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

I think it almost goes without saying that the school have misunderstood and have put the list out in error. It seems very unlikely that all the allergies are airborne so I would be speaking to the school to clarify.

I can understand the nut thing as those allergies can be triggered very easily, but how exactly is another child having milk or pork going to impact another child with an allergy? Wheat is in a lot of things, are they banning all baked foods including bread? I'd hope they make alternate arrangements for this child.

So you’d be perfectly ok if they isolated your child?

Yes, because I’d recognise the world didn’t need to shift off its axis and others inconvenienced when my child’s needs were so restrictive for others. It’s part of not being brought up in the ‘me, me, me’ generation.

I have an airborne milk allergy. I can no longer fly as it is unreasonable to expect no heated dairy products on a plane.
There are shit loads of other places I can't go, like M&S food halls, or supermarkets with bakeries. Coffee shops that froth milk.
Can no longer work in schools because of hot meals.
It is my problem.

But meat? That's insane. I'm 100% it's religious. You can't force other people to believe in your god! Crazy.

Maybe they should go to private (religious) school?

Yes you can be allergic to any type of meat.

Some people are allergic to sunlight or water, so I don’t see why it’s so hard for people to grasp that someone may be allergic to meat.

Maybe the parents have sent in a list of foods the child can't have and the pork is on there for religious reasons. An allergy to a certain meat makes no sense at all!

@Scalottia
Wait, so your child's needs are more important than the other child? Nope, doesn't work that way.

It works both ways though. The needs of BOTH children should be met. And asking a bunch of children with very varied needs to meet the needs in that list is always going to be tricky.
Instead, it might well a case that it’s for the SCHOOL to adapt to meet the needs of all of the children (rather than having the easier way out to ask all the other children to adjust). Like having that child eating in a different room, at a slightly different time etc…

What about free school milk?

I’ve known someone who was allergic to beef.
Specific reaction to a protein found in beef but also in cows milk. The child could not have any of those wo an anaphylactic reaction.
It wasn’t airborne though - at least not for him.

This is too restrictive. My child is SEN and bread and cheese are one of the only lunch time food he will have, so I wouldn’t be changing it! And I would’n’t be cooking chicken and rice every day. Also a lot of kids like mine with SEN can get constipated so no he needs brown bread - not loads of chicken!

This could be to do with the child's religion perhaps?

This is a really tough list - and while I sympathise with the child’s parents - it is not fair to impose that on other families - query it

I know of someone whose child was so allergic to literally everything that the school refused to ask other students to not bring in the stuff

so she home educated her child because the school said they couldnt keep her safe.

Surely they could have come up with an alternative lunch arrangement?

Sounds like a nightmare for one poor kid but I would ask for clarification and the risk assessment regarding the severity of the allergies.

I would then say that unless some accommodations can be made to allow there to be food your child will be prepared to eat, he will need to be allowed to have school dinners.

There are a lot of good dairy alternatives now. The good thing with veganism becoming popular is that there are a LOT of good replacements now. We are all but vegan due to allergies and it's really no big deal. Cutting out wheat and meat would make life difficult though.

It’s not - it’s a preference.

Directly ask the school for dietary advice.

What CAN you provide in a packed lunch?

Could the children be put into different rooms according to different allergies?

Or should they all just eat outside in the freezing cold? Sounds bloody ridiculous to be honest and the school needs to get a better handle on this.

How ridiculous. Those “allergies” probably aren’t allergies at all. They almost certainly aren’t going to react dangerously to any of those things except for nuts. I would complain to school if I were you.

There are but they’re full of sugar and crap and have less bio-available calcium.

i have a child who is GF - but I wouldn’t.my let the others eat his food - even he won’t touch a lot of GF food as it tastes awful and again is full of crap!

I know of someone through a friend that’s is allergic to pork. I presume it’s rare, I’d never heard of it before but as a op said, you can be allergic to anything.
One of my kids has an unusual allergy, unfortunately met by some attitudes like on this thread. 🙄

Pp said, not Op

The school needs to use their imagination and resources to work this out. Other people will have had this situation and I doubt many have blanket bans like this - for one thing the margin for human error is massive

Wow, lots of people obsessed with not missing out on pork!

It is possible to have a pork allergy but it’s so super rare that I’d be inclined to think avoiding pork is a religious belief. In which case it should not be imposed on others.

Parents will struggle massively to provide meals that are wheat AND dairy free. My DS can’t eat wheat and it’s so difficult for me to feed him, never mind trying to avoid dairy as well. Even gluten free bread often contains dairy. Regardless, it’s HIS problem and I wouldn’t dream of demanding that other children also had to avoid things he can’t eat!