Peanut & nut allergy in school

[Julia76]

Hi Can any one help. My 7 year old son has a severe peanut allergy and i have had lots of problems when it comes to lunch times at school, as they do not have a ban on nuts. After he went in to anaphylactic shock in 2005 we had to be sure we wasnt taking any risks. When he attended the infant school he was isolated to begin with by being put in the in the library area at lunch until i kicked up a fuss as he felt different to everyone else, as i was not made aware of this. The school's solution was not a solution in my eyes & they didnt feel they could do any more then what they were doing. One friend who sat with him one day had a free school meal and it contained a peanut biscuit. They sat him with this boy so he wasnt at risk but obviously had not looked in this boy's lunch box to check what he had for lunch. It was only due to the fact that the boy asked the dinner lady to open it that she noticed. So much for safety at school ay? anyway, they would not consider a nut/peanut ban as they said too many parents would kick up a fuss as lots of children took peanut butter sandwiches to school, nut containing biscuits & my son was the only peanut allergy sufferer in the school.
He is now in the junior school & things have became easier in that he is that much older now and very aware of his peanut allergy. This school will not consider a ban on nuts/peanuts & i worry so much that one day i will have a phone call saying he has gone in to anaphylactic shock again, due to them not taking the necessary precausions. He sits wher ehe choses at lunch in the hall, as he wanted this but i feel they are not doing enough to make sure he is not at risk. d. I have mentioned banning all nuts/peanuts from school but they are of the same opinion of the infant school that a nut ban can not be put in place, due to the fact that Shane is the only child with this allergy & that it would not be fair on the other children. Children have at times eaten mixed fruit & nut at play time & i dont feel this is exceptable. as much as i stress that it is not just about him touching or coming in to contact with someone who may have eaten them, its about them touching door handles, pens, pencils equipment, furniture etc with the peanut oil transfering on to things. Am i over reacting? Nothing has happened as yet whilst being in their care? but i worry so much for him. Does any one know what i may beable to do? I think the schools are more worried of what parents would say if a nut/peanut ban was put in place, then my son's safety! Any opinions or advice much apopreciated.

I'm a parent of allergic children, one thankfully mild but the other serious and possibly getting worse . Unfortunately that means you need to work at learning about allergies because you can't rely on most of what passes for an allergy service in this country. We were extremely lucky in seeing a great allergy consultant initially. I've learnt as much if not more from the anaphylaxis campaign ( their newsletters are good) and from meeting the parents of other allergic children.

I thought we'd had bad enough problems with schools but your school meal issues are terrible. Most school caterers don't make much use of nut. Our got worried about coconut and their vegetable oil. (Silly idiots didn't ask me, I'd have told them it wasn't an issue). If I'd ordered a nut free meal and my child was forced to eat something they didn't know was safe I would be furious.

The anaphylaxis campaign person who offered to help me sort out my school problems was a volunteer and a parent of an allergic child themselves. I think that's true of all of the area people, although perhaps not of all the helpline staff. They have probably been through similar problems and will understand how you feel.

Draft out a letter to parents yourself and take it along to a meeting. The school have a legal obligation under Health & Safety legislation to minimise risk and sometimes they need to be reminded about it. If you get nowhere with the head talk to the governors and write to them too.

I think with the school meals thing, the area manager did not realise what i had been told from the nutritionist about avoiding the foods with sauces. They send me a list every so often explaining ingrediants. well if nut ingrediant/coconut, etc. The bread is made on a machine where nuts were previously used & coconut obviously in the korma. There is no mention that peanuts are present in any of their foods, however because of what i had been told about avoiding particular meals prepared by them, i did not think it was or is wise him receiving them.
Can you please tell me how you came to meet parents of other allergic children? It would be good to get in touch with others in the same position to share experiences and just to know you are not alone. Thank you again. x

Hi Julia, sorry ive not been on the computer since. As for the print outs on different schools ect. We just typed in different searches in the search bar. eg nut ban in schools ect (using different wordings) Hunted until we found a number of schools. Sorry I have given all the info to school now but it was just the case of different searches and seeing what came up. Very useful and certainly helps.

Thank you Chloesmumtoo. I may try this.

Hi i spoke with my son's class teacher today, as SENCO was not available at the time to talk to me. She is going to get back to me to arrange a metting so that i can go over everything to check that they are doing all they can to reduce the risk of a reaction happening in school. I have written all things i need to mention & will bring these up with them at the meeting & i will post a message to let you know the outcome. May be you could give me some advice on something else. Last night my son went out with relatives & they took him to get some chocolate. He started eating "milky stars" (which contain peanut traces) They did not check the ingrediants until he was eating them. My son has had Milky stars a few times before had no reaction to them, so he told his grandparents he was ok having them. His nan took them off him once she realised they contained peanut traces & explained why she took them off him (hed eaten some)& then when he returned home, he complained of a tummy ache, headache & told me he needed to get some air. Gave him his inhaler, calpol & anti histamine. No rash appeared & he soon recovered. I checked him all through the night. He still complained of a tummy ache & slight headache this morning, so i kept him at home as a procausion. I phoned nhs direct up to check i had done right & the nurse said it may have been a coincidence that he had the tummy ach etc & may be coming down with something. Once i explained in more detail of his allergy she said that if it was a mild reaction then it had now passed. But she seemed to believe that it probably did not have anything to do with the peanut traces in the chocolate. Has anyone any advice? Could it have been a mild reaction & if so why had he not reacted to Milky stars before, or could it just have been a coincidence? I certainly will not allow him to have them again(or milky way) as im pretty sure they contain traces of peanuts also, just incase he did or would have a reaction to the trace! He is highly allergic to peanuts & could a small trace of made him have a small reaction? Thanks

Hi again, just spoke to Senco & have arranged a meeting for tomorrow afternoon to discuss things. I briefly mentioned what i wanted to discuss & a few suggestions & i think he will co-operate. He was not aware of the hot meal mix up & quite concerened about this & is going to ask the dinner lady supervisor to attend the meeting, aswell as himself & class teacher. This is so that we can make sure shane is not put at any risk especially at lunch times, as i told him that my son had informed me that the dinner laies do not check the children with whom he sits near every day for peanut butter etc. . He was also concerned that he was ill after consuming the Magic stars yesterday. This may make the staff realise the seriousness of his allergy.Although i did tell him we couls not be 100% sure it was a reaction. I will keep you posted & tell you the out come of the meeting. So fingers crossed all goes ok.

The anaphylaxis campaign run a small number of meet ups for families of allergic children. You don't even have to be a member to attend, although people usually are members. Very good for checking epipens are in date, there is always at least one that isn't I've also met other families at school(s) but mainly through the anaphylaxis campaign.

It can be hard to tell what is a reaction and what isn't. Vomiting quite often accompanies a reaction to peanut but it could just be a virus. If you are ever in doubt treat it as a reaction.

Most of the time "may contain" foods don't actually have nut in them. for example Cadburys pump milk chocolate through their machines after producing chocolate with nut in. That's why Cadburys "may contain" chocolate sometimes has whole nuts in it. It's then labelled "may contain". If you get the first bar that is produced from the choclate its probably more contaminated than the 1000 th bar.

Tha magic starts contain peanut traces. It does not say may contain peanuts.

Hi again Tatt, & all, My ds is fine now after being ill yesterday. If it was a virus, it only lasted 24 hrs if that! I don't suppose i will know for sure if it was a mild reaction or not, but i will certainly take even more precautions now then what i usually do. I am even thinking of doing a personal protocol for relatives to have at hand, which also will state what he can eat & what should be avoided. The meeting went very well. There were 3 staff present. Senco, class teacher & his LSA. They took on board all i was saying. It was very daunting, as all eyes were on me & i had no personal support, so i was very nervous but i was surprised how i just took the lead & spoke form my heart & they really sympathised with me i think. They Let me have my say & was very co-operative. I think things may have been quite different if the head had been present though, from previous conversations we have had on the subject. But fortunately they were all very supportive, which is great. I suggested a talk in assembly or a support from a organiser of the Anaphylaxis Campaign to go in to the school & they thought it was a good idea. They are also going to mention about the nut allergy suffers in the school news letter(as there are 2 other children who attend the school who have nut allergies, that i was not aware of until i asked today. The head teacher gave me the impression from a previous conversation we had that my ds was the only child with a peanut allergy. They have asked if i would write the notice for the newsletter to make parents/carers aware of the peanut/nut allergy children in the school, what the risks are, to
emphasis the importance of not sharing foods, a polite notice to mention that it would be best if children can withdraw from bringing nut/peanut butter sandwiches/ peanut biscuits, nut containing foods etc. But to make sure they realise a complete ban is not in place, as this may create more problems with some parents if they feel they are being told what they can or cant put in their children's lunch.
If anyone has any suggestions that may help me, then i would appreciate any help with this. I obviously need to tread carefully & word this in a way that we do not give the impression that there is a nut ban in place, as there is not. So any suggestions would be good. Also will mention, what happens as a result of a reaction etc. risks, & how to avoid a reaction. I need it to be quite short i think, as i do not want to put anyone of. If it is long winded, people may not read it. (hope you read this tho!lol, as i do tend to go on!lol
A risk assessment has been done. Does anyone know anything about that? Am i entitled to know the outcome of this?
Also they have my ds photo & medical condition in the staff room on the wall, along with the other 2 children with a nut allergy. I had not also been made aware of this. I think there just has not been any communication. Anyway, things are looking up & i am feeling more positive about things now. I can relax more(although never totally relaxed are you) whilst he is at school, & it looks like things will be put in place now that wasn?t. I alsobroguht up the proposals for the new healthy eating, wher nuts, peanuts & seed are being encouraged as an healthy eating alternative. They have won awards for heakthy eating in the school & encourage this but do not think that they will encoursge nuts etc due to allergy suffres. so this was brilliant to hear. They will keep me informed on this, so hopefully my ds school willl not encourage this. Thank you all for your advise. It really hasd been a great help.