Allergy New Zealand’s new poster, How to Protect the Lives of Friends with Food Allergies, takes the focus off children with food allergies and puts it on their friends.

“Up till now, the emphasis has been on training school and preschool staff on how to recognise allergic reactions and to treat them. But in actual fact, it’s also the children’s peers who play a key role in keeping kids with allergies safe,” says Allergy New Zealand’s Allergy Educator Sara-Jane Murison.

The key messages Allergy New Zealand wants to get across to children are don’t share food with foodallergic friends, wash hands after eating, ask what your friends are allergic to and help them avoid the things they are allergic to. And if an allergic friend or schoolmate becomes ill, get help immediately.

“Children need simple messages to understand what the risk is and what they can do to minimise it,” Sara-Jane says.

Children with food allergies need to learn from a very early age how to look after themselves, but it is a whole school responsibility. By taking a more community-minded approach and including the child’s classmates, the child is less likely to feel isolated and less likely to be bullied.

“Bullying has been identified as a significant problem for children with food allergies. This often results in kids hiding their allergies and, as a result, they put themselves at risk. This is a particular problem for teens, who don’t want to be seen as being different, and as a result they are the group at highest risk of a fatal reaction.

“We hope this poster can help counter-act this by making allergies a community concern.”

Food allergy has increased so much over the last decade that over one in 20 young children are affected, and Allergy New Zealand estimated every preschool and primary school in New Zealand has at least one sufferer. Research shows this is an epidemic that is not going to go away, and pressure is now on schools to develop good allergy management protocols.

Anaphylactic reactions are also increasing at a similar rate to allergic disease. Australian data suggests one in 166 children have had at least one anaphylactic reaction in the past, with one in six of these happening at school or in childcare.

A study conducted in America revealed that peanut allergy in children has trebled in the last decade. Only a small number of these children will outgrow the condition, so the number of adults with peanut allergy will rise over the next few years. So the education children receive in helping keep allergic schoolmates and friends safe will hopefully carry over as they grow up into helping keep colleagues, partners and friends safe in work and adult social situations.