I have a five year old dcb with severe allergies to nuts and tree nuts. He was my very first dck, so I really wasn't in the position to say no, because there are alot more providers than clients here, it seems. So far, however, it's been fine. My roommate in university had the same allergy and so does my husband's cousin, so we knew the basics. This boy has to actually ingest it, whereas my husband's cousin can have a reaction just smelling it on someone's breath. The mother said we can have nuts in the house, just not out when he is around.

We've pretty much eliminated peanut butter in our house, because I can't trust my 4 and 5 year olds to not wipe their hands everywhere. I might have some on the weekend, and I only use one knife that is kept separately, I wash it with dishsoap and my fingers so it doesn't get on a cloth or dish scrub brush, I use a paper towel or paper plate that can get thrown out after, etc. It's in my contract that other daycare kids are not to eat peanuts/nuts etc before coming to my house, and not to pack it in their lunches. The whole school is nut-free anyway, so no one has had an issue with that.

I still make sure that they don't share food, just in case another child HAS had nuts recently, and I read the ingredients for everything, and when in doubt, I don't give it to him and ask his mother.

A note to anyone doing this - I've had to call Walmart customer service a couple times about their ingredient lists, and they are not always correct. For example, Walmart brand pancake mix: the original says "may contain nuts," the buttermilk says nothing. I called and asked if the 2 mixes are made in the same facility, was told yes, they are. So both could contain nuts. After that near miss, I essentially don't give him Walmart brand food (cereal, oatmeal, pancake mix, ect). There's enough brands that say nut-free, it's easy enough to find other options.

It's definately work, but we've found it to be an easier transition than we thought. I was also used to it though, and the thought of having to administer his epi-pen, while scary, isn't an unknown to me, so maybe that helped.