Day Camp Venting

[melblondin]

Soooo, my son is at a Day Camp this week. Things have been going very well. I've packed his lunch and extra snacks for when they do that sort of thing and he knows to only eat what I've packed. However, yesterday there was another 5 year old who apparently couldn't understand why DS couldn't eat the graham cracker snacks that had been provided. He and another kid were waving it around DS and telling him to just take a bite, so DS said, "Please stop doing that." One of the boys stopped, while the other one crammed the graham cracker against DS's mouth!! Who does that!?! DS said, "Mom I just went like this (and pursed his lips together really hard)." I told him he did a really great job handling the situation and protecting his body, but several hours after picking him up from camp he proceeded to have several rounds of diarrhea. I'm not crazy to believe it was from the graham cracker crumbs on his lips, correct? I really just don't understand why it bothers other people so much when we choose not to eat or really just can't eat certain foods -- even at 5 years old! Craziness!!!!

[kareng]

I would tell the camp counselor about this and use peanut allergy as an example. My son works at a day camp and the kids fight over who will he sit by to eat lunch. Maybe, a counselor can sit nearby to make sure this stuff doesn't go on. 5 year olds don't understand the damage the crumbs can cause. They need to understand that you don't touch other people that way. They would have done this with a kid who just didn't like the crackers so didn't want to eat them. Hope he is having fun otherwise. Wish he was with my son, he understands and would help him.

[melblondin]

I would tell the camp counselor about this and use peanut allergy as an example. My son works at a day camp and the kids fight over who will he sit by to eat lunch. Maybe, a counselor can sit nearby to make sure this stuff doesn't go on. 5 year olds don't understand the damage the crumbs can cause. They need to understand that you don't touch other people that way. They would have done this with a kid who just didn't like the crackers so didn't want to eat them. Hope he is having fun otherwise. Wish he was with my son, he understands and would help him.

Yeah - I did talk to the counselors. I totally understand that the child had no idea how the food would affect my son; the bullying aspect of it is what bothered me more than anything. I''m sure things will be fine now and he is having a great time overall :-). I was just surprised that kids that young really care about what each other is eating/not eating. I realize it could have been over anything - it just happened to be around what I call his "kryptonite!" I'm sure this won't be the first time things like this happen, so I guess it's good practice!