What's your opinion/ experience of nut free schools?

[BagOfBags]

I'm beginning to think about schools for DS who has a severe nut allergy. What I'm wondering is what people think about nut free schools. My gut reaction is that they must be a good thing but how has it worked for you / your child in reality? Are nut bans actually enforced or do they create a false sense of security.
Ds's nursery is nut free and his key worker always sits next to him whenever there's food around to make sure he only eats his own. I'm not sure how much supervision he would get in reception.
Thanks for reading.

That's a relief bags :)

Oh I do get so fed up with the urban myth that nut allergies are somehow more serious than any other type of allergy. It's perfectly possible to have a mild allergy to nuts but a life threatening allergy to milk or wheat yet so many people believe that only nut allergies can be life threatening. ANY allergy can be life threatening it's just that nut allergies are the most common and most publicised. My DS is anaphylactic to milk, wheat, eggs and (possibly) nuts. But nuts are the least of our problems as his milk allergy is by far the worst and very difficult to manage because dairy products are everywhere and most kids tend to be covered in the bloody stuff (eg chocolate, ice cream, butter, milk etc). You don't get many kids running around soft play covered in nuts do you but how many do you see covered in chocolate or ice cream? A drop of milk is enough to cause a very serious allergic reaction for my DS.

Like a number of the others on here, I don't believe in 'nut free' schools as they give a false sense of security and are impossible to police - do we expect lunchtime supervisors to check every sandwich to see if it contains peanut butter? I also wouldn't expect any school to ban all the foods my DS is allergic to as this would be very reasonable (and virtually impossible). However, I do expect the school to put measures in place to keep my child safe and teach the other children about his allergies and how to help keep him safe. He reacts on contact with very small amounts of milk (eg comes out in hives after sitting on hall floor in shorts) so they do have to be very careful but he's in his third year of primary school now and so far it's gone very well, even though the other children get given free milk every day . Yes he's had reactions including a few bad ones where they came very close to having to give his epi-pen but thankfully they haven't had to so far and I do feel the school work hard to keep him safe. The most important thing is to talk to the staff, explain your child's allergies, describe what a reaction looks like (can be different for every child) and the ways you keep them safe at home eg wiping surfaces, avoiding cross-contamination, making sure everyone washes their hands and faces before touching your child, not sharing food etc.

DS is allergic to kiwi fruit and apples as well as pine nuts. I wouldn't expect the school to ban all of that.

I did have to take a leap of faith when he started school. The nurse from the peadiatric allergy unit liased with the school and went in for epi-pen training on his second day of school. The school kitchen have big photos of all children with allergies up on the wall. I don't panic quite so much these days, the school isn't too big so most staff are aware of his allergies and DS is gobby enough to mention it.

Babybarrister those links are really useful, thank you

DC school has an official "No nuts" policy, I worked there as dinner lady last yr. I had to know which kids had nut allergies, were 4-8 kids at different levels of diagnosis & certainty, including one in reception.

No dedicated supervision of what they ate, just awareness & training for staff to recognise reactions & know what to do in case. One older boy had contact allergy; even touching a nut was hazardous and he ate at his own (dedicated, used for nothing else) table and near supervising staff (only because he was in SN unit for other reasons).

We wiped down surfaces after use, & anything that looked dirty before use (obviously tables & benches shouldn't be put away dirty, but it could happen). We wiped down to cut down on germs, really! Floors were cleaned less thoroughfully but still swept & mopped anything obvious.

Food was never supposed to be shared (this changes, btw, when they go to secondary!).

I don't know of any allergy incidents while I was working there.

My son is in reception and there is a child in another reception class who has an extremely severe nut allergy. As well as banning all foods with nuts they have also put special hand sanitising units on all the entrances to the reception unit and all the children and adults entering know they have to clean their hands before they enter. So far it seems to be working...

Our school bans nuts and all nut products. Kids get in serious trouble for sharing food.

Parents are regularly reminded about types of foods that have nuts as we have some very allergic children.

Nothing is fool proof but it's a good thing to raise awareness.

hand sanitising liquid does not get rid of peanut/nut protein, it kills germs, not break down protein.

so while good to stop illness spreading its not going to replace warm water and soap, which does remove nut protein.

When dd started YR there was one other nut allergic child and no nut ban. DD sat with her friends, didn't share food, staff were aware of symptoms and what to do if she reacted. This worked for years. There are now 3 nut allergic children and we have a nut ban. This means there are 'nut free zone' posters up and twice a letter was sent home saying not to send in anything with nuts. DD knows why she can eat and tells me that loads of people have things with nuts in in their packed lunches. She was very pissed off/upset when the ban first came in because a lot of the others were saying, 'we can't have x/y/z any more because of mimimischief'. I was quite vocal about not supporting a nut ban because I didn't want her taking the flack for it (plus I don't support the ban - i think it's counter productive). The other allergic children sit at a separate table with chosen friends. My friends ds is one of the 'chosen friends' for a boy in his class and my friend has put him on school dinners as she doesn't want the responsibility of giving him a nut free packed lunch. She can hardly afford the school dinner. One of the other allergic children did react when her 'chosen friend' had a bag of some peanutty snack from the Chinese supermarket. (allergic child ate some, assuming it was 'safe' as it was on the nut free table - she was fine).

DD has had people claim it's fine to share food now as it is a nut free school but fortunately she was old enough when the ban came in to realise it was pretty meaningless.

There is a 'nut ban' at our infant school

I think parents do try their best but I'm sure accidents happen, though not peanut butter sandwiches if you see what I mean

They are very careful to keep the school dinners 'nut free' as well

We have had a few children with very severe nut allergies go through the school including my friends child. No issues so far and no one sits with the child at lunchtime or snack time (fruit only at snack time)

As well as banning all foods with nuts they have also put special hand sanitising units on all the entrances to the reception unit and all the children and adults entering know they have to clean their hands before they enter.

Surely this is complete nonsense? Sanitising stuff does not clean things away, it merely kills germs. The non-live contamination remains - ie the peanut allergen.

allergic child ate some, assuming it was 'safe' as it was on the nut free table

And that demonstrates just why 'nut-free zones' are pointless. Unless they are imposed and policed by knowledgeable people - ie the nut-allergic people themselves(or their knowledgeable and experienced parents, of course).

I think we need to distinguish between allergy and intolerance here. Lots of people are intolerant to dairy, eggs etc which generally results in diarrhoea, vomiting etc. Allergy is much more sever and can have blistering skin anaphalatic shock among other things just like some peoples reactions to nuts. Though as knowing several adults and children with sever intolerance the reaction is just as awful, think sever vomiting for several hours combined with the worst stomach cramps you have ever had and ranging ring of fire all within minutes of food hitting stomach. Like nut oil, egg and lactose powder are used in stuff you would never dream of putting milk in normally and yes it can be as little as a crumb to kick off the symptoms.

Schools can request parents not to put nuts in lunchboxes, but while things like peanut butter sandwiches are obvious, other things might not be. Also we eat nuts at home, so who is to say there wouldn't be traces of something on/in the lunchbox we send to school? Also processed snack foods may contain traces of nuts.

DS school is nut freeI only knew this once He had a halthy- nut bar confiscated at break time.

My DS has a lot of allergies cannot have cows milk, sugar, etc.
So i was a bit cross when DS was sent home ill after a child gave him a chocolate chip cookie at fruit time!!!

What you have to remember is to make everyone well aware of the allergies but no one can 100% guarentee you children won't share foods.

my summer born son is in reception with severe tree nut, sesame and egg allergies. the school don't use nuts or sesame in school meals, egg is used but thankfully he is not the only egg allergic child in school so they were already used to dealing with egg avoidance. i had a meeting with the school, council and catering staff prior to him starting so they understood his reactions, i am comfortable he is safe, is helped with his choices and won't share food. he often comes home and tells me he wasn't allowed the ice cream or the sausages as they had egg in them. i choose this school over the other local school as felt more comfortable with their allergy attitude and policies, it was a key part of our decision - especially as he was just 4 when he started school.

Our school used to ban nuts. And I sent in Nutella sandwiches.

It wasn't deliberate and is obviously a bit dim.

My children don't have allergies and I'm not in the mindset of checking labels.

If my child had allergies I would not be placing trust and responsibility on other parents to keep them safe. People aren't aware/forget what is in things (even with the obvious 'nut' in the name).
Things like not sharing food being strictly enforced and making sure the child understands the risk ate likely to be more effective.

Our school used to ban nuts. And I sent in Nutella sandwiches.

It wasn't deliberate and is obviously a bit dim.

My children don't have allergies and I'm not in the mindset of checking labels.

If my child had allergies I would not be placing trust and responsibility on other parents to keep them safe. People aren't aware/forget what is in things (even with the obvious 'nut' in the name).
Things like not sharing food being strictly enforced and making sure the child understands the risk ate likely to be more effective.

Blanket bans are pointless; at best they don't always work, at worst they give a false sense of security and the impression that nut allergies are somehow 'special'.

The important thing is to teach your child from the outset how to manage their allergy, their life depends on information, training and good food discipline.

Ds 18 has treenut and seed allergies. Thankfully his schools have not been nut free and it has not been an issue. I have yet to hear of a school banning hummous sandwiches, which would be far more of a risk to him than a peanut butter sandwich. He actually grew out of peanut allergy, although i think he may be allergic to chickpeas as well as the sesame in hummous.

Hi BagsOfBags, not read all the posts but just wanted to say about my dd's primary. Everything was quite new to us back then and less was understood 7-8yrs ago. But when she started primary I had a few meetings with her school with my concerns and they did decided to ask parents not to pack their children nut products for pack lunches etc. I know it is not endorsed via the anaphylaxis campaign but to me, all that time ago, it did help. They did it as an 'ASK' so routinely a little letter went out to parents reminding them about a child with a servere nut allergy and asking for them for their children not to bring in nut products. I felt comfort in this and it bought awareness. I was not gulible into thinking there was never eg marzipan products in a childs pack lunch. But to me at that very difficult time it did give me some reasurance. Dds primary was very understanding so I was very lucky. They used special cleaning products to thoroughly clean and made sure the table she sat at was where she sat at every lunch time. This way they always knew where she was. She did not have a false sense of security and checked everything via me if she was ever given a sweet due to a childs birthday, I never trusted anything,and would do a swap for something safe. Now she is in a secondary school and is with children eating what they want. A nut ban was not on the cards and I did not request it as now she does have to be in the real world so to speak but back then I don't think I was ready and she was so young and things were so hard to understand. I am/was happy about lowering the risk back then even if things are never a total clear cut ban. It worked for us, but I was under no illusion that nuts were totally illiminated. Fairs/fetes with home made cakes, boxes of celebrations were given out as prizes once to my horror at a fete. It did still happen, we just get conditioned in spotting everything nutty!!

totally agree - houmous is a huge issue for my DS too but people don't realise sesame / tahini can cause anaphylaxis, we have had to leave kids parties due to messy houmous eating by preschoolers.... banning nuts in schools purely decreases the risk to nut allergic kids. My DS (4) knows why he cannot eat certain things and will check with me or an adult before he eats anything. I am more comfortable with him eating school dinners, the packed lunch kids sit in a different area so any houmous/ or stray nutella sandwiches are on a different table. I am aware of some schools being packed lunch only, or advising allergic kids to bring packed lunches, but as you don't know what others have packed for their kids then I thought this was a greater risk?

ClairesTravellingCircus

Dairy allergies can be as serious as nut and peanut allergies, children who are anaphylactic to dairy for example will struggle to eat out, buy foods etc due to the cross contamination risks, as u mentioned, if a pot was used to make something containing milk, then washed and used to make something that is dairy free, that person could have a life threatening reaction.

Or if milk is spilled or squirted out of those cartons, not to mention yogurts, wotsits etc etc.

All allergies need to be taken very seriously, esp when there is a risk of anaphylaxis.

recently noticed that a company offering 'dairy free' product made with coconut milk, actually produce condensed milk (dairy) on the same line, and wash/flush equipment between runs, this could be very dangerous for someone who is anaphylactic to dairy due to cross contamination risk.

Hi, clairestravellingcircus,
My son is anaphylactic to dairy egg and nuts. He has NEVER eaten any of his allergens and rarely come into contact with them. He has had at least 7 technically anaphylactic episodes but thankfully never full blown ana shock. He struggles to breathe and his face swells, his whole body comes out in hives and generally terrifies us each time. There was one particular incident where he reacted to a splash of milk that genuinely did not look like it had touched him. He also begins to wheeze and gets hives and occasionally facial swelling when a pizza box is opened and the vapour from the hot cheese escapes. It is a misconception that dairy allergies cannot kill. In saying that, I would only request a nut free attempt at school (as it is impossible to guarantee) as nuts are more difficult to control. When eaten the nuts can become dust particles. The only time my son has reacted airborne to cold dairy was when someone are wotsits 4 seats away in the cinema. nonutsmomsgroup.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/remembering-those-we-have-lost-to-food-allergies.html
There are 7 incidences on this page of people (adults and children) who have passed due to milk.