Spending the day with a friend is one of the best parts of summer vacation. No school. No homework. Plenty of time to do nothing. Sounds perfect until you discover your child's new friend has a severe nut allergy. What can you do to keep your guest safe while he's there for the day?

Nut Avoidance 101

The most important thing you need to do is keep your young guest away from nuts — and vice versa. It's easy enough once you understand the ways in which he can be exposed:

• Ingesting nuts or nut products, such as extracts or oils, is the most obvious cause of an allergic reaction. Read the ingredient labels on everything you serve, or have the child's parent provide the snack for the group to ensure that the food you're serving is nut-free.
• Touching nuts or surfaces where nuts have been chopped or served is another obvious way that a nut-allergic child can be exposed to nuts. It's important to wash counters and tabletops with hot, soapy water to be sure all traces of nuts are gone. Using a clean cloth eliminates the possibility of nut residue coming from the cloth as you clean.
• Cross-contamination is a less obvious way a child can be exposed to an allergen. It can be as subtle as preparing a sandwich on a wooden cutting board where nuts have been chopped or using jelly with traces of peanut butter in the jar from someone else's sandwich. Anything that comes in contact with the allergic child needs to be free of nuts or nut residue in any form.
• Cooking or shelling nuts is enough to give some nut-allergic people a severe reaction. It's best to declare the day a nut-free day.

"Put all nuts and nut products out of reach," advises Dr. Dan Brody, an allergist in Washington, D.C., and Bethesda. "Especially with young children, this will minimize the possibility of a food getting into the wrong hands." Giving everyone the same snack and clearly labeling each child's drink with his name or using a different sticker for each child will also keep things simple and safe. Make it clear that there is to be no sharing of food or drinks that day. This is to be sure that a child who had nuts before the friend arrives doesn't drink out of the allergic child's cup and cause a reaction.

Snack Planning

Plan the snack ahead of time. If you're not comfortable interpreting the new labeling with warnings about products prepared in facilities that use nuts versus products prepared on shared equipment, etc., or if you're concerned you'll miss a nut by-product, check to see if it's okay to just have fruit. You can also ask the child's parent to read the labels or supply the snack for their child or the group. Most severely allergic kids are used to having an adult okay what they eat and will look to you for guidance. "My 6-year old son is very good at keeping track of what he can eat," says Dan Stashower, father of a nut-allergic child. "He knows what he's had before in the way of cookies and candy, and he always asks an adult to read the ingredients before he tries something he doesn't recognize. More than once we've received a call when he's on a playdate because he wants to know if he can eat something." If you're not sure about something, don't guess. Call the parent and ask.

If your son's friend is a frequent guest at your house, put a smiley face sticker or some other sort of mark on the ingredient label once a product has been deemed "safe." When you run out of the product, compare the label on the new box to the label on the old box to be sure nothing has changed. Or ask the child's mother to give you a snack food you can keep on hand for when he's hanging out at your house. Having that food as a special treat when his friend is there makes it fun for all the kids.

Many nut-allergic children carry an EpiPen with them in case of emergency. This auto-injector contains epinephrine, which must be administered if a nut-allergic person is having an anaphylactic (systemic) reaction. Once the EpiPen is administered, an ambulance is called to take the person to the emergency room. Before the parent leaves, ask if their child carries an EpiPen. If he does, be sure you know what symptoms signal a serious reaction in this child, as well as when and how to use the EpiPen. Keep it where you can get to it quickly but where it is out of reach of the kids. Remember, if you've made it a nut-free day, chosen a "safe" snack and made sure any surfaces your son's friend will come in contact with have been wiped down, you shouldn't need the EpiPen!

Once the allergy-related issues are taken care of, the playdate will be just like any other. "Playdates are an important part of any child's social life. Having a nut-allergic child over requires some advance planning," says Dr. Brody. But once the planning is done, you're all set for some fun.

1. Put all nut products out of reach.
2. Use a clean cloth to wash all counters and tabletops with hot, soapy water.
3. Read every label every time to be sure nothing has been changed.
4. When in doubt, DON'T serve it.
5. Give each kid a No sharing food and/or drinks!