PAK is an excellent online resource for parents of children who have allergies. You can learn more about all types of food allergies, keep up with news related to children and allergies, and get help with making your child’s school understand and accommodate for his or her allergies.
As an allergic adult, I really wish there was something like PAK in existence when I was a kid. PAK stands for Protect Allergic Kids. Their mission is “to raise food allergy awareness by promoting education, while providing support to Members and their families”. You don’t necessarily have to be a member in order to access the wealth of information that can be found on their website.
Parents should take a close look at the “Resources/Sample Letters” section before the Summer ends, and school starts again. You can find advice about how to prepare yourself for your child’s IEP, (or other plans). There are examples of letters you can send to various staff in your child’s school to inform them of the allergens that you child needs to avoid coming in contact with. You can find information about how to request a 504 Plan meeting at your child’s school.
There are a lot of other resources and information on this page as well. You can find forms for, or information about, just about everything you would need to know in order to help protect your child at school.
The front page has a list of news articles that link directly to the latest news involving children with food allergies. The site also contains a huge list of food vendors that make foods that are free from certain types of potential allergy triggers, (such as eggs, gluten, milk, nuts, wheat, or soy). You can easily click on a link to find out more about each company, and where to buy their food from.
Parents of children who have severe food allergies can come to the PAK website to find the information or help that they are looking for. This is much easier than spending hours surfing the internet trying to find this sort of thing by yourself.
It’s not easy to be a kid who has food allergies that can make you incredibly sick, (or even cause your death). It’s also stressful to be a parent of a child with severe allergies, who is struggling to keep your child healthy and safe. You aren’t alone, and Protect Allergic Kids can give you some help.
Image by Molly DG on Flickr