mums going ga ga as nursery says no nuts/products

[thekidsrule]

hi,this isnt about me but happened at my sons nursery today and not sure if the parents ABU

as we collected are children a worker asked all parents NOT to include any nut products in their childs packed lunches as they now have a child with a nut allergy

Two of the parents went mad and were very rude to the worker about the ban

can see both sides but as my son dosent take in these products (peanut butter) etc it wont effect me and is probably why i cant make an opinion on this

so do you think the two parents who object to the ban are BU

Yes, no need for black and white thinking on this.

You can integrate two strategies -

1 - Elimate problematic food from the environment

2 - Be ALERT.

"Personally, if DD had a schoolmate with a life-threatening milk and egg allergy I'd be insisting she took ham sandwiches rather than cheese"

I was thinking about milk and whether I could not send ny dairy in with a packed lunch. It's far more difficult that avoiding out nuts. We use butter because, in part, I think it is more natural than the hydrogenated whatevers in margarine. In order to comply with no dairy, I'd have to specifically buy soemthing different and accept a potential health risk in toe form of those hydrogenated fats. ( I"ve not looked into the options though, I"m just idly musing). DS2 would be fine as he has no butter in his sandwiches wierdo.

A dairy allergy is far more invasive from a banned foods point of view. It's easy to avoid cheese, but not other forms.

The need to ban substances depends on the severity of the reaction. If a child was going to react to being in the same room of cheese (which I have never heard of happening) then they would be reasonable to ask for cheese not to be used in packed lunches. If its just a problem if they eat it themselves then steps to stop them eating it are adequate, same goes for nuts or other allergens.

DDs nursery (preschool attached to the primary school so aged 3-4) required the children to have packed lunches if they stayed for a whole day session.

Perhaps they should insist on their children exercise their human right to peanut butter sandwiches and then the children could have a bit of a biology/first aid session as they watch the person trained to use the epipen. This would also have the advantage of checking that the school has made provision for the trained person being absent (there will be more than one, but there has to be one at school all the time). Then they could all draw a picture to take home.

It's not their fault that the school has admitted someone with a peanut allergy.

Pootles2010 - possibly because the nursery is too small to provide lunch themselves. Our local nursery only has 25 kids and not enough room for food prep so it's packed lunches for everyone.

They abvvu.

As someone else said it's the dust of nuts that cause an allergic reaction - so inhaling this dust can be enough.

I'm not sure if inhaling eggs or milk would have the same effect.

I think inhaling eggs or milk would be messy :o

My son's school is also a nut-free zone. Given that it is actually possible for children with a very severe nut allergy to die from ingesting nuts, I'd say it's a perfectly reasonable request for the nursery to make .

But what if there are two children with allergies, one to nuts and one to dairy? Would you ban both? Or three or four? Schools and LEAs need broad workable policies which can be applied across the board so everyone knows where they stand - this becomes impossible when you talk about multiple severe allergies because you cannot practically ban so many food groups.

Sirzy - I'm no expert on allergies but my understanding is that the scale of the reaction is unpredictable. So a child with a mild reaction one day could have an anaphylactic reaction in the future.

The key here is balance. Forcing every family to go nut free because one child has an allergy is not a proportional response.

If a child was SO allergic that touching a contaminated surface would be dangerous then I would suggest that a mainstream school isn't the best place for them.

Like I said earlier, the tail should not wag the dog.

It's not only schools that do this. DH was on a flight to Munich once and the passengers were asked not to eat anything with nuts in as there was a passenger on board with severe nut allergy.

So niceguy, your suggestion is that my - otherwise healthy thankfully - sister should have gone to special school because she has a potentially fatal allergy? What a bizzare comment and I can only assume your not serious!

Scroobious, I do see where you are coming from but you can only act upon know reactions not possible otherwise there would be no limits to it all really!

What school would you suggest they go to then, niceguy2? That special Nut Allergy School for therwise Normal Children just down the road?

The thing with nuts is that they are very easy to leave out of a packed lunch. It's really very easy to do and really would not impact on anyone's life. It's less easy with dairy, which is probably why they don't ban it. Not having nuts in a lunch box is a piece of walnut cake.

I think they abu. My daughter has a very severe nut allergy to all nuts. She has had an extreme reaction needing emergency hospital care after being around someone who had a peanut butter sandwich. She did not even go near the food at all but I was told at the hospital that she may have come in to contact with the spores whilst it was being eaten, which caused her reaction.

I am glad that her school have this ban as I never want to see my dd's eyes swell so much where she cannot see, her lips swell and change colour and she is literally gasping for air ever again.

They are BU

I heart your OP to for the use of the expression 'going ga ga'

Another favourite is 'blowing my fu fu valve' which DD's say I do on a regular basis.

just ignore me

It's frightening isn't it lenga? My ds wasn't able to see for 3 days after a very severe reaction, his poor eyes swelled up so much.

My dcs school have a nut and now an apricot ban. My dd has a girl in her class yr 2 that is so allergic to nuts that she doesn't have to eat them just the spores in the air or being near someone with them sends her in to an anaphaltyic shock. Likewise the child with apricots.

Until the child with the apricot allergy joined the shool my dcs used to take homemade aprict jam sandwiches to school quite often. When we got the letter home explaining about the childs allergy. I explained to my dcs 5/6 that a friend of theres was allergic to them and if they took the sandwiches to school their friend would be poorley they both understood why they could'nt take them.

My dcs school is a realtivly small school so what they do at teh egining of teh school year is have a meeting with all the parents explaining about any know allergies in the school and discussing lunchbox options. If a new pupil joins with an allergy a warning letter is sent home to parents.

My ds is allergic to facepaint of all things when he had his tests done we found one facepaint that he was ok with so what I do is keep these face paints at home for him. Then when they are having face painting done at school i either paint his face at home first or send his face paints in for him and his ta does his face using his own paints. I would have thought at the end of the day it comes down to a bit of compassion and comman sense on everyones behalf.

Niceguy you are joking right? They are as entitled to an education as anyone and there are nos pecial schools for alergic people. Heck, there are barely any for kids with yer acktewal special needs any more!

Stweie it's mad isn;t it?

DS1 / 3 / 4 all casein intolerant (as am I).

DS3's school- fanstatic: never gets his hands on any, he ahs school meals as they are an important part of his social skills routine and they manage. I send in some special spread, yoghurts and snacks and all is well.

s1's school- he's supposed to be on a GF CF diet as it influences his behaviour but we have ahd to give up as the kids just give him whjatever they have for lunch and being AS he does not understand why he shoudl say no. then they wodner why he kicks off.

Hmmm.

If you put all the children with various allergies into one school, there'd be precious little they could all eat. Stupid suggestion. And not very 'nice'.

WRT to milok, have yet to find a child that allergic to air borne particles whereas nuts are known to be triggered lilke this- and they can escalate in terms of severity once they are strated, so mild today can be dead tomorrow.

Does anyone know of a case where another allergen in lunches transmits in this way?