and sharing and
while all groups are autonomous and work differently, some groups are prepared
to work together to help their members. For many children, a few simple
guidelines can make the difference between avoiding or enjoying playgroup.
A word of warning: not all playgroups will agree to change. That is
their right. Be prepared to compromise, or to try several playgroups.
Members of the failsafebaby group have contributed to this factsheet.
They have many years of playgroup experience between them, so if you want join
in the discussion, you can join, see below.
Background: true allergies
Peanut allergies are considered to be the most deadly of all allergies,
accounting for about half of all allergy-related deaths. For some children,
playing with a toy previously touched by a child with peanut butter on his or
her hand could be a death sentence. Some children are so sensitive that even
the smell of peanuts can be fatal. As a result, some childcare centres with nut
allergic young children have declared themselves a nut-free zone.
Peanuts are not the only problem food for children. Other common
allergens include eggs, milk, soy and fish. There are also other types of food
sensitivity. Increasing numbers of children and adults are diagnosed with
coeliac disease, a sensitivity to the gluten in wheat, barley, rye and
contaminated oats. Coeliacs need to avoid gluten in products such as bread,
biscuits, cakes, thickeners, crumbed products, breakfast cereals, malt and many
others.
Background: food intolerance
As well as true food allergies and coeliac disease, which can be
diagnosed by laboratory tests, children can be affected by intolerances to
chemicals in food, including certain food additives (see box) and – a big
surprise for most families - natural food chemicals in some ‘healthy’ foods
including fruit and cheese. Reactions to food chemicals are related to dose, so
as the amount of additives increase every year in processed foods, we should
expect more children to be affected - and that is what appears to be happening.
Compared to true allergic reactions, which generally occur within 30
minutes, effects of food intolerance are slow. Reactions are usually delayed by
at least a few hours and up to a few days, or they can build up over several
weeks if small doses are eaten frequently, so parents rarely realize the cause
of their children’s problems until they trial a low chemical elimination diet
to find out exactly which foods affect their children.
The most misunderstood and overlooked of all food effects, food
intolerance tends to run in families, affecting parents, children and breastfed
babies and often remaining undiagnosed.
Some symptoms of food
intolerance
• sleep disturbance in babies, toddlers and adults including
difficulty settling to sleep, frequent waking, insomnia, night terrors or
restless legs syndrome
• frequent tantrums or temper outbursts, mood swings or
grizzly, unhappy, defiant, oppositional, grumpy or angry behaviour, silly
noises, restlessness, depression, anxiety and panic attacks, unexplained
tiredness.
• itchy skin rashes, hives, eczema, nappy rash
• airway problems including stuffy or runny nose, frequent cough
or throat clearing, frequent colds and flu, sinus and asthma
• gut problems including reflux in babies or adults, stomach
aches, bloating or discomfort, bedwetting, mouth ulcers, toddler diarrhea,
‘sneaky poos’, constipation and/or diarrhoea, and ‘a feeling of incomplete
evacuation’ that can resemble constipation
• headaches and migraines
For children who are food intolerant, a wide range of foods may have to
be avoided, from junk food to ‘healthy’ foods including most fruit and some
vegetables. Some of the worst foods for food intolerant children are sultanas,
dried fruit bars, fruit yoghurt, orange juice, tomato paste and Vegemite,
chocolate and cheese.
Most of these items contain high levels of salicylates that are natural
pesticides in plants. Kids’ diets these days are much higher in salicylates
than they were forty years ago, partly through high concentrations in processed
foods such as juice and strong fruit flavours and partly because supermarket
fruits and vegetables that have been developed to have long shelf-life are
picked firm and unripe, when salicylates are at their highest. Natural food
chemicals called amines in cheese and chocolate can also be a problem.
Touching and inhaling are
problems too
Foods are not the only source of worrisome chemicals. Salicylates and
other chemicals can be absorbed through the skin from craft items such as
paints and playdough, and inhaled though scented perfumes, airfresheners and
cleaners.
Effects can last three weeks
Some children have both food allergies and intolerances. To my surprise,
some of the mothers I talk to say that although their children’s food allergies
are life-threatening and frightening, they find food intolerance reactions most
difficult to live with. ‘With allergy, it’s a quick reaction, you treat it with
antihistamines or an adrenalin pen, and you can get on with your life’, says
Nelida from the failsafebaby group, ‘but with food intolerance, the reaction
doesn’t even start until long after you’ve left playgroup and you have to live
with this whiny, clingy, sleepless child for the next week or more.’
For Suse from failsafebaby, asthma is the major issue. If her two year
old son eats salicylates or additives at playgroup, they have to live with
three weeks of asthma
Some playgroup guidelines
Between them, Nelida and Suse have suggested the following guidelines.
Since children with allergies and intolerances have different problems, what
works for one may not be necessary for another.
* Food containment – there is a dedicated time and place for morning
tea, eating is supervised and cleaned up afterwards. At Nelida’s playgroup,
this includes handwashing for all children.
* Playgroup members avoid perfume.
* Safe craft items. See the recipe (box) for gluten free, colour free
playdough. Sometimes the mother of the affected child provides safe playdough
for the entire group. Rubber, not latex, gloves can be used for finger
painting.
* For a peanut allergy consider banning nuts, including peanuts, peanut
butter, Nutella and nut-containing snacks such as biscuits or fruit and nut
bars.
Parties are another minefield. Since most food sensitive children can
manage sugar, there are safe party foods such as homemade cakes, honeycomb,
marshmallows and cordial with suitable ingredients. Suse’s playgroup has been
exceptionally creative about providing support. When the mother of a
two-year-old baked a Spot the Dog birthday cake, a separate chocolate-free,
colour-free, gluten-free cake in the shape of Spot’s bone was provided for
Jack.
It can take some effort, but establishing a safe playgroup is worthwhile
for the child. Jan from failsafebaby had struggled with the diet for nearly a
year till she finally figured out her son Dan was OK in the holidays, and it
was the resources at playgroup – such as playdough – that were causing her
son’s problems. ‘At one point I thought I’d need to stop him going to
playgroup’, she commented, ‘but we got there in the end, and he had another
couple of enjoyable years.’
Some craft suggestions from
Jan:
* Things that were easy to make, I provided for the whole Playcentre
with so he wasn’t different. I coloured
playdough (see recipe below) with red-cabbage juice (blue) or the same with
citric acid (pink). Adding glitter makes it fun.
* Things that are partly fun because they’re messy, like finger paints,
I covered him up, and got the smallest rubber gloves I could order - I know
some have a problem with latex, but we don’t.
* Some things like dyes or texta felt-tip pens, I just forbade as they
seem to be absorbed instantly into the skin, and can’t be washed off no matter
how soon.
* I trained him, trying to tread a fine line between taking all the fun
out of it, and a sensible care about going to wash off any spills on his skin
straight away.
* The white PVA craft glue has never been a problem, though flour glue
is easily made if necessary.
* I have been given a wonderful little set of watercolours, made in
Others also suggest that safe paints can be made from the natural colours
listed above, as well as from beetroot juice or saffron (yellow).
A gluten-free playdough recipe
This playdough has a commercial texture and will last about one week.
Refrigerate when not in use.
½ cup rice flour
½ cup corn flour or glutinous
rice flour
½ cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Place all ingredients in a saucepan, mix well and bring to the boil,
stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook, stirring, for three minutes or until
the mixture forms a ball. – recipe from
Ruth of the failsafebaby group
More information and support
To join the failsafebaby email discussion group: email
"subscribe" to failsafebaby-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Information about true allergy: www.allergyfacts.org.au
Food Intolerance Network playgroup factsheet: www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/factsheets/playgroup.htm
Fed Up and The Failsafe Cookbook by Sue Dengate, published by Random
House.
Nasty additives
COLOURS Artificial colours and natural colour
annatto (160b) in a wide range of foods
PRESERVATIVES
200-203 sorbates (in margarine, dips, cakes, fruit
products)
210-213
benzoates (in juices, soft drinks, cordials, syrups)
220-228 sulphites (in dried fruit, drinks, sausages,
many others)
280-283 propionates (in bread, crumpets, bakery
products)
249-252 nitrates, nitrites (in processed meats like
ham)
SYNTHETIC ANTIOXIDANTS in
vegetable oils, margarines, softened butter, fried foods, frozen chips, not
always on the label. Antioxidants 300-309 are safe
310-312 Gallates
319-320 TBHQ, BHA, BHT
FLAVOUR ENHANCERS
the 600 numbers in tasty foods, fast foods, snack foods
621 MSG (also HVP, a natural form of
glutamates)
627, 631,
635 Ribonucleotides (can be associated
with itchy skin rashes)
ADDED FLAVOURS
There are thousands of man-made flavours that don’t have numbers and don’t
have to be identified by number because they are considered to be trade
secrets.
www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info
The information given is not intended as medical advice. Always consult
with your doctor for underlying illness. Before beginning dietary
investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food intolerance.
update July 2005
