"How Do I Help a Young Child Understand Food Allergies?" - Dr. Scott Sicherer
The responsibilities placed on children to manage their allergy vary by age and individual ability. Children must also prove what they can do to increasingly manage their own safety, in order to allow less supervision and gradually transfer more responsibility. Ultimately, adults should be responsible for children, in case they are reluctant or make an error. Scott Sicherer, MD, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said, “I prefer to introduce these concepts using the phrase like ‘peanut can make you sick, and mommy and daddy don’t want you to be sick.’ This is far less scary than saying, ‘You can die from peanut.’” He added that although your child may be able to communicate their allergies to other, it may be easier, and possibly safer, to teach young children that they should never take food from other children or any adults other than specific adults.
— Scott Sicherer, MD, Professor, Pediatrics, Allergy and Immunology, Chief, Division of Allergy and Immunology in Department of Pediatrics, Director, Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai