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Deep Sh**
I am a new provider and today my assistant (AKA sister) gave a dcg who is allergic to peanuts a peanut butter granola bar. She had one bite and had no visible reaction in the hour and thirty minutes it took for her mom to pick her up. Her mom was livid and shouted at us as soon as she walked in the door. Then she took both of her kids and left. I feel terrible! I really don't know what to do. I just wanted to know if any of you had to deal with this before? If so what did you do and did the parents take legal action against you? Did you get licensing called on you?
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I would count on a visit from licensing. This is no small thing, it could have been deadly in the right circumstances. Why did your assistant not know this child couldn't have peanut butter? I would have pulled my kids also honestly. You could have some legal issues, that depends on the parents. The first thing I would do now to show I was trying to take care of the matter, is fire the assistant effective immediately. -
Yes, you could absolutely get a licensing visit. Protocol for allergen exposure is notify the parents, watch for symptoms, administer the child's prescribed epipin if the child has a severe allergic reaction, and call ems. I'm guessing the allergy falls in the mild-moderate range since the child did not suffer a reaction. If she was going to have a reaction, she would have within the first 30 minutes.Comment
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I hope you had mom sign an incident report.
I would call licensing and tell them what happened. I would get all my ducks in a row (signed incident report, your measures for how this will be prevented in the future, etc). Then I would fire your assistant.Comment
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Successful legal issues are unlikely. No injury=difficult case. My son's physician failed to clean debris from a wound and accidentally stiched him up with the debris in his leg. He had to have surgery to remove it two weeks later. I was lived and our lawyer told us that since our son wasn't injured by the debris (eg: no infection) that there was basically no good case. The parents may still be livid, but the good news is that dcg is completely fine.Comment
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I'm surprised it took mom an hour and 30 minutes to pick up! Do you have documentation from a Dr noting her allergies? If I took a child with a severe nut allergy I don't think I would even have those food items available in my house for safety.Comment
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I am so glad the child is ok. I have a child with a peanut allergy, so I understand why mom would be worried and upset, even mad. I do not see how there would be grounds for legal action because the child is unharmed. You probably do need to be able to show licensing your "emergency action plan" and how it was followed (i.e., removed allergen, watched for symptoms, called parents, had plan to administer epi and call 911 at first signs of symptoms; steps to reduce chance this happens again and a plan to re-train your assistant)Comment
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It is both concerning that the child consumed peanuts and that it took 90 minutes for pick up to occur. Start making a plan to ensure a repeat does not occur and to show that you took what happened very seriously. Also have a plan in place to have the child picked up and checked out in a much more timely fashion.Comment
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I would definitely expect a visit from licensing and probably a citation having to do with safety. I would start making a plan now about how you are going to prevent this issue from happening again in the future. Something like posting a list of children with allergies in your meal prep area and if you can eliminating all peanut products from the daycare kids diets altogether and locking up or storing peanut products in a separate area so that someone doesn't accidentally feed an allergenic food to one of the daycare kids. If you make a plan now and make changes before licensing comes it will show that you are being proactive and will look good on your part.
As far as being sued by the parents I doubt that they will be able to sue for anything unless they took their child to the doctors and they want you to cover medical expenses that their insurance doesn't cover (like copays, any amount their insurance won't cover etc.) and you refuse to pay it. If the DCG wasn't hurt or didn't need medical attention then they will probably only be able to contact licencing. The report to licensing might cost you money if they issue you a citation or if licensing wants to suspend or revoke your license and you need to get an attorney but that's hard to say because it all depends on your state's regulations.Comment
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Do you have a doctor's note saying the kid has a peanut Allergy? Do you know how she was tested?
I can't imagine a parent of a peanut Allergy kid taking 90 minutes to get an adult to your house.
Do you have an epi pen for the kid?
I have been hearing of cases where parents claim a nut allergy and have no documentation of it. They have a relative who has it and don't want their kid to have nuts in case.
I require not only a doctor's note saying the allergy but also documentation of when and how the child was tested. I need a copy of the paperwork for the test and results.Comment
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While I agree that this was a big mistake. At the same time take it seriously but realize, the biggest thing is that the child is OK! There is always a worst mistake that could have been made. Mistakes will happen. If this makes you feel any better my sister is a medical laboratory scientist and she recently misdiagnosed a patient. She told the doctor that the results came back positive for HIV....she read the test wrong and the doctor had to call patient back. She was in big trouble. Again yes a big mistake...you never know if the news could have been so devestating that the patient commit suicide...ect. On the other hand she didn't give misinformation about an immediate blood transfusion and kill someone.
My point being...yes big mistake...BUT it could have been worse.Comment
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It is in my handbook for doctors note as well. Never thought of asking for test results. I wouldn't take a child with a severe peanut allergy, we use it a lot in our home. But still some allergy could always happen. I know you are in the loop in legal stuff NannyDe, so the question is, is there any legal problem here?Comment
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I don't think a parent would put their kid through deprivation of not being able to have what their peers can have, the exhaustion of reading every label or the expense of one of these dietary restrictions on their budget just to be "trendy". If so, then that is just cruel on the parents' part. As a diagnosed celiac, it really bothers me when people assume diet "trends" in this nature.Comment
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