All about Allergens training for education and care services

Recent media reports have highlighted increasing rates of infants and young children presenting to emergency departments with anaphylaxis, the most severe form of allergic reaction. 

Did you know that food allergy is common in Australia, affecting around one in 10 infants and one in 20 school age children? Even if your service does not have a child with known food allergy enrolled, it is possible that a child might have their first allergic reaction while at the education and care service.

Anaphylaxis training is important so that educators and other staff can recognise signs of an allergic reaction and know what to do if a child has an allergic reaction, including severe reactions. Anaphylaxis training should include hands on practice with adrenaline injector trainer devices. Trainer devices which do not contain adrenaline or a needle are available for both AnapenÒ and EpiPenÒ. It may be useful to consider practising at a team meeting where a review and reflections about the policies and procedures that include managing an anaphylaxis event may occur. 

For food allergy, safe food preparation and handling will reduce the risk of a child being given a food that they are allergic to. Food allergen management training is not included in anaphylaxis training courses. However, the National Allergy Council has developed All about Allergens for Children’s Education and Care online training. It is recommended that all educators and staff who are involved in preparing and serving food and drinks and/or supervising mealtimes, including any snacks, complete the Food Allergy Aware training.

A quick and easy way to make sure your service has good practices to help prevent allergic reactions, including all educators and staff being confident and ready to respond to any allergy emergency, is to embed training into your induction processes and regular team meetings. Consider upskilling your service to go beyond the minimum legislative first aid requirements towards best practice in allergy prevention by including specialised food allergy training to complement the anaphylaxis training educators and staff already must have.

Here are some resources to discuss at your team meetings and add to your inductions.

Short animations < 1 minute:

• Learn about which foods cause allergic reactions 
• Learn how to read a food label for food allergens
• Learn about what an allergic reaction looks like
• How to give an adrenaline injector – AnapenÒ and EpiPenÒ
• How to position someone having an allergic reaction.

Longer training: 

• Complete the free All about Allergens e-training for Children’s Education and Care.

For more information about the National Allergy Council’s Best practice guidelines for anaphylaxis prevention and management in Children’s Education and Care (including Outside School Hours Care) visit www.allergyaware.org.au.