Use of enzymes for school

[Guest guest]

I have written some information and ideas for you if your child will

be using enzymes at school. I hope this is helpful.

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If your child attends a public school under an IEP, or a private

school as a public placement under an IEP, then the best thing is to

include in the IEP any diet/supplement/enzyme/medication issues. Most

parents of younger children use the words " parent provided food only "

for gfcf issues. If language addressing your child's specific

situation is included in the IEP, the school is required to follow it.

If it is not in the IEP, the school may or may not be accommodating

of your desires in this area, and even if the school is accommodating,

it is not required to do so.

My opinion regarding the use of enzymes, is that I think the best way

to give them to your child during school hours is to freeze them into

ice cubes and then put those cubes into a juice container, or dissolve

the enzymes right into the juice and then just partially freeze the

juice itself. This avoid all the hassles of the school nurse etc, and

your child is not singled out by his friends for any special

requirements like going to the school nurse before lunch, and does not

have his instructional time interrupted.

If you would like your child to take the enzymes as capsules, and your

school has a non-prescription medication form, then request that form

and complete it for the use of the enzymes you use. You need to do

this even if your child has an IEP. Because most school nurses will

not be familiar with enzymes or their uses, it would be wise to attach

to this form copies of the supplier's ingredient lists, usage

information, and instructions for consumption. You would provide the

bottles of enzymes to the nurse in their original containers, along

with the forms and attachments indicating why your child needs them,

when s/he needs to take them, how much to take, and how to take them.

Remember that it appears to take some enzyme capsules approximately 30

minutes to dissolve, so your child would have to go to the nurse

approximately 30 minutes before lunch began, to take the enzymes.

This in my opinion is not the best option, because it singles out your

child for " different " treatment, and your child may be teased by other

children for special treatment, either good or bad. Plus it does

disrupt his class hour immediately before lunch, making it likely that

he will have difficulty learning the material which is interrupted.

This is also not a good idea if your child has transition

difficulties, to leave the classroom, return, then leave again.

You can request that the nurse perform and/or assist your child to

open the capsules and mix the contents with something to take

immediately before lunch begins. This to me is preferable to leaving

class early, then returning, then going to lunch as usual. However,

it does pose its own problems, primarily that many nurses will not

consider " tampering " with the capsules as something desirable or

within the scope of their licenses.

A school cannot object to you wanting your own children to consume

something that is not illegal, but the school will be concerned about

the idea that another child might accidentally or intentionally

consume some also. However, if your school is requiring a

prescription or other physician approval for enzymes, which are a

non-prescription item, and the non-prescription medication form is not

acceptable to your school for whatever reason, first ask for that

policy in writing. Then you can use a letter similar to this one, if

for some reason you are unable/unwilling to obtain a physician notice.

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[Name], as parent/legal guardian of [child's name] require my child to

consume [name of enzyme or whatever] at the beginning of lunchtime [or

whenever you specify]. This [name of enzyme or whatever] is a

non-prescription legal food supplement which is approved for

distribution in the United States by the FDA. I am attaching

information from the manufacturer/distributor [name of mfgr/distrib]

on [name of product] which includes (1) the nature and purpose of why

I am requiring my child/ren to consume this product, (2) a statement

of the " dosage " recommendations/requirements of this product specific

to the requirements of my children, and (3) a statement that this

product has been tested and it is not known to have any negative

effect in the unlikely possibility that another child accidentally

ingests this product.

I believe school policy would be to have this product [name of enzyme]

provided to my child/ren through the school nurse, but if this is not

a correct understanding of the school policy, then it is my decision

that I shall be providing this product to my children in their

lunches, and they will be responsible for consuming it at the

appropriate time. I will provide only a single day's portion of the

product, and I will instruct my children that they are not permitted

to share it with the other children.

Please let me know the school policy, whether the school nurse shall

be responsible for providing this product to my children, or whether

my children shall be responsible themselves for consuming it. If I do

not hear back from you, I will assume that school policy is NOT to

have this product provided to my child/ren through the school nurse,

and I will take the action as I have described above.

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If you find it necessary to provide the enzymes to your children and

NOT through the school nurse, give copies of all this correspondence

to the school secretary and require that it be included in your

child's file. This is important for zero-tolerance policies, in case

your child is found on campus with something which looks like drugs,

you will have a lot of explaining to do, which will be verified by

your child's file, and altho you will have a fight on your hands, your

child should not be required to accept an involuntary transfer [for

the more draconian zero-tolerance policies].

This does not apply to private schools and daycare facilities. So you

will need to work it out with any private providers you use.

A few additional comments as I am remembering them.

First, instruct your children not to call the enzymes by " cute " names

like " peps " or something like that. You will find yourself fighting a

battle over your school's zero-tolerance policy. You will probably

not lose the battle, but it is not a battle you even want to fight,

because your child will at least receive a one-day suspension, if not

more, before you can get it straightened out.

Second, if your child will have snacktimes during his/her school day,

you will have to consider those times for enzymes also, or provide

gfcf snacks etc, and include this information in the IEP and/or enzyme

instructions as indicated above, in addition to the lunch issues.

Third, if your child is young and/or in " therapy " classes like ABA,

where foods are used as reinforcers, you want to include the types of

foods in the IEP. I do not believe the use of enzymes would be

appropriate for this sort of situation because they may last more than

an hour and/or be performed throughout several hours of a day, and

enzymes are not effective beyond an hour or so. But if you want to

use enzymes before therapy sessions, that should also be included in

the IEP, or give the enzymes yourself if the therapies are the first

part of your child's school session. But I would personally try to

move away from foods as reinforcers, here is a link of natural

reinforcers from my site.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/reinforc.htm

Fourth, if your child is entitled to a free or reduced-cost school

lunch, then s/he is also entitled to a free or reduced-cost lunch that

he is actually able to eat. To enforce this requirement on an

unwilling school [if your school will not agree to include gfcf

school-provided lunch in the IEP], you will need something in writing

from a medical professional which indicates the dietary requirements

of your child. Then use that writing to include your child's food

restrictions in his IEP, and also include the language

" school-provided " if s/he is so entitled.

I know I will think of something else as soon as I post this, but I

have been staring at this computer for 5 hours now on several

different things, and I am tired of seeing my screen LOL. I did do a

major site update, if anyone is interested in checking it out, most of

it is on my parent information page beginning about half-way down,

just look for the word " new " in red letters.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/dmain.htm