AIBU to report nut-containing muffins being brought into a nut-free school?

So what? It’s worth risking a child’s life?

Interesting. Just been reading about it.

i guess it’s harder to remove all dairy from all children’s packed lunches than nuts.

but it must be a huge worry for dairy parents.

my reception son seems to understand he can’t eat anyone else’s food without checking with a grown up first. But i still feel on edge. He has an auto injector at school.

A reception age child absolutely can learn to manage their allergies and not accept food from other people. But we as a society choose not to give them that responsibility, and instead wrap them up in a protective bubble which is far more harmful to them in the long run.

Nonsense.
As the mother of a DC with multiple food allergies, do you think I relied on parents like @DeftGoldHedgehog following the rules to protect my child?
You must be joking!

He was educated and trained how to manage his allergies from an extremely young age (preschool if not earlier).

However, you do have to make allowances for young children, and also realise that his peers at that age are prone to sticky hands and faces, playing more or less on top of each other, and coughing in each other’s faces. As you, say supervison as well as education is needed.

Allergy UK does in fact recommend banning required allergens (depending on need) for facilities that care for very young children (eg preschools) and asking other parents to cooperate with this.
Reception age children are still very young and hence at risk.

No. That's not correct.

Milk is the leading cause of allergy deaths in children now

It’s not weird at all.

This….

You have to weigh up the associated risks with allergens. Nuts are more likely to be fatal aren’t they?

Yes, I would speak again to the parent involved and say - been thinking about the muffins and and I don’t think it’s a good idea in a school as it really does put some children at risk….
I have a son with a severe sesame allergy and it’s declared a nut and sesame free school. Lots of children do have packed lunches so I really hope they respect this. It’s so annoying when a handful of people decide rules don’t apply to them.

Around 2 to 3% of kids have a nut allergy, so it's a minority. And airborne allergies are unbelievably rare and most have been shown to only cause a mild reaction.

Most 4 year olds can poop by themselves and wipe their bums so yes, they can learn to only eat their own lunch.

There is more chance of a ceiling falling down in an earthquake in the UK and killing a child than a child having a severe reaction to a lunch box being opened.

My sister has a severe airborne nut allergy so she doesn’t even have to come into contact with the nuts to go into anaphylaxis. I wouldn’t hesitate to report this and that’s exactly where my mind would have gone when she gave the recipe. People who think it’s their right to eat nuts wherever they want when it could actually kill someone are nothing but selfish a-holes in my opinion.

This is how it should be done.

When DD was in a class with a dairy allergic child, (from 4yo) they taught the whole class how to be safe. They had rules such as milk could only be drunk at one table (as they had their free milk) then they all washed their hands and faces abd the table was wiped down. Absolutely no food swapping. And obviously she got a special school lunch.

It’s not just pupils, DC had a wonderful primary teacher who has a severe nut allergy, if one of the younger kids eats a nut-laced snack and gets too close (like the little ones do sometimes) that could trigger a terrible reaction.

And as usual we have people bringing out the guilt trip that “hopefully you won’t cause a child’s death.”

Let’s not throw that one around shall we?

The people responsible for keeping that child safe are their parents and the school. You do that by making children aware that if child x eats certain foods they become seriously ill and that’s why we don’t eat that food near child x.

You don’t tell all the other children that “you can’t have those foods, even for breakfast at home any more, and you’re not allowed to know why, but just know that if you do someone might die.

Who does that benefit?

If a child’s allergies are that severe they need to be home schooled. You don’t have the right to restrict foods for all children because of one.

Food is emotive enough as it is, without this apparent need to use it as a guilt stick to beat children with.

And before someone starts about the child’s right to privacy etc, if a disability is visible you have no choice but to be noticed and for people to be aware.

If you want people to be aware of your condition and take it into account you need to tell them about it, not just decide that they should all be punished because of your right to privacy.

I’ve linked a graph showing the figures for anaphylactic deaths in the UK below.
I’m not talking about dairy here, which is certainly dangerous for allergic children, but in general terms some allergens are less likely to result in anaphylactic deaths than others are.

Overall, peanuts/nuts cause more deaths. In adults they result in more deaths than all the other allergens combined, which is why they are more feared perhaps.

I think blanket bans are ridiculous. My daughter has a severe allergy to something and she has had to learn how to manage it since preschool. The school won’t ban it so we have to ensure she can keep herself safe. This makes her more vigilant and is better long term I think!

@AlmondFlourmuffins Aren't school nutsfree to prevent from choking? I haven't heard of any school banning children from bringing almondflour muffins. In that case dairy should be banned as well.

So this took place at someone's house? And nobody in that house has nut allergy and neither does your child? And on top of that no-one in the school class has one?

I think you could remind them not to share it around in school as it might get confiscated by the teachers. But it's really not your concern.

There isn't really anyone that you cannot "report" to. The school can only really remind the parent that they have a no nut policy. I think you should do that and cut out the middle man and aggro it might cause.

The problem with blanket "no nut" rules is that most parents don't think they matter. And sometimes they don't, because they are in place even when there are no pupils with a relevant allergy. Whereas if you said "we have a pupil with a severe allergy and to protect them there is a no nut policy until further notice", there could be more buy-in.

Refer your friend and the school to Benedicts Law

This is exactly why a nut free policy at school isn’t recommended. It’s a false sense of safety.

Also nothing stopping another child to of eaten something with nuts in before school or on the way to school and have crumbs on them.

Best to assume all food you haven’t made and school hasn’t made has nuts.

Never rely on others to keep you safe basically.

Yep. Proving my point right there.

Exactly. Children with dairy allergies have to learn from before they can speak not to accept food from anyone. Not to eat any food without checking ingredients. And they have to navigate a world where dairy is sloshing about everywhere like it's the most benign substance

I lost count of the times we left playgrounds as other children were coated in ice cream or walking on the equipment dripping ice cream

Mine have nut allergies too so I am obviously not dismissing those allergies. But it's deeply hypocritical to get all high and mighty about people taking nuts to school/eating nuts before school if your own child is trotting off to school with a cheese sandwich and a yoghurt.

Milk allergy is very common. There will be children with milk allergy in every year group in a primary school.

Why don't you mention it to the mum fgs? I am sure she's not doing it deliberately. Maybe she's not doing it at all or if she is it's because she doesn't realise or is not thinking straight. Just speak to her first.

Not my responsibility.