Child allergic to paints help

[Rosie123]

Hi everybody

I have a lovely 3 year old at my kindy who started 3 weeks ago. He is allergic to paints and food dyes. I. Am struggling to come up with ideas that don't contain these items. If the paints get on his skin heis behavior becomes eractic. I have tried boiled red cabbage juice colouring for play doh. Although I want to support him and his mum I feel the other children are missing out on great experiences. Even cooking is a challenge as he cant eat many foods. I have him next year for 2 full days what can I do? Any suggestions would be great and also websites. Thanks

[Lorina]

Hi There,

I think this is a great way to experiment with natural food colour alternatives. This basically means using coloured foods to create colours which can be added to paints etc. Even though this child has an allergy, I think on the days that he attends the centre get the group of children involved in showing them what foods you can use to create different colours. It will be very interesting for them to see that paints are not the only thing that creates colour. I've found a couple of websites which should help you out. Just google "natural food alternatives".

http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.c ... oring.html

http://www.networx.com/article/8-ways-t ... d-coloring

Cheers ,
L.A

[fchaudari76]

If u cannot do play doh you can mix flour + baby oil, gives an interesting texture and instead of colour add sparkles/glitter etc

check this out
http://www.minieco.co.uk/natural-dye-fo ... playdough/

You just need to think a bit outside the box but there seem to be plenty of resources for natural food colourings.

Do the normal stuff when this child is not rostered on so other children don't miss out but like LA said it is a great way for children to see that food can colour things too.

So many activities can be done where u need no food or food dye, you will just have to give the children creative experiences that involve no colourings!