When Maria Acebal prepares breakfast for her daughters, she's confident the food is safe.

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"The key for us is to just read all ingredient labels to make sure we avoid peanuts. We keep a peanut free home," said Acebal.

Eight-year-old Nina is severely allergic to peanuts. She told us, "I've had it pretty much my whole life."

Nina wears a medic alert bracelet and is constantly on the look-out for peanuts.

"If I see a sandwich, I ask if it has peanuts in it or not and if they do have peanuts I try to sit as far away as I can from them," said Nina.

Her younger sister said, "Just in case if I touch something with peanuts and I don't wash my hands and then I touch my sister, she might get an allergic reaction."

It's happened before. For Nina, one peanut could prove fatal.

"Her entire face blew up, her eyes swole (sic) shut, she was covered in hives from head to toe, she was vomiting violently and she was having trouble breathing," said Acebal.

But like 50,000 other children in the D.C. area, Nina goes to school every day despite her allergy. School nurse Olga Wright of Tucker Elementary in Alexandria says the rise in food sensitive students over the last five years is staggering.

"We've gone from slightly under 300 students to almost 600 kids," stated Wright.

That number is part of the reason Alexandria schools maintain a school nurse on every campus to make sure epinephren pins are ready, step-by-step guides are posted, and the staff is trained.

"The cafeteria staff know what they need to do, the teachers know what they need to do, the administrators are prepared," said Wright.

Allergic students sit at peanut free tables in the cafeteria and the lunch line is automated so when a child with a food allergy buys food, staff members have to scan the items they have selected. But Tucker Elementary sets the standard. Most area school districts don't have nurses or food allergy policies.

"Because of the budget cuts, school health services are reduced many times but it is at a cost. It's at a cost of the safety of children," said Wright.

So Nina and her family take steps to ensure the people around her do know what to do.

She shared, "My best friends always look out for me. They too ask if sandwiches have peanuts in them or not because they try to take care of me."

Nina's mom Maria Acebal is so passionate about this issue she now goes to schools herself, especially those without school nurses, to provide training and promote awareness of food allergy through the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.