After 7-yr-old’s death in Chesterfield, food allergies become national topic

The death of a Chesterfield County girl at her public school last week has centered national attention on how parents and schools should contend with child food allergies. One local woman talks about her own experience and helps others find needed information and resources.

January 10, 2012; 8:08 AM • by Nathan Cushing

Parents already strive to limit their children’s consumption of ice cream, cookies, and cake. Concerned about the amount of unhealthy calories, saturated fats, and sugars that their kids ingest, parents will fend off their children when they ask and whine for the sweeter things in life. For some parents, however, these sweets present far more dangerous issues: allergies.

“It’s a constant threat for our children,” says Tiffany Glass Ferreira of Chesterfield County, an art teacher and mother of two. The threat is warranted: between 150 – 200 people die each year due to contact with food allergens. “We can never be too safe.”

Her words carry more poignancy in light of a recent allergy-related death in a Chesterfield County school.

Last week, seven-year-old Amaria Johnson died after suffering from an allergic reaction to peanuts while attending Hopkins Elementary School. It’s thought that Johnson was exposed to a peanut allergen during her recess period. The child’s death sparked national media attention on the subject of food allergies, particularly how schools deal with food allergies among their students.

“Every tragedy rattles us,” said Ferreira, speaking on behalf of herself and her husband in a telephone interview. Her four-year-old son (she and her husband also have a two-year-old daughter) is allergic to tree nuts, eggs, and milk.

Her son’s allergies are so severe that, one day, merely kissing him after enjoying a milkshake was enough to trigger a reaction. “It looked like he was turning into a Klingon,” she says. The most threatening of her son’s allergens, however, are tree nuts. Ferreira uses the phrase “life or death” to describe them.

One of the most common tree nuts is the cashew. About one year ago, her son ate just a “portion of a cashew.” As a result an ambulance was called, and he was given an intravenous drip and a steroid injection.

“It’s panic,” said Ferreira of the particular fear that grips her when her son has an allergic reaction. “It’s as if someone shot me with a gun.” Depending on the amount of tree nuts that her son’s body encounters, ten minutes can decide the boy’s fate. She kept him breathing while an ambulance rushed to her home.

Knowing the severity of her son’s allergies, she and her husband continually practice role playing scenarios with her four-year-old to strengthen his resolve to refuse the food that someone, someday might offer him. Moreover, before attending play dates or birthday parties, Ferreira reminds her son of the potential threat that food poses to him. “There will be food,” she will calmly instruct, as the two walk in. “You can’t touch anything or you will have to go to the hospital.”

While food, particularly the food that her son comes in contact with, occupies so much of her attention and concern, Ferreira deliberately tries “very hard to make everything not about food.” She wants her son to instead fill his childhood with the typical youthful indulgences: friends, sports, and activities.

She said that Richmond is “one of the best places to live with food allergies, despite the recent [Amaria Johnson] tragedy.” She maintains that the best way to learn about food allergies is to “talk to another parent.”

Shortly after Amaria Johnson’s death, Ferreira sought the approval of the Richmond Food Allergy Support Group (RFASG) to publish their resources and ongoing meetings to the web, which she has since done. The first piece of content is a collection of links and sample letters to both national and state legislators regarding food allergy bills that are currently under consideration, including S.1884, known as the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act ¹.

However, despite the constant precautions that she and her husband take as a result of her son’s food allergies, Ferreira does see an upside to her son’s allergens. “It’s taught us to be healthier.”

Before her son was diagnosed with food allergies, Ferreira was largely ignorant of the ingredients that made up her and her family’s diet–to say nothing of healthy eating habits. That’s all changed. She and her family typically consume vegetables, fruits, and homemade bread. “We rely on a lot of vegan cookbooks,” said Ferreira.

Next year, her son will be attending kindergarten in a Chesterfield County public school. Even with the death of Amaria Johnson still on her (and others’) minds, Ferreira is confident in the school system.

“I don’t hesitate to send my son to Chesterfield County,” she said.

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stock photo by stevendepolo

January 10, 2012 8:08 AM 4