Signs at playgrounds aim to keep allergic kids safe

By Ethan F orman Staff Writer

Gloucester’s many playgrounds can be a source of fun and play, but for children with severe food allergies the play structures can carry a hidden danger of being contaminated unwittingly by other kids touching the swings, slides and monkey bars not long after they eat.

To help spread the message about keeping kids with food allergies safe at the playground, last summer, Kayla and Jesse Doherty, whose two children both have severe food allergies, asked the Board of Health if allergen awareness signs could be put up at city parks and playgrounds, and the administration took up the idea.

This summer, the city started installing the signs at its playgrounds, including but not limited those at Stage Fort Park, Brown’s Field on Apple Street, at Beeman, Plum Cove and West Parish elementary schools, and the Bayview Playground by the Bayview Fire Station. The allergen awareness signs are being posted at the city’s parks and schools.

The signs pose two simple questions: “Did you know 1 in 13 children has a food allergy?” and “Did you know allergic reactions can happen from tactile contact?”

The signs then spell out two simple steps to help keep kids with food allergies safe:

Eat only at picnic areas. Clean your hands with a waterbased wipe after eating.

The signs also spell out the eight most common food allergies: milk, wheat, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish and fish.

“These signs will bring muchneeded awareness to the risks around food allergies and hopefully make people more

See ALLERGIES, Page A6

The Doherty family, from left, Kayla, Emmy, 4, Graham, 6 and Jesse, stand next to a new allergen awareness sign at Stage Fort Park. Kayla Doherty presented the idea to the Board of Health last summer in a movement to get these installed.

PAUL BILODEAU/Staff photo

■ Continued from Page A1 thoughtful,” said Mayor Greg Verga in an email.

“I am grateful for Kayla’s commitment to making these signs happen, and this project is a great example of residents and city government working together to positively impact our community. We hope the signs will make a difference, but we still ask that parents and children remain mindful of potential allergens in these public spaces.”

Kayla Doherty said, “It’s all about awareness for us.” As she was speaking with a reporter, she pointed out a girl eating ice cream on the playground.

“She could now touch something and then someone could have an allergic reaction,” Doherty said.

She and her husband’s two children, Graham, 6, and Emmy, 4, both have food allergies. Graham is allergic to tree nuts, including cashews, pistachios, almonds and walnuts.

“Emmy is allergic to eggs in all forms so she can’t even have it baked into a cookie or a cake ,” Kayla Doherthy said. Her daughter had an allergic reaction at just 6 months.

“So, she had an anaphylactic reaction when we gave her scrambled eggs for the first time,” Kayla Doherty said. Her son’s tree nut allergy became apparent when Graham was 2 and he had a reaction to a candy cashew turtle. Both children now carry epinephrine auto-injectors known as EpiPens.

To help make parents more aware of food allergies in general, Kayla Doherty posts a page on Instagram called @toddlereatcheats with more than 2,200 followers “to help other parents navigate making practical daily lunches.”

She posts online the allergy- free lunches she makes for her kids to help other parents navigate this almost daily dilemma.

“The movement for the signs was happening around a lot of people in that space,” she added, “where a lot of people that were mothers or parents with food-allergy kids would implement that at their local playgrounds.”

Not long before Doherty got the idea for the signs, she was at the playground at Cripple Cove in East Gloucester with her kids and she saw a little girl running around with a hardboiled egg in her hand.

“They are both contact-allergic so … if someone ate that and touched the monkey bar or whatever it was, they could go into anaphylaxis,” Kayla Doherty said. “They get itchy, they could throw up, lose blood pressure, so there’s a lot of different things that could happen.”

Kayla said she and husband met with the Board of Health in July 2022 and the board unanimously approved the installation of the signs.

The biggest thing for the family is making people aware of the dangerous of food allergies. The couple said they were unaware of food allergies before their kids were diagnosed.

“All it takes is wiping your kids’ hands or washing them or doing simple things that would prevent any kid from having an anaphylactic reaction,” Kayla Doherty said.

“I think the reality is we understand that not every single person is going to adhere to it … a lot of people probably ignored it at first but you have to start someplace,” Jesse Doherty said.

So what does Graham, a first-grader, think about the allergy awareness signs?

“They’re good, yeah,” he said. “They keep us safe and everybody safe in Gloucester, pretty much.”

Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714,or at eforman@northofboston. com.

The city of Gloucester has posted signs at its parks and playgrounds aiming to make people aware of the need to take simple precautions to help keep kids with food allergies safe on the play structures.

ETHAN FORMAN/Staff Photo