JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 School may be out for the summer, but now is a great time to make a plan about how to handle your child\u2019s food allergies in the classroom.<\/p>\n
For Atlantic Coast High School student Runali Salvi, food allergies have always been part of life.<\/p>\n
But nearly two years ago, one terrifying week changed everything. That week a friend offered her a snack, she thought was safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden I felt my mouth swelling up,\u201d says Salvi. \u201cI read the ingredients and it didn\u2019t have peanuts listed as an allergen, but I felt like my mouth swelling up and then I felt super tired and just, I broke out into hives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The snack wasn\u2019t clearly labeled as containing nuts. Days later, she ran into another scary situation. Runali thought she was drinking allergen friendly milk, but it was really dairy milk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mistakenly drank it and I on a bike ride. All of a sudden my legs felt like they couldn\u2019t move and I couldn\u2019t breathe at all and I super tired. So, I put down my bike, and I laid on the sidewalk, then I lose memory,\u201d says Salvi.<\/p>\n
She was able to call her mom before she passed out. A neighbor then found her and she was rushed to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost died during that reaction, because I wasn\u2019t careful,\u201d Runali emphasized.<\/p>\n
The back-to-back emergencies forced the then-middle schooler to confront a reality she says many people don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn school, people kind of treated it as a joke. It\u2019s not really treated as a medical concern. It\u2019s more treated like you\u2019re picky and have a preference,\u201d says Salvi.<\/p>\n
Runali is allergic to eight of the top nine primary food allergens including wheat, tree nuts, shellfish, dairy, eggs, and sesame.<\/p>\n
Runali\u2019s mom says parents have to advocate and stress the importance of their child\u2019s food allergies to school leadership and faculty.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunication is very important. The teachers were really receptive to everything I had to tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Runali\u2019s mom says each grade level present\u2019s new challenges, but she\u2019s been pleased with how supportive Duval County teacher have been regarding Runali\u2019s food allergies.<\/p>\n
Today, Salvi is turning her experiences into action.<\/p>\n
The rising senior created \u201cFight the Allergy Blues<\/a>\u201d. It\u2019s a resource hub now featured by the district to help students, parents and educators better understand food allergies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe main part is awareness and education and implementing a place where students can feel safe with food allergies,\u201d says Runali.<\/p>\n Runali\u2019s father, who also shared about their families navigation of food allergies, told Action News Jax he\u2019s proud of how is daughter has used her voice to bring awareness for other students. With summer break underway, Runali hopes families use the summer months to start those conversations early. She also wants students with allergies to remember they\u2019re never alone. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to put your priorities and your safety first above all. Safety is a priority always,\u201d says Runali.<\/p>\n On Duval County\u2019s School Health Services webpage, families can submit allergy documentation and review district policies here. <\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 School may be out for the summer, but now is a great time to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,100471,6454,131740,21478,639,131739,131738,969,116,118,117,634,131737,131736],"class_list":["post-316978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-atlantic_coast_high_school","tag-chandler_morgan","tag-chandler_morgan_action_news","tag-check","tag-duval_county","tag-duval_county_school_health_services","tag-grannali","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-local","tag-realli","tag-renali_salvi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}