Protecting a child with food allergies from bullies

by Jaime A. Heidel

(Health Secrets) It is estimated that 5.9 million children in the United States have at least one food allergy. A startling 30% of these kids are also the regular target of bullies who taunt them with the very foods they’re allergic to. Reports of children who’ve been held down and had peanut butter smeared on their faces, or who opened their allergy-free lunch boxes only to find wheat cookie crumbs can be found all over the Internet.

Not only does this type of bullying cause emotional damage, it could also be life-threatening. Read More.

If he tells you that he was bullied and was taunted then tell him to tell the others to STOP in a firm voice. Test that out and if that does not work then and only then go to the teacher.

You want him to defend himself alone without any authority interfering. That way he develops the ability to think independently and will come up with his own answers the next time something happened.

Lawrence Bergfeld

In the past, bullying was very often worked out between children. I was bullied when I was a child, my son was bullied, and my daughter was bullied. Wondering what kind of learned behavior is involved here, but that's another topic. Both my children handled their bullies. My son verbally, and after many years of suffering, my daughter beat the crap out of her bully, and that was the end of her bullying days. Myself, on the other hand, I was a sensitive child and it affected me deeply. I finally used it to learn self esteem. Another long story. And a great number of our kids are dysfunctional. So many are labeled with behavioral problems and this gives them the excuse for their poor behavior. They are not held accountable by parents or teachers. So yes, poor parenting is a huge factor. And good parenting is something that has declined throughout the decades. Compound this with the fact that these children with all sorts of labels are then given drugs which makes the problem worse. Then, the violence they watch on TV, the video games, etc. Our society is a sick one.

But we are not living in yesterday's world. It's not the Little Rascals era. Today's kids, have serious issues, as do the parents, as does society. Another involved topic. Today's bullying can be deadly. So it is something that has to be addressed.

I did a series on bullying on my radio show which was a month long, and it took so much time because this topic is very complex. If anyone would like to listen to the series, the links are below. So you don't have to listen to the whole two hour show, my segment is in the second half hour of the show.