In this installment of Allergic Living’s Megan’s Minute video series, food allergy mom Megan Lavin takes on – how to find and train a babysitter.
When your child has severe food allergies, finding a good babysitter gets complicated. As Megan notes, there’s a lot to know about what foods are safe, the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis, and when and how to give an epinephrine injection. And whether the caregiver being considered is a responsible teen or an adult, the person needs to be willing to use the epinephrine auto-injector, just in case it’s needed.
Megan is well-versed on this topic – since she and her family have moved seven times, and have gone through the task of locating good babysitting several times. She and her husband have four kids, two of whom have multiple food allergies. So Megan understands the issues specific to leaving a food-allergic child in another’s care.
6 Key Steps in the Video:
- Megan covers how and where to network, in order to locate a promising sitter.
- With a teenage babysitter, why you also reach out to that person’s mother to explain the food allergy situation and about epinephrine.
- How babysitting “trades” with other parents can work.
- Megan’s tricks to both train and “ease into” babysitting.
- If food will be served to the child/children, how to simplify that and keep things safe.
- Tech tools that can help kids reach out – if they need mom.
At the start of the video, Megan, whom you likely know from her blog Allergy Awesomeness, also covers the “why” of leaving your allergic kids in someone else’s care. Although there is work and stress involved in finding the right sitter, Megan makes the case for ‘date night’.
She believes it’s important for spouses to nurture their own relationship through time for just the two of you. Ultimately, she sees this benefit the family as a whole.
As Megan observes: “If we take care of our relationship, we notice the energy trickles down everywhere else in the home.”
Megan Lavin is the creator of the Allergy Awesomeness blog, which features great Top-8 free recipes and articles. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
More videos from Megan:
Food Allergy Mom’s Advice On: Creating a School 504 Plan
Food Allergy Mom’s Advice on Soccer, Snacks and Allergy Safety
Allergy Mom’s Take: Oral Food Challenges Are Worth the Stress
