Food Allergy Resources

Hiring a New Baby Sitter for Your Food Allergic Child

November, 2005

By Linda Marienhoff Coss

Pay the sitter to come over for an hour or two prior to the day when she will be staying alone with your children for the first time. Use this time for you and your children to get to know her, and to go over all of the emergency training. You should do the following:

• Have the sitter read your written emergency instructions


• Discuss your written emergency instructions in detail.



• Have the sitter practice using the EpiPen® by using an EpiPen® trainer.



• Show the sitter what your emergency medicine pack looks like and where it is kept.



• Show the sitter where you keep your emergency contact information. Make sure that this information includes the number for your mobile phone or beeper (if you have one) as well as the names and phone numbers of nearby friends and neighbors who are willing to be called if needed.


• Show the sitter the script for calling the rescue squad that you keep by the phone.


• Show the sitter where all of your regular first aid supplies are kept.


• Explain to the sitter that she cannot bring ANY food into your home. If she gets hungry, she can help herself to the "safe" food that is in the house.


• Ask the sitter to wash her hands with soap just prior to coming over to your home.

Copyright (c) 2004, Linda Marienhoff Coss, all rights reserved.

Excerpted with permission from "How to Manage Your Child's Life-Threatening Food Allergies: Practical Tips for Everyday Life" by Linda Marienhoff Coss.
More information about this book can be found in KFA's Allergy Book Shop.

Reviewed by KFA Medical Advisory Team August 2005