Nightmare lunch box type ban at school

[lunchme]

DS is 7 and attends a special school.

They have a new pupil coming in and the new list of banned foods are things containing -

Peanuts
Cashews
Sesame
Milk
Wheat
Barley
Almond
Pork

They announced this on our class up this afternoon and no further instruction! But they insist on DS having packed lunch and not school dinners since he likes lunches better because he's seen other kids having crisps etc

My DS has an allergy of sesame and his other classmate was peanuts. The other allergies are all from one child

This isn't to slag off a poor child. I just wish they'd give more notice than a Thursday afternoon

A lot of people are mentioning airborne allergies.

Many allergists (including Tim Spector and Adam Fox) argue that nuts aren't airborne unless heated and that reactions that were thought to have been airborne, were more likely from unwitting contact or ingestion.

It is a myth that nut allergies are more deadly or risky. They used to be the most common allergen, they no longer are. Society just takes time to catch up with the data.

For young children, the risk isn't from airborne particles (unless food is being cooked), it is from grabbing the wrong food and eating it, or from someone else touching them if they have food particles on them.

I know someone who is allergic to chicken. He can consume dairy and egg products with no issues but he can’t have chicken. So yes while it is rare it can happen. The child is probably allergic to the protein in the meat.

It's strange to have a blanket ban on all these things. We have several kids in school who are allergic to milk and wheat but never had a complete ban as we do with peanuts.

No idea how it is manageable as 90% of school lunchboxes contain ham or cheese sandwiches, yoghurt and a biscuit. Packed lunches are also usually more particular children who may not be that flexible with their food variety just yet. If the allergies are as severe as they seem to think they should probably look into alternative lunch arrangements to accommodate this child as I can't see this being manageable for other kids/parents.

@KillingLoneliness to be honest I always say to myself I’m glad they aren’t allergic to nuts! Although seeing other comments I’m not sure now as nut allergies are well recognised and respected in most places as a serious allergy. I feel for everyone in this situation, special needs children plus allergy children it’s rubbish 🙂

Not just for young children, I struggle with people around me eating their wheat laden goodies crumbs falling all around them and then they want to touch my hand, or my phone, or anything else I might touch. I've been wheat free for so long now, the slightest bit of wheat will cause a reaction.
I feel for the parents of this child and the child having to live with all those restrictions, poor thing.

@Everyonehasavoice

What do you mean? Why is it uncalled for, did I hurt your feeling?
I just stated that I am aware of severity of allergies. I was just trying to help op from my own experience with child with severe to mild allergies, by asking if the child's allergy was all airborne or not. That makes difference.
You quoted my post, so I responded to your comment.

Pork ? 🤣 I think someone in the office may have muddled allergies and restrictions. Maybe the child is allergic to some things and intolerant of others ?

it's possible. I knew someone who broke out in hives if they are pork. Then last year someone in my country made the news after he died when he ate pork. Airways swelled so quickly. it was rather sad as he was a young man just starting to live his life

Not sure why that's funny. How do you know there not allergic to pork?

I also had two supervisors. One allergic to cucumber the other to lentils. Beans. chickpeas were ok. But lentils were deadly

Nut allergy is known to be airborne. So most English school has no nut policy. But I wondered if all the listed foods are. My dc is anaphylactic to a fruit. But he doesn't react just because he is in the same room with someone eating it. So I asked if all the allergies are airborne

It may be hard for the school to answer that.

Most people consider food allergies to mean allergies caused by ingesting the food (as opposed to touching it to the skin, for example). If you use that definition, any food allergen can potentially be airborne, if it is in the air, then touches someone's lips. But the threshold for a reaction will vary by individual - so a few molecules might trigger a reaction in one person, but another might only get a reaction with 10,000 molecules. Obviously it's going to be much easier for a few molecules of a food to travel through the air than 10,000. And some foods and some settings are more likely to generate airborne molecules - which is why opening a packet of peanuts (which throws molecules up into the air) is higher risk than just walking past a bowl of peanuts.

So, using the common definitions, you can't really divide food allergies into airborne or non-airborne.

@Boopydoo That is an interesting perspective, thank you.

My DS is only 3 so I'm very focused on the risks associated with his age and had (stupidly!) assumed risks would be much lesser when older.

Of course you're right; most adults don't understand allergies, so I can see the problem will persist just the same.

Sometimes the way things are worded come across as ??? rude

So
You said something like …..I’m very aware of that, I have a child with allergies……the tone comes across as snappy
So I sounded you out

As has been pointed out, this is a SEN school. There is a high likelyhood the kids there have dietary/sensory food restrictions. its not as simple as switching to a non-dairy alternative.

As i said upthread, if that list were presented at my sons SEN school, it would wipe EVERYTHING my son can/will eat off the table. He has quite serious ARFID and has the same lunch every day, he WILL NOT eat anything else... he would literally starve first.

As SN parents, most of us absolutely sympathise with dietary/medical needs, but one childs needs cannot be allowed to trump the other kids recognised disabilities/medical needs either.

There would need to be a compromise.

So, using the common definitions, you can't really divide food allergies into airborne or non-airborne.

It's true, but most parents with children with allergies know the difference in their own children, I assume, if it's not new allergy. I know my dc doesn't react to airborne allergen severely, like from experience. And yes, my dc react to contact, so my dc's school made sure that my child won't get exposed by sitting him separately and closely monitored. I thought that was good enough. He does get reaction by residue, but it was not severe, so I didn't find it necessary for school to ban all the food he was allergic to.
But it's a different story if the reaction is severe.

@ArtixLynx

I do appreciate this and, as I've said, I think a blanket ban isn't the right approach (whether in SEN school or not).

I'm just responding to some of the more outlandish comments, in the hopes people will educate themselves better when it comes to life threatening allergies.

My son was allergic to dairy products when younger. There are actually dairy products in a lot of crisps, not even just the obvious ones like cheesy wotsits, actual non cheese flavoured ones too. Something to do with the flavouring. I had to be really vigilant with crisps!

There is always gluten free bread and a fair bit of the free from stuff in shops is both gluten (wheat) and dairy free.

Again though these children are likely very rigid in their eating and its not just as easy as swapping one kind of bread for another.

It’s more expensive, and stock levels are nowhere near the same as regular products. People who need to buy Free From really struggled in stages of the pandemic as everyone was buying anything they could get their hands on. It’s not viable to expect a whole class/school to do this.

I wonder why allergies are becoming so prolific nowadays?

I also have a son with ARFID (although awaiting the diagnosis we already know he has it). Everything he eats is wheat laden, its great fun in my house where the kitchen is predominantly wheat and gluten free with his corner for weetos, dough balls, pretzels, perfectly golden brown toast and brioche. My son wouldn't be able to eat anything at school either with all those restrictions.

@ Everyonehasavoice

Sorry if I sounded abrupt. I'm not a native English speaker, I was just stating what I felt in the words I know. I wasn't trying to be rude, but I wasn't trying to be nice either.

It wasn't the best start to life as an independent adult for her, no, but now it's been diagnosed and she's got used to the idea, she's adapted and her immune system has chilled out a bit after a couple of years of not being in contact with the stuff. It's cost her a relationship with her father as he gets enraged at anybody who doesn't eat what he deems as 'food' (for him, fish is not a viable food group prick), never mind needing to not have an allergen in their vicinity. But, as she put it, somebody who takes an allergy as a deliberate insult to their masculinity to the extent of deliberately making sure it was around their own child isn't worth the emotional effort.

She did, however, suddenly have the cleanest student flat in the world which, thinking about the state of her bedroom as a teenager, does amuse me. It was as though, not that she'd say it, her mother was right about things like hard floors, vacuuming, damp dusting, mattress/pillow protectors and steam cleaning after all...

Anyhow, the letter says allergies. I'd accept that they mean allergies, rather than leaping upon the Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism bandwagon and putting the child back onto school meals as had previously been eaten, as then they'll have the bulk of the work rather than me.

It sounds a strange list. I would continue as normal avoiding nuts and if the school approach you then deal with it then

These are not things anyone eats, unless they have allergies. Diary and wheat free muffins are totally disgusting and the cucumber, tomato and fruit additions still do not make a meal.