Recently we featured a cartoon by Elizabeth Bostic that illustrated the fraught morning routine of a food allergy-asthma mother. It turns out, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Elizabeth was going through her daughter’s portfolio of recent school work and came across the art work to the left. Sadly, Caitlin’s teacher had reviewed this poignant entry and never brought it up with either parent or school administrators.
The note that the child wrote is sad enough but for a teacher to pass over it and not find it important enough to bring up to a parent is extremely heart wrenching. I think it is a pretty good indicator what our kids are up against in their every day life. I’m so sorry for them. This is a part of the allergy journey that is very hard to deal with because it doesn’t go away but changes as the child gets older and deals with the sadness, bullying and lack of empathy from society. 🙁
Well said, Danielle. As a society, we are unprepared to deal with the isolation and sadness food allergies bring into a child’s world. Unfortunately, food allergies continue to be minimized by many adults whom these children, and their parents, depend on to help them.
I feel for this girl. Sometimes parent fail to see what children are going thru because the school makes things see like they are wonderful and all the segregation is for the safety of the child. What about some empathy? what about eating something that everyone can enjoy? The USA have lost complete sense of community. I am fighting at this very moment for my child to be SAFE and INCLUDED in a city program. It has been extremely hard but gaining ground. We need to fight, fight, fight for both their physical and mental health.