My family has two life threatening allergies plus other allergies (hyper sensitivities). We already have a lot of foods that can't come into the house. It's not as simple as saying it's easy to go peanut free. It's a staple for my family. I also have a non meat eating child who eats peanuts daily. We eat a lot of peanuts and peanut butter. I admit I don't serve peanuts often to the daycare and they have peanut butter about every other month. But the kids above two will have snack that may contain peanuts, I buy a lot of school snacks for my family that has peanuts and give those to the kids sometimes if we are having snack on the run. My family has certain safe foods and it would mean going back and starting to read labels again and getting my family on board.
Maybe if we didn't have our own allergies it might not seem so hard to remove another food from the house. I've never had a peanut free daycare, not served peanuts to children under two, so I've had substitute snacks handy.
But the child has had no more than a rash/hives from eating a large amount of peanuts. The allergist said that the allergy may never become life threatening. The reason is because the testing showed the child is not allergic by smell or touch. They aren't even re testing for 4 years.
Money is tight at the moment and I have 3 spaces out of my 5 coming available soon. Finding children is a nightmare in my area. Been looking 7 months for my sep space and it's still not full. If I terminate 1 more that leaves me with 1 child come jan. So it's not a simple decision. I've seen good caregivers quitting in my area because they can't find children.
I'm torn between trying to make money but my family does not want to go peanut free. That's why I was asking if there is a middle ground especially when the child has been with me a few months and around peanuts the whole time without even a rash.