Big events like prom, or a school formal as we have here in Australia, are major highlights on our teenagers’ social calendars. If you or your teen have a formal event coming up, you might be worried about how they will manage their food allergies. Or wonder how they will carry their EpiPen or other autoinjector with them on the night. Discover some practical tips on how to manage food allergies at school formals or prom so you can be confident of a safe and enjoyable night.
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Preparing for the school formal
As your young person with food allergies grows up and becomes more independent, they should be taking on more responsibility for handling their allergies. Encourage your teen to make their own arrangements for the formal. This includes buying tickets, discussing their food allergies with school organisers and making enquiries about food with the venue or caterer. They may need support with some or all of these preparations.
What food is going to be served?
Our school formals have varied from formal sit down dinners with allocated tables, to more informal events where trays of food are brought around or guests help themselves to food platters.
School should be aware of your child’s allergies already, but in our experience it isn’t always wise to rely on school to pass on information to any outside vendors. It’s a good idea to speak to the venue and caterers directly to find out exactly what type of food will be served and whether they will be able to provide an allergy safe meal for your teen on the night.
A seated dinner usually works out better for dietary requirements and food allergies at school formals or any other formal event. In our experience, many venues will bring around the ‘special meals’ first and allocate them to guests by name. Finger food or buffet style can be harder to manage, as it relies on your teen asking wait staff questions about ingredients and which options are safe for them.
If in doubt, you can never go wrong with ensuring your teen has plenty to eat before they go.
Also be prepared that things may not go to plan. For our last school formal, the venue caterers assured us that there would be safe food provided. However, there ended up only being shared finger food with very little that was safe for our teen to eat. (It wasn’t a huge issue as we provided lots to eat beforehand, and there was plenty of dancing to do instead!)
Carrying EpiPens and autoinjectors to formal events
One non-negotiable is of course taking 2 EpiPens or other epinephrine autoinjectors along to the formal or prom. Here in Australia we only have EpiPen and Anapen autoinjectors, which are fairly bulky to manage.
When your young person is heading off to an prom or the school formal in a beautiful dress or a smart suit, the last thing they want to take with them is a medical bag with their EpiPens. Fortunately there are some more discreet ways to carry life saving epinephrine that won’t clash with formal outfits.
EpiPens with formal dresses
This is where things are a little easier for those in dresses. Your teen is probably going to want to take a few personal items and a phone, so it’s quite normal to take a pretty evening purse or clutch bag. Just make sure to choose one that is long enough to fit 2 autoinjectors and any other allergy medications too.
Carrying EpiPens with a formal suit
For those wearing suits, longer devices like EpiPens and Anapens won’t fit well in pant pockets and could easily get lost. A slim running belt or SPIBelt is a possible solution. There’s potential to hide this under a cummerbund a waist coat, but even then it can be a little bit bulky.
We found that two EpiPens and some antihistamine would easily fit in the inside pocket of a suit jacket. These pockets tend to be longer and often have a button closure to keep the contents safely inside. The inside pocket was the option we chose for our recent formal. Just make sure your teen doesn’t leave their jacket behind after all the dancing!
Teens are unlikely to go anywhere without their phones. So setting up an electronic reminder with an AirTag or similar is a great way to make sure autoinjectors don’t get left behind.
Before and after parties
Often the biggest worry when it comes to food allergies at school formals and prom is not the event itself, but what happens afterwards. While usually not school-condoned, parties before and after school formals and proms come with the territory.
The after party (or “AP” as it is called where we are) is a big thing for senior students. They use this an occasion to get together with their friends and celebrate, often until the early hours of the morning. And while it isn’t legal (even here in Australia with a legal drinking age of 18), the fact is that there is often alcohol at formal after parties.
The best approach here is to try and keep an open and honest relationship with your allergic teen. This makes it easier to talk about the risks around alcohol, generally and with allergies. Whatever your personal stance is about drinking, it’s important that your young person knows about the effects of alcohol. Drinking can lower inhibitions and increase risk taking, and alcohol can worsen the severity an allergic reaction. Then there is the whole issue of whether alcoholic drinks contain allergens like milk, egg or nuts.
The value of good friends
Another part of navigating this time in your teen’s life is to get to know their friends. Do their friends know about your child’s allergies? Are they supportive and know what to do in the event of an emergency?
I personally feel a lot more comfortable knowing that my child has friends who know about and accommodate food allergies. They’ve known each other for a while and have shared experiences like cooking together on school camps and cooking classes. So they understand the severity of the allergies, will help keep their friend safe and assist in the event of a reaction.
More tips for managing food allergies
Being a young adult with food or other allergies brings different challenges to when they were younger. As your teen becomes more independent, things they can do to stay safe include:
- always remembering their autoinjectors (with some teen friendly options for carrying them)
- wearing a medical alert ID – there are lots of modern options including QR codes that fit onto their smart watch band, dog tags and more
- updating their emergency medical ID on their phone
- using chef cards when they eat out
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