Kindergarten birthday party: How to prepare a special cake for children with allergies

Confirm the 100% accurate list of allergens with the parents of children with allergies in advance, customize a hypoallergenic cake that is highly similar in appearance to the main cake of the day, avoid cross-contamination during meal sharing, and take into account the emotional value of the child so that he does not feel that he is an "other".

There have been a lot of controversies in our kindergarten before. Some parents think there is no need to go to such trouble. Just prepare separate portions of dried fruits and biscuits for allergic children that they can eat. This saves money and avoids the risk of allergies.； There are also young teachers who think that making a "special cake" will make other children notice the difference in their children, and they may be teased. It wasn't until something specific happened during Daban Hehe's birthday last fall that everyone slowly came to a consensus. Xiaoyu in the class that time was allergic to wheat and egg milk. At first, the family committee did prepare a separate fruit plate without additives. However, the day before, Xiaoyu’s mother posted a message in WeChat Moments, saying that the child was counting the days until Hehe’s birthday party when he went home. During the last small class activity, he could only watch others eating cakes. When he came back, he painted the painted cake again and again, saying that he wanted to eat the same thing as the children. After seeing it, we quickly discussed with Hehe's mother and found a bakery we often cooperate with to make a 4-inch cake of the same style. It was made of rice flour embryos, oat milk cream, and even the Ultraman decoration on the surface was exactly the same as the big cake. It only cost 38 yuan. When we were dividing the cake that day, we first put Xiaoyu's portion on a separate clean plate and told the children, "This is the exclusive Ultraman hidden version for Xiaoyu. Only brave and not picky children can have it." The other children were all envious. Xiaoyu jumped up and down holding the cake for a long time. When he got home, he asked his mother to send us a photo of him holding the cake.

In fact, the operation is really not that complicated. Our kindergarten has now listed the allergens of all registered children in a separate form. Every time a parent wants to hold a birthday party, it will be sent to it in advance. If you don’t want to customize it individually, it doesn’t matter. We have two or three separate forms in the refrigerator in the health room all year round. The sealed and packaged regular brand hypoallergenic cakes are all free from the eight common allergens. They can be eaten in 20 minutes after taking them out. They look almost the same as ordinary cream cakes, and they cost no extra money from the parents. They are all paid for by the kindergarten's activity funds, and they only cost a few hundred yuan a year.

There is one pitfall that I should like to mention. Something happened in the kindergarten next door. They made separate cakes for children with allergies. As a result, the teacher used a knife used to cut ordinary cakes to cut a small piece for the child. Half an hour after eating, the child couldn't breathe and was taken to the hospital. So we all now require that the meals must be packed first for children with allergies, using separate cutlery and plates, and then handling the ordinary cakes. This cannot be done at all. After all, allergies can be big or small, and serious ones can really be life-threatening.

To be honest, the world of children is very simple. They don’t care if the cake is hypoallergenic. What they care about is whether they can be like their good friends, holding a beautiful cake in their hands, singing happy birthday and blowing out candles together. If we put a little more thought into it, we can preserve the little self-esteem of our children. This is worth more than anything else.