Is this really sustainable r.e. nut allergy?

[Sustainability]

Interested to hear as I don't know much about this.

DC signed up for a weekly sports lesson. We've just received an email that there will be someone on the course who has a life threatening allergy to nut and an allergy to egg. We've been asked to make sure anyone attending (i.e. kids and adults) don't eat nuts, nut products or foods with traces of nuts, eggs or egg products on the day of the lesson. That we should be freshly washed (showered if possible) and wearing clean clothes.

Now, obviously I'm happy to comply and my DC will be walking around in clean coats for a change. But how is this possibly going to be sustainable when the child starts school in the Autumn? I've been parcelling their sports clothes up as soon as they come out of the wash, but realistically if it rains the day before their lesson, I'm going to have issues washing and drying their coats in time. Neither can I clean the shoes they wear to get there as they'll be wearing them at school.

I would pull them out of football, ask for a refund and explain why.

I really don't want to do that! We thought long and hard about putting them in football and have our reasons. There may be other groups, but this is the only one which takes the age range of both my DC. On agreement with DS's physio and OT we have stopped his therapy for the duration of the course because we all decided on balance that it would be more beneficial to him right now to learn how to play.

Are they really expecting every pre-schooler and parent to be in freshly laundered clothes every week?!
Yes, every pre-schooler, parent, younger/older siblings on the sidelines, visiting grandparents who come to watch etc. Plus none having eaten nuts or egg for 24 hours.

And nuts are one thing that ime are fairly easy to avoid, we have a friend and we have to avoid nuts for thee day before we see them, but egg? It's in everything, my Dd has other intolerances (admittidly not allergic, just gives her d£v) so eats whole eggs most days and def has egg in most of her food.

Yes, nuts are easy to avoid and I have no problem with that. It's more if it's ok to ask or expect other people who are hosting your child to do the same. If you were hosting a party, would you be ok with a parent asking you to make sure their child doesn't eat any egg products, nuts, chocolate, birthday cake?

You either comply or find another football club. I don't think there is anything else you can do.

If the club have told you the terms of attending you just have to decide whether those terms are acceptable to you, or not.

It is completely unsustainable, but that isn't actually your problem/business.

I agree this is extreme and unrealistic.

This however
I grew up vegetarian - it would have been flat impossible for us not to eat eggs and nuts as they were main sources of protein.
Is not true. My son is allergic to nuts and we carry an epipen. We are 95% vegan. Nuts are not necessary at all, please don't spread misinformation.

I think the food provisions are far for a child, the clothing requirements are not sustainable or reasonable.

If I was hosting a party and one of the attendees was hilariously allergic to egg and nuts, I would inform all the other parents not to let their child eat those things on that day (which they would surely be used to from school anyway) and then not serve either thing at the party. It's not that hard to prepare a party to protect a vulnerable child's health. I would of course pander to any serious food allergy at a party I was hosting! I do not want to be responsible for making a child seriously ill or dead.

*fair. I think the food provisions are fair for a child.

If this club is on a school day you will not be able to stop the kids eating egg products.....many kids each lunch at school and school won't give all the kids a special diet unless there is a medical requirement. (A child at their football club having an allergy is not enough). -- I'm sat here eating my lunch of hoummus with seeded flatbread. Neither of those would be allowed as there are sesame seeds in both which people with a nut allergy are often also allergic too.

Id be finding another club. Too restrictive! And yes Id say why.

The parents cant restrict the world around the child like that. Dont they leave the house??? I mean they can`t live like that!

I don’t really believe the majority of the other parents will be doing it, a few maybe. How would anyone really ever know?

@WhattyTheWatson - it’s not misinformation to say that when I was growing up, our main sources of protein were eggs and nuts. We didn’t have any tofu (not available in our area back then), and none of us liked beans.

If we had cut eggs and nuts out we would have been very protein deficient! This was true for us and for a lot of vegetarians these are major protein sources. The fact that your experience is different doesn’t mean that my experience is somehow wrong or untrue.

I don’t understand the purpose of the clean clothes. They must mix with other people all the time when they leave the house. They don’t have clean clothes ?

@TinselTimes It was the way you said it. It made it sound as though nuts and eggs were essential to a vegetarian diet, they were essential to your diet, but not to a general vegetarian diet.

@WhattyTheWatson - they are extremely important sources of protein, B vitamins and fatty acids in a general vegetarian diet, and removing them from that diet makes it much harder to eat healthily. For us, and for a lot of families, it would not be possible to eat healthily without them.

I know quite a few vegans that manage fine nut free. You should always put thought into your diet and make sure you are getting what you need, but nuts are not essential at all.

My DD has a nut allergy and carries an epipen, although her allergy is not so severe that she can't be in the same room as the allergens.

If she was in danger to such an extent that literally anything or anyone around her not wearing freshly washed clothing could cause an anaphylactic reaction, I simply wouldn't send her to a sports club that relied so heavily on others abiding by this rule. I would consider that imposing such unrealistic requirements on everyone else attending the club would be more than unreasonable.

I wonder how the allergic child's school deal with this - they can't expect possibly hundreds of people to have freshly laundered clothes and avoid eating eggs or nuts in case they come into contact with the child. That's crazy.

Do they never take him out in public??

Actually, school is a point. I don’t have enough uniform for my children to have a freshly laundered set every day and I don’t have enough time to wash and dry them overnight. And definitely not washing and drying coats. How will they do that?

In the end I asked the birthday mum! By chance, she didn't have anything with but traces and made sure DD didn't eat any cake but gave me a slice for her to eat after.
I don't know how insulated he has been, if they go to the park. That's the point isn't it Pottering, I don't have enough clothes for DC to wear clean every day, can't dry overnight, especially in winter and can't really afford to buy several normal and rain coats.

I guess the school would have to become an egg and nut free place. Many schools are nut free. Egg free would be harder. Children could change out of uniform at home so uniform is nut free. I can't see that they would manage to enforce the no egg or nuts for 24 hrs as the whole school could then only eat those products on Friday evening/ Saturday morning.

It just won't happen at school

It's impossible to enforce and ridiculous to suggest that a couple of hundred odd families follow these rules for his entire school life

The child must go out in public, so will be fine.

I wonder if the request comes from the child’s parents or is just an over reaction from the sports group organisers? Maybe the organisers think what they are asking for is achievable for a weekly group, don’t think they can have thought it through.
How would they police it anyway, interrogate everyone on arrival about what they have been eating, is what they are wearing freshly laundered and have they recently washed themselves, can you imagine them doing this? What if people just lie?
This level of precaution would not be sustainable in school, it would mean every child in the school, because of mixing in the playground, every parent dropping off or picking up( after a day at work maybe - how would they wash and change), every young sibling going along for drop off and pick ups, every adult in the school in case they come into contact with the child, every visiting specialised teacher ( going from school to school), everybody else coming into the school like a police officer talking about road safety, drama group or similar doing a workshop in school having to comply with the same restrictions. The child could never go out on trips, our local young primary kids go to the local library, swimming pool and leisure centre. What about school meals, locally these are done in a hub and distributed to a few schools so no egg or nuts ( obviously schools avoid these anyway) in recipes would affect more than one school.
There are lots more I could list but it is just unsustainable at the level of precaution suggested