The Allergy Table - a personal experience

To this day, I still remember having to sit at the 'allergy lunch table' during primary and middle school. Looking back on the experience now, with seven years distancing me from it and a new perspective and insights with regard to my food allergies, I thought it'd be interesting to go back and analyze the insight I gained from it. I hope this article can be a guide for you when deciding if your child with food allergies should sit at the 'allergy table' or the 'regular lunch tables' this upcoming school year.

Allergy tables to some feel like 'protecting a group of people for their own safety and well-being,' and to others, like 'isolating a group of people because they are different.' Both are valid points-of-view for parents of kids with food allergies to have.

Overall, from my personal experience, I felt that the resounding vibe of the 'allergy table' was that of fostering alienation, and if I could go back and change my experience and choose to sit at a 'regular lunch table,' I would. So coming from my own perspective, I feel that 'allergy tables' aren't the best solution, even though they come from a place of good intentions.

For one, it is understandable that parents of kids with food allergies are naturally protective, as I know mine are still to this day. But protection becomes a hindrance when it is overpowering, and the negatives outweigh the positives. Viewing 'allergy tables' from the aforementioned parents' perspective, they seem like a no-brainer choice for where your kid should sit at lunch. The 'allergy table' is most likely the safest environment for kids with food allergies and are the closest thing to what they strive to create as a family at home - a space where the kid feels 100% safe. However, the parent is not the one who's sitting at the 'allergy table' all alone while their friends eat separately. 

This was personally a traumatizing experience looking back on it, as I felt so alienated from my peers at one of the most social times of the day.

It made me almost feel as if my food allergies were something I should be ashamed of and hide since they were proving to be such a hindrance and embarrassment (at the time). I view my allergies in a much different manner now, but for a 10-year-old with little life experience and the most prolific time in my day being lunchtime, it was a big deal.

Even more specifically, I was only allowed to invite one friend a day to sit with me, who also had to pack a safe lunch with nothing in it I'm allergic to, something that was hard to request a fellow 10-year-old to do. To this day, I still feel a particular animosity towards my food allergies, which I think lingers from these formative years. Not being able to have as much fun because I was being safe was something my parents and I were willing to bargain for at the time, but looking back, I wish we hadn't.

I have the privilege of saying that my allergies are not airborne and are enacted mainly by ingesting the food, thus taking a complicated element out of the delicate situation. If I did have life-threatening airborne food allergies, I probably would say that sitting at a dedicated 'allergy table' is the best option, but once again, this is up to your family to decide. Furthermore, it is a decision that should be made with everyone's input, especially the person that will have to be sitting there.

The ‘allergy table’ can be isolating.

Another beef I personally have with 'allergy tables' is that they imply to kids that the world will cater to their food allergies and there will always be a safe table for them to sit at.

Sadly, even though I wish this was the case in the real world, it simply isn't. I feel if I had been given the opportunity and autonomy to handle my food allergies in the lunchroom in these early years, it would have allowed me to become more accustomed to and confident in protocols I now find that I have to do daily to make sure I am eating safely.

Not to mention, integrating into 'regular lunch tables' allows your kid to tell/teach their friends about their food allergies and hopefully help them become more aware of and capable to help others with food allergies in the future.

My final grievance with the 'allergy table' is that people automatically think they're 100% safe for ALL people with food allergies to eat at, but that's not true.

People forget that most people with allergies often have different food allergies (some may overlap, but most don't), and just because your son is allergic to wheat doesn't mean the girl who is sitting across from him at the 'allergy table' isn't eating a sandwich with bread made from gluten (since she's only allergic to dairy).

All around, 'allergy tables' do have many advantageous aspects, and for some, they may be the right choice. But within the confines of my own life, they did more harm than good. So next time the school asks if you want your kid to sit at the 'allergy table,' I ask that you take into account more than just your child's perceived physical safety.

Think about your student's social emotional learning and what they will need to be successful with food allergies later in life. I believe this is a decision that should be made with equal input from the parents and the kid. In an ideal world, schools would teach about food allergies, and peers would be well aware of how to avoid cross-contact between their food and their classmates who is allergic to it; we aren't there yet, but it doesn't mean we can't start trying.