Procedure when absent from school because of sickness?

[Debra]

That sounds like our appointment with the allergy specialist, Idun!  The fact that my husband is my son's stepfather and wasn't actually around to witness the history I was describing seemed irrelevant - he still had to repeat it after me!

DD one of my son's allergies is eggs and that is one of those which they can grow out of by around age 11.  The test is to feed him a home made cake made with four times as many eggs as usual.  This is done under close observation in hospital.  They note how long it is before he shows a skin reaction, a hay fever type reaction, or complains of stomach ache and has diarrhoea and vomits.  My son has been through this test once at 11 and his reactions were so violent the hospital said it was unlikely he would ever grow out of the allergy.  No way I want to repeat that experience for him every year, never mind the arms full of skin prick tests. 

For three years I took his lunch into college every day, where he wasn't allowed to eat it  (no packed lunches allowed) but we went for a picnic in the local park, sitting in the car in winter.  This year I lied on the forms.  He has no allergies according to the paperwork.  At 15 he is well aware of what he can and can't eat and what the symptoms are if he accidentally eats something he is allergic to or something he didn't know he was allergic to - and he self treats with his secret supply of antihistamines. 

[NormanH]

I am sorry to hear of the sexism, but not surprised unfortunately.

On the issue of having to see Doctors all the time, as I said above the idea of 'self-certification' when you are off ill doesn't really exist. Adults have to have the 'arrêt de travail' signed by a Doctor that I linked to.

I think that this carries over to children and school. Added to the way in which nurses are not used in France for tasks that they perform perfectly well in the UK and you can see why non-Doctors (or non-French Doctors in DD's Case) are not taken seriously.

There is a certain rigidity in France that puts people into very defined boxes, and if you aren't in the 'right' box you don't count.  At the same time those in the boxes are bitterly defended by those in them already.

[idun]

NormanH said: There is a certain rigidity in France that puts people into very defined boxes, and if you aren't in the 'right' box you don't count. 

I'll have to remember that expression, ''if you aren't in the 'right' box you don't count'.  Thankyou, we've lived with it for the last 20 odd years now, and I've never found a good way of saying it.

[Daft Doctor]

Hi Debra, my son had an egg allergy when he was small, discovered after giving him some eggy bread and confirmed when he was again violently sick within a minute or two of starting a fried egg.  Fortunately, by about age 6 he grew out of it, discovered accidentally when he had some cake at a party and didn't react.  We slowly graded him up to having little bites until we were confident he was ok, then he was chomping omlettes and all sorts, no problem.  In your particular circumstances I think you were wise to say nothing on the paperwork, its absolutely outrageous that the canteen would say they wouldn't feed him but he couldn't eat his packed lunch in school either!  Some of the French seem to think that if you're not out at work all day you've got nothing better to do that queue outside the schoolgates at 11H30 to cart your son/daughter home for 2 hours for lunch.  That hardly promotes independence and social interaction, as well as severely restricting your day.

On that subject, but slightly off topic, its interesting, but we rent out property in the UK to foreign students spending 6 months in the UK as part of a course in their own country.  Without exception, the German boys and girls do all of the contacting, arranging accommodation, paying rents, etc themselves.  With French students however it is always the parents, never the students themselves, even if it is just to report a leaking shower or something.  It is quite a marked difference, which given its consistency can only be a cultural thing or related to upbringing.  Not ideal however for being pitched into the real world!

[NormanH]

I have just re-read Debra's post in which she says 'no packed lunches allowed'

I don't think the establishment have the right to refuse this, but  the family must take full responsibilty:

Comment faire si mon enfant a besoin d’un régime alimentaire particulier ?

Pour mettre en place un régime alimentaire spécifique pour votre

enfant, il est nécessaire de préparer et mettre en œuvre un projet

d’accueil individualisé (PAI). Dans ce cadre, la mise en place de

"paniers repas" doit être favorisée. La famille assure alors la pleine

responsabilité de la fourniture du repas, du conditionnement et du

transport.

This and  answers other things such as your first question on this thread can be found at

http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid52727/mon-enfant-est-au-lycee-questions-reponses.html

As for school meals, allergies etc see here:

http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid90/la-restauration-au-college-et-au-lycee.html

[idun]

Idun at one of her first school council meetings when the cantine was being discussed. 'Well the children could bring a packed lunch'. I may have well said that we'd line them all up and shoot them. When a whole committee is looking daggers at such an innocent question, that is a lot of eyes. Marie-Ellen, a nutritionist by profession announced that children had to eat a hot meal at lunch time in winter, AND it was not equilibre. But I  am a little more imaginative than to accept sweeping statements from a professional......... although everyone else believed that she had cited some universal law, so I said that it was doubtful that eskimos did and it was far colder in the far North. Also, I pointed out that none of them knew what children ate when they went home for lunch and sometimes the cantine was not equilibre either.

I was on a loser; absolutely not possible.

To be honest, I find it astonishing as to how many kids have allergies to food in the UK, and really did not know of one in France. I was on enough school councils for this to become an important subject at some point. I cannot say there are none, as I'm sure that there are, but is there a reason why? I remember when they proscribed aspirin for children in the UK; they were still dishing them out to kids in France, but I wouldn't accept them, as I figured that there was perhaps something 'different' about us brits.  What, I have no idea, although sometimes there really are differences.

[Debra]

Norman putting a PAI in place involves having the annual allergy tests. 

Our college doesn't allow packed lunches on the premises because they consider it to be unsafe to store them in the child's bag, no matter whether they have a cold box or not, and have no facilities to store them in a fridge.  We are free to provide a packed lunch if we bring it to the college at lunchtime and feed it to them off the school premises, taking full responsibility for the process, which I guess fits in with what you quoted!

Idun my eldest has had allergies since his first set of vaccinations as a baby.  I have often wondered if they were what set him off with them or were just the first thing he reacted to.  After those, when I started weaning him from breastfeeding (at 4.5 months because he was quite big and hungry), each time I introduced a new food to him he would react to it.  The second time I gave him that same food the reaction might lessen; in which case I continued to feed it and watch him gradually become desensitized to it - or it might get worse; in which case I stopped feeding it and made a note to try it again at some later stage.  I was very careful with what I fed him and it was only mixed with boiled water or breast milk.  He had no other drinks than breast milk until he was over 14 months old.  He is also allergic to animals such as equines, felines and canines and can experience a systemic reaction to them.  We're finding out now that he possibly has a connective tissue disorder and the allergies may be related to that.  My other sons have no allergies.

[mogs]

A bit off topic I know, but just wanted to say that at our daughter's lycee, the food is disgusting and she rarely eats more than a piece of bread and cheese, comes home starving and it's not cheap either.  I wouldn't mind paying if it was something that was reasonable to eat but it isn't.   Coming home for lunch is out of the picture so we have no choice but to pay up and shut up!

I don't consider that what is offered is healthy, rarely fruit or veg other than epinards and would rather send her in with a packed lunch when I know what goes into it.   A bit of bread and cheese is hardly substantial.

Having discussed this with a number of other parents, both French and English everyone says the same so it's not just a question of being a fussy English student.

[YCCMB]

Of course, it's a million years ago, but when I was a student in France we shared our cantine with the local lycee, so for an academic year I ate what everyone else ate. No going home for lunch, it was a full day's travel to get there.[:D]

I remember rabbit and pasta EVERY Saturday.

Camembert daily...always Camembert. I never saw any other cheese

Lots of soups in winter, always bearing a close resemblance to whatever vegetables had been served the previous day.

I think I played truant from the canteen more than from any lessons.

[NormanH]

I used to eat in the cantine when doing supply teaching about 12 years ago.

I was struck by the fact that the teachers could have wine (I restrained myself)

This may no  longer be the case...

[Kitty]

I teach at a school where the ten or so teachers polish off two bottles of fine wine every lunchtime, over a three course meal.  Most (including the directrice) have one or two glasses but the history/geo teacher, who is in charge of opening and dispensing the bottles, has rather more.

In my 4 or so years there, not one teacher has left.