To wonder what is dangerous about my child’s lunch

"I received a message from school today saying my child’s lunch contained a prohibited item and to please review the policy “as there are children with severe allergies and it’s dangerous not to comply”

WTF, if it's so dangerous, didn't the school name the item in the original message? "Hi Ms AK, we took little johnny''s baby bell off him because one of the children in his class has a severe dairy allergy. Please bear this in mind when putting up his bait"

Exactly, and then even if you do try things will slip through. Allergen bans just create a feeling of complacency and there's no evidence they actually reduce the risk of a serious reaction. Better to assume the allergen is present and take sensible steps to avoid it. That's why nut bans are no longer advised.

You can't van all known allergens... My school has kids with egg, nut, dairy, fish, sesame, kiwi and strawberry allergies that I know of.... Can't ban everything.

Kids swap food all the time. He probably traded his ham sandwich for a peanut butter sandwich

The only time I've eaten a lot of peanuts was when my eldest was newborn and I was breastfeeding her. There's no food allergies in our families but lots of asthma, eczema, hayfever etc so her moderately severe peanut allergy isn't out of nowhere. But I have read that if they're first exposed to an allergen through broken skin rather than through the gut an allergy is more likely to develop. I ate a hell of a lot of peanut butter while feeding her and she had quite a bit of eczema at times. Can't win!

The apple juice.

Gateway beverage to Strongbow Cider.

Could it be the babybel, as people were making a mess with or choking on the rind/ Someone has a dairy allergy?
The pepperami- have they banned processed meats?
Apple juice- they only allow milk or water?
Ham and pepperami- the school has gone vegetarian?
Frube- classed as a sugary snack which is banned?
Bread- the school has gone gluten free or keto?

Gawd, I'm really struggling as it all looks so normal!

As a teacher and senior leader at a school this kind of things annoys me hugely. Just have an actual conversation with a parent if there is an issue. Saves so much time and confusion all round.

Sounds like a dozy staff member being a bit thick and conflating airborne nut allergies with a dairy allergy that only applies when consumed..

You do realise kids, even much older ones, treat their packed lunches as a tasting/sharing buffet.

Responses like this would make me quite worried if I was a parent of a child with an allergy. Even if someone is intolerant to gluten for example, while it may not be life threatening it can still cause a great deal of illness and pain to them when they have violent diarrhoea for instance. We shouldn’t just take peanut allergies very seriously and not so much the others.

So if you take something "unhealthy" do they confiscate it??

It all seems like too much effort.

Surely the answer is to ring the school?

There's also a tentative link to antibiotic use in newborns although there hasn't been as much research on this yet . I'm convinced that this is why my son has a severe nut allergy, nobody else in our family has allergies/asthma, we are a nut eating household and I ate nuts all through pregnancy.

Please report back @NameChangeAK as I’m intrigued!

It is daft that they didn't say what the item was that caused the issue, also the fact that they didn't/ haven't replied to ops email means she doesn't know what is safe to pack for today's lunch ( if her dc doesn't want today's school dinner)

@EnglishBluebell

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/02/boy-with-allergy-died-cheese-flicked-at-him-london-inquest-told

I imagine it’s a blanket email and they feel they have to send so many they don’t have the time to state exactly what and want parents to find out in the policy - terrible of course given it could be life threatening for a child with allergies as parents may not read it with a fine tooth comb!

After potential seeds in bread and a sensitive strawberry allergy, my immediate thought was it’s just a generic sent out because Babybels aren’t allowed. Kids love playing with the wax and I wonder if they want to avoid a potential choking hazard, younger ones shoving it up their nose or something or damage to furniture from the dye when it’s rolled.

There's nothing special about nut and peanut allergies, anything can be an allergen and any allergen can cause anaphylaxis.

Nut and peanut allergies are no longer thought to be airborne, the protein is too heavy. Milk and egg allergies CAN be airborne and some people have to avoid, for example, cafes with milk brothers or hotel breakfasts with omelette stations because of it.

The misapprehension that nut and peanut allergies are more serious than others makes it very difficult for those with anaphylaxis to other allergens to be taken seriously so it's something that's always worth clarifying.

A schoolboy died in the UK when a slice of cheese was thrown at him at school.

We aren't allowed to send any pork products to school (but we live in a Muslim country so it's to be expected)

Do you live in an area with a large Muslim population? And maybe they copied and pasted the allergen line from elsewhere?

She emailed them - what's the difference?

It is ridiculous that whole schools are sanctioned for the tiny, tiny minority

It would be far simpler if the school said what the problem was in the first communication. This is on the lines of “something is wrong, but we are not going to tell you what it is”.

But are babybels a particular choking hazard compared to other foods? I mean, some things are specific hazards (grapes etc), but you can still choke on any basically any solid food.

But I honestly don't think schools can or should ban so many allergens, you'd really would end up with nothing that's not banned.

It's also not generally recommended by allergy charities, like anaphylaxis UK.
Although despite that I can understand why schools don't want children bringing actual nuts in.

My DH has an anaphylactic allergy to nuts, peanuts and sesame and it's not difficult to find bread he can eat. And anyway, most schools that ban nuts don't include products that say "may contain" in the ban. That would be far too much. Bur bread isn't really an issue.

I would send the following:

"Dear school, this is your packed lunch policy (copy and paste).
These are the items I sent in Tina's packed lunch (list of items)
I can't see any item which contravenes your policy as stated above so am assuming your communication was sent to the wrong parent or was otherwise sent incorrectly. However do let me know if this is not the case and any of the above items are in fact against the packed lunch policy and I will make sure that they are not included going forward."