Food Allergies and Phobias

I had wondered if I would run out of material after a term or two. No fear! Looks like bloggable items will never be in short supply.
The new term of 6/7s started this week, and the first order of business is the allergy/food sensitivity sheet. A few children asked questions to clarify what they wanted to write so I had a general sense of what the concerns were, but I was still surprised.

• A child with an anaphylactic allergy to plums. This is my first encounter with severe fruit allergy. 
• A child with lactose intolerance, who can eat small amounts of milk but cannot eat a giant ball of cheese. Well, who can, really? 
• A child who reportedly eats only organic food. Staggering to think about, honestly, in terms of cost and effort. 
• Another one with allergies who reacts to raw, unpeeled, fruits and veggies.
• A hard-core vegan. 
• The usual peanut and nut allergies, a latex allergy and two who revealed medicine allergies - not that I plan to dispense codeine or penicillin in class. But good to know about!
• And the child who reported he's phobic about cheese. That one looked like a hoax, but we spoke, and his teacher checked and it seems on the level. The kid has a cheese phobia. Now there's some kryptonite that you don't want to reveal to your teenage friends!

So it looks like I'm reviewing my recipe ideas this weekend. Nothing with plums, that's for sure. But I might want to keep some cheese strings on hand for self-defense.