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Original poster

Shit I accidentally set a marzipan into a nut free school

189 replies

FairfaxAikmann · 18/12/2023 19:23

DS gets a snack box to school as he's autistic and often doesn't eat school dinner.
The box is bigger than I would send otherwise as it's intended to be a makeshift lunch if needed.
In addition to the usual fruits, veg, cheese etc he always hangers a cake type thing - something like a mini roll.

However as it's Christmas we had mini Stollen in the house so I sent that.

I had no idea there was marzipan in the middle! I hate raisins so have never eaten the stuff and DH had taken it out of the packaging and out in the biscuit barrel.

Thankfully the SEN unit is separate and there's no nut allergies there.

But shit, I fucked up.

What's the worst you've fucked up with school stuff?

OP posts:
purpletrees16 · 19/12/2023 08:40

There are degrees of nut allergies & some people are allergic to different nuts but the advice is to avoid all in case the e.g. almond met a peanut in the factory.

My husband is allergic to hazelnuts but at the level where I have seen him choose to eat round cashew nuts in a dish. Didn’t stop him have anaphylactic shock when he ate a hazelnut parfait style cake 2 years earlier.

Allergies are confusing things - some people will die if you open up a pack of peanuts on a plane, others have to eat a lot of a thing (and people have different risk tolerances - I would never let a kid act like my husband as I wouldn’t trust their perception of risk until their 20s haha.)

lumpfy · 19/12/2023 08:54

Two people in my family are allergic to nuts, although thankfully only when they eat them (not airborne.) I've been on flights with them when the announcement has been made that no-one should eat nuts, when actually other people eating nuts wouldn't cause them a problem. I guess the airline just wants to be cautious?

Some people can die even when they don't eat the product themselves. There was a terrible case a few year ago when a child died at school. He was allergic to dairy and a classmate threw cheese at him which went down his collar, touching his skin:

Boy with allergy died after cheese was flicked at him, inquest told | London | The Guardian

Boy with allergy died after cheese was flicked at him, inquest told

Court hears Karanbir Singh Cheema, 13, shouted ‘I’m going to die’ to staff at London school

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

HelpMeGetThrough · 19/12/2023 09:01

redcar28 · 18/12/2023 20:21

We had a flight of couple of months ago. The attendant made numerous announcements saying that somebody onboard had a severe nut allergy and we shouldn't consume any items, so I did wonder what would happen if somebody did. I can understand in a school, where food may get in the wrong hands etc

Nothing. I was on an Easyjet flight a few weeks ago and had sat down and was eating a Snickers Duo (it's a Marathon!!!) as I'd not had tea.

Announcement was made that a passenger had a severe nut allergy and no nut products would be sold or should be eaten. There wasn't much I could do, as i was half way through it. Necked it and put the wrapper in my pocket.

Everyone lived.

Interested in this thread?

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General food
LaurieStrode · 19/12/2023 09:16

Beginningless · 18/12/2023 20:14

I have a good one. I found an alive tick on my puppy for the first time. I don’t kill anything so I put it in a small Tupperware while I decided what I would do with it. In the morning I’d decided I would take it on a forest walk and put it out. When I went to get it the tub was gone! I hadn’t told DH it was there and assumed tick was now crawling about our floor, as he’d have opened tub to put it in dishwasher.

Went to ask DH and it turned out he’d given DD a bit of cake for school snack and put it in the tub! This was morning time and he said he’d told her to eat it at lunch, so I rang the office and had a giggle with the office lady about the random request to check the tub. She called back 5 min later sounding brave, saying DD had eaten the cake and asked me would she be ok? I said yes and felt sorry for poor DD in case I’d freaked her out.

When I picked her up I apologised and she said ‘I saw the tick mum! It was on my cake so I went and shook it off in the sensory garden in the playground’. So some poor mum ended up with wee ticky coming home to them, probably! Oops

Priceless!!

Thank you for being kind to the tick. I too rehome stray insects.

wudubelieveit · 19/12/2023 10:02

"Restrictive policies that focus on bans (or restricted presence in certain areas) of peanuts or peanut-containing products in environments such as schools or on commercial aircraft are not backed by evidence that such measures work, which may raise an uncomfortable clash between accommodations that lack any medical evidence of necessity and a desire to provide measures that comfort our patients." Environmental exposure to peanut and the risk of an allergic reaction - PubMed (nih.gov) for anyone that has that high level of allergic risk, they should be approaching their Dr's as immunotherapy trials are looking promising

Environmental exposure to peanut and the risk of an allergic reaction - PubMed

There is little risk posed from non-oral exposure to peanut in the environment, from casual contact, proximity, or inhalation. If 5% of the population may tolerate a threshold of approximately 1.5 mg of peanut protein, this may help liberate behavior a...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29555352/

fitforflight · 19/12/2023 10:08

wudubelieveit · 19/12/2023 10:02

"Restrictive policies that focus on bans (or restricted presence in certain areas) of peanuts or peanut-containing products in environments such as schools or on commercial aircraft are not backed by evidence that such measures work, which may raise an uncomfortable clash between accommodations that lack any medical evidence of necessity and a desire to provide measures that comfort our patients." Environmental exposure to peanut and the risk of an allergic reaction - PubMed (nih.gov) for anyone that has that high level of allergic risk, they should be approaching their Dr's as immunotherapy trials are looking promising

Immunotherapy isn't offered in the UK for this. That site is American. And it's only peanuts, not nuts in general.

ColleenDonaghy · 19/12/2023 10:38

YireosDodeAver · 19/12/2023 06:53

Dealing with nut allergies by attempting to have a nut free school makes no sense. If you do this you are entrusting your child's health and wellbeing to random untrained and uneducated (about allergies) people whose priorities really don't include your child. You cannot sufficiently guilt-trip every parent to make any environment actually nut-free. Some parents are simply immune to guilt-tripping. You need instead to work on the assumption that the environment isn't nut-free and have procedures that protect the child inbthe context of an assumption that any door handle could have been touched by someone who had peanut butter for breakfast and any item that didn't come out of the allergic child's own lunchbox may contain nuts.

It's also really discriminatory to privilege nut-allergy people in this way over other allergies. Dairy, soya, strawberries eggs, all can be terrifyingly severe allergies too and in a large school there's likely to be a range of allergies. You can't ban all possible allergens from the menu, you wouldn't be able to give adequate nutrition (especially to vegetarians) if you tried.

Completely agree, and I have a DC who carries epipens due to a peanut allergy. Nut free schools create a false sense of security, and based on the comments I see in allergy FB groups, don't allow parents and children to establish sensible ways of dealing with a world that does contain their allergens.

The parents of DC with severe milk/egg/sesame allergies must find it very frustrating to read.

Also, my understanding is that the current thinking is that nut and peanut allergies aren't airborne. Other allergens can be (especially things like milk in cafes with frothers), but reactions that were thought to be airborne nut reactions were likely contact reactions. The problem with planes is that peanuts used to be popular snack, and so when everyone opens their pack and touches surfaces etc, the risk is higher. Someone many rows away eating a Snickers much less likely to cause an issue.

HelpMeGetThrough · 19/12/2023 10:53

Someone many rows away eating a Snickers much less likely to cause an issue.

I was just hoping it wasn't one of the people next to me. If it was, they probably would have said something.

Zimunya · 19/12/2023 10:55

YireosDodeAver · 19/12/2023 06:53

Dealing with nut allergies by attempting to have a nut free school makes no sense. If you do this you are entrusting your child's health and wellbeing to random untrained and uneducated (about allergies) people whose priorities really don't include your child. You cannot sufficiently guilt-trip every parent to make any environment actually nut-free. Some parents are simply immune to guilt-tripping. You need instead to work on the assumption that the environment isn't nut-free and have procedures that protect the child inbthe context of an assumption that any door handle could have been touched by someone who had peanut butter for breakfast and any item that didn't come out of the allergic child's own lunchbox may contain nuts.

It's also really discriminatory to privilege nut-allergy people in this way over other allergies. Dairy, soya, strawberries eggs, all can be terrifyingly severe allergies too and in a large school there's likely to be a range of allergies. You can't ban all possible allergens from the menu, you wouldn't be able to give adequate nutrition (especially to vegetarians) if you tried.

Agree with this. DD is allergic to most nuts. Her school was initially nut free, but then the parents of vegans / vegetarians complained as this severely limited what their kids could consume at school. I would like the school to remain nut free, of course, even though she knows full well how to ask about and manage her allegies, but I can understand where the other parents are coming from.

CuttingMeOpenthenHealingMeFine · 19/12/2023 11:10

The nut free school debate is interesting, my DC’s school is nut free and my eldest has nut allergies as do many others but the actual reason for the school being nut free (other local schools aren’t) is because a member of staff has a severe, air bourne, nut allergy and so it is a work place adjustment for her rather than being for the allergic children. I wouldn’t have an issue with there being nuts in school as my DS goes loads of places where people have no such restrictions (cinema etc). He will also go to high school soon which has no restrictions.

He has however, while out playing with friends, experienced people throwing nuts at him in an attempt to make him have a reaction so vigilance is important.

The issue with planes is being in the air, possibly miles from land, and having a reaction. Epi pens are not magic, lots of people take them and still die and after taking them you still need seen by a medical professional asap.

sashh · 19/12/2023 11:48

The issue with planes is being in the air, possibly miles from land, and having a reaction. Epi pens are not magic, lots of people take them and still die and after taking them you still need seen by a medical professional asap.

Also planes filter and circulate the air, whilst that means you should be breathing fresh air is also means the air is moving around the cabin.

ColleenDonaghy · 19/12/2023 12:12

sashh · 19/12/2023 11:48

The issue with planes is being in the air, possibly miles from land, and having a reaction. Epi pens are not magic, lots of people take them and still die and after taking them you still need seen by a medical professional asap.

Also planes filter and circulate the air, whilst that means you should be breathing fresh air is also means the air is moving around the cabin.

Yeah but you can still buy a milky coffee no problem, or have eggs for breakfast. It's only ever nuts that are banned, even though the protein doesn't become airborne. It's a bit weird.

Alloveragain3 · 19/12/2023 12:20

@fitforflight Immunotherapy is now available for many foods in the UK privately and for peanut on the NHS.

We're doing Immunotherapy for milk, egg and sesame in the Portland since last year for my son.

ColleenDonaghy · 19/12/2023 12:22

Alloveragain3 · 19/12/2023 12:20

@fitforflight Immunotherapy is now available for many foods in the UK privately and for peanut on the NHS.

We're doing Immunotherapy for milk, egg and sesame in the Portland since last year for my son.

That's fantastic. Best of luck with it, surely life changing if it's successful.

muggart · 19/12/2023 12:49

PhulNana · 18/12/2023 20:24

Curious thing, when I was 15, I had a friend who claimed to have an nut allergy, but liked eating chocolate marzipan. She was amazed when I told her that marzipan is made from almonds. Didn't believe me at first.

Most people who have nut allergies are able to have some types of nuts they can eat.

My DD is allergic to peanuts and nearly all tree nuts but not walnut for some mystery reason.

Also, your friend may well have tested positive for almond when younger and then outgrown it.

muggart · 19/12/2023 12:52

redcar28 · 18/12/2023 20:18

Out of curiosity, what happens if you eat nuts near somebody with a severe allergy? How does the reaction happen if they don't directly consume it?

It can also be an issue if you don't wash your hands after touching nuts and then someone with an allergy touches, say, the same door knob.

InflatableSanta · 19/12/2023 13:21

muggart · 19/12/2023 12:52

It can also be an issue if you don't wash your hands after touching nuts and then someone with an allergy touches, say, the same door knob.

Show quote history

Not just nuts, any food. My children have had severe reactions just from contact with milk/egg

Good hand washing and hygiene helps all allergies.

It's quite important to continue to remember that egg and milk etc are dangerous allergens too.

Karanbir Cheema died at school just from contact with cheese

Ting20161987 · 19/12/2023 13:27

You can be allergic to different nuts. My child is allergic to 2 types of nuts, both causing anaphylaxis. But my child can eat other nuts and peanuts. Pretty scary the amount of obnoxious an uneducated comments on here

wudubelieveit · 19/12/2023 14:55

fitforflight · 19/12/2023 10:08

Immunotherapy isn't offered in the UK for this. That site is American. And it's only peanuts, not nuts in general.

Show quote history

If you go to the AllergyUk website you will see that we don’t recommend nut free schools in the uk either…as we were discussing nut bans on planes I included this as research shows that there is no good evidence for banning peanuts and that the airborne risk is over stated . Immunotherapy is available in the UK .

CuttingMeOpenthenHealingMeFine · 19/12/2023 15:35

wudubelieveit · 19/12/2023 14:55

If you go to the AllergyUk website you will see that we don’t recommend nut free schools in the uk either…as we were discussing nut bans on planes I included this as research shows that there is no good evidence for banning peanuts and that the airborne risk is over stated . Immunotherapy is available in the UK .

Show quote history

We were quoted £15k to get peanut only immunotherapy on the NHS in England as NHS Scotland doesn’t offer it. I imagine that is more expensive privately.

it’s not something most people can afford.

Spaghettieis · 19/12/2023 15:50

Beginningless · 18/12/2023 20:14

I have a good one. I found an alive tick on my puppy for the first time. I don’t kill anything so I put it in a small Tupperware while I decided what I would do with it. In the morning I’d decided I would take it on a forest walk and put it out. When I went to get it the tub was gone! I hadn’t told DH it was there and assumed tick was now crawling about our floor, as he’d have opened tub to put it in dishwasher.

Went to ask DH and it turned out he’d given DD a bit of cake for school snack and put it in the tub! This was morning time and he said he’d told her to eat it at lunch, so I rang the office and had a giggle with the office lady about the random request to check the tub. She called back 5 min later sounding brave, saying DD had eaten the cake and asked me would she be ok? I said yes and felt sorry for poor DD in case I’d freaked her out.

When I picked her up I apologised and she said ‘I saw the tick mum! It was on my cake so I went and shook it off in the sensory garden in the playground’. So some poor mum ended up with wee ticky coming home to them, probably! Oops

I avoid killing insects but I draw the line at vectors for disease like ticks and mosquitos. A really fit and active friend of mine has recently been completely
brought down by catching Lyme disease from a tick, spending months unable to work. Not killing it when you found was really stupid and could have made someone very poorly.

Mariposistaa · 19/12/2023 15:53

bellac11 · 18/12/2023 20:37

I thought the evidence was that we have created this problem by being 'nut free' or limiting uts during pregnancy and childhood

In societies where nuts are in nearly everything, they dont have such high instances of nut allergies.

Its a real problems

I laughed with DH that the second we found out I was pregnant I would be eating peanut butter every day - no way did I want to be living in a peanut free house so if there is any way to avoid it, I would.
No idea whether there is a link, but it's all good. Kiddo is fine hahaha

Mirrormeback · 19/12/2023 16:01

When I was at School I remember DC on the news dying from nut allergies. It was a very regular occurrence.

It took ages actually for the government to realise that if they just banned nuts from school then all these DC wouldn't have to needlessly die

Because of course not everyone knew they had a nut allergy till they did and by then they might be dead.

Mirrormeback · 19/12/2023 16:03

People can be allergic to different nuts and seeds

Sometimes me people ore just sensitive so they're the ones that get maybe a rash or feel nauseous

Others get full blown anaphylactic shock and die in minutes

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