Not allowed nuts in school

[pingu2209]

A friend of mine is really concerned about a letter home from school and subsequent conversation. Her dd is very fussy and will only eat peanut butter sandwiches. It is a long battle for her and the doctor is very concerned about her weight as she eats very very little. Has to be white bread, no crusts etc. I would go as far as to say it is an eating disorder - she is 9.

Her eating has to be tackled and the mum is getting help. So far the specialist help has said that it is a good idea for her to eat peanut sandwiches as this is pretty much all she will eat and will give her nutriants etc. They said the key is to increase the types of food, rather than take away what little she does.

But the school has said nobody is allowed any nuts, inc. peanut butter sarnies, in school as there are a handful of children with severe nut allergies - that could kill them.

My friend is at a loss. She asked whether her daughter could eat her sarnies away from the allergic children. The school has still said no, just incase there is peanut butter on her fingers etc that the allergic children could accidentally get it on them.

Who is being unreasonable?

Andro, there shouldn't be a double standard...that's not fair but don't nut bans exist because of statistics relating to specifc allergens? I believe that our school, in addition to the nut ban, treats severe allergies on a case-by-case basis so kids who have a life-threatening allergy to dairy or eggs might have a unique policy for a specific classroom if there is a kid who is very allergic to either of those things (for example). When my son was in kindergarten he had a buddy that was allergic to eggs so that classroom was not allowed to bring in 'eggs in their natural form', ie boiled eggs, egg mayo etc, but baked goods etc. were OK.

This is interesting but i have to go to bed as my dustmite allergic (as well as nut) child will get me up in the night as usual with breathing difficulties.
It is an emotive issue, not easily resolved as no doubt there will be more and more allergies developing in future.
FWIW I don't think I would ever change my opinion about this. Nothing focusses the mind as much as seeing your own child fighting for life after exposure to a nut or other allergen.

ooops told you i was tired.

No but bans don't exist because of statistics, in most schools its a Ill thought out cover measured.

bruffin posted the statistics re deaths from anaphylaxis on a previous page.

pingu - good question, that really scares the shit out of me. i have these awful morbid fears of dd being bullied by some girls who have got wind of her having a nut allergy (when she goes to secondary school), i know some teenage kids can be right bastards. i remember dd telling me when she was alot younger how one boy threatened to stuff an egg in her mouth (he knew she had egg allergy). :-( keeps me awake at night worrying sometimes

150 deaths from anaphylaxis, only 10 of those were from but allergies.

WifeofPie, I forgot, when my ds1 was at nursery nobody was allowed to bring in marshmallow due to one of the children having an egg allergy.

They said that the teacake biscuits, biscuit base with marshmallow topping all covered in chocolate, was a favourite of many children and parents would bring them in all the time as part of a pack lunch.

There was also a nut ban at nursery, but then the specifically started to ban all marshmallow products too - with a specific of the teacake biscuit.

I am curious, what has your friend's daughter eaten at lunchtime for the past 5 years (sorry if that is on pages 2 and 3), or I appreciate that she is very underweight so may have eaten very little.

My son was quite a picky eater and I was worried about how he would cope without peanut butter at nursery/school, but it has worked out fine for him. Not that this is relevant, just putting my opinion in context.

I don't think the school is totally being unreasonable - the guidance from the anaphlaxis page says that they don't call for a ban - but my interpretation is that they understand why schools would do it. I think it is slightly over-cynical to call it box ticking, those lives are someone's responsibility and it is a risk they are uncomfortable with.

Sadly I don't know a solution/answer, especially one that would allow both the little girl in question and nut allergy sufferers to eat in harmony. Could the little girl eat a PB sandwich just before and just after school, and take something small and non-threatening (say, oatcakes - not knowing what her issues are but fully understanding texture-fussiness as my son is, and I was) that she could eat with the other kids in a normal environment, no fuss, just her to eat what she can and see others eating normally, it might just help to relax her, and she gets her nutrition outside of lunch.

I feel for your friend, I had a hell of a time with my son eating but he never lost weight (due to mostly boob milk till he was 2) so I can understand to a small degree what she's going through...

ping - i've never noticed that marshmallow has egg. dd loves it, has had it for years and the ingredients have always been egg free.

ping but if it did have egg in, i think it ridiculous that the child couldn't take it to school imo

Bringnbuy, yum to peanut butter on toast, but we stopped having it in the house when dd tested positive to it. And we don't buy bread, other than ready made sandwiches, so I haven't had non gf bread toast for years. Bread has too many crumbs and crumbs for dd are a problem. She had an anaphylactic reaction to a baby rusk at 6.5 months and since then I do whatever I can to keep her safe. It's good to meet someone else who is as cautious as me. I can totally understand the flushing the tissue away too. I need to give you a hug for making me feel slightly better that I am not alone. ((())).

The girl's father left when she was 4, it was a nasty break up. She has never been a good eater, but her obsessions got progressively a lot worse. The aim for my friend's daughter is to get her eating normally - 3 meals a day so that she fits into a normal life. I think it is a control thing. Control over her mother, but also to have control over her life. Bad things happened to her which she had no control over, so she is grasping at anything she can to have control over.

As far as I am aware she has never eaten egg or cheese but did once have ham. She doesn't now. She used to eat peas and carrots, she doesn't now. she used to eat potatoes but doesn't now.

Very sad.

Ping I think that might be because marshmallows are mostly egg white (plus gelatin and sugar) and that the albumen is the allergen-containing bit of the egg? (Please educate me if I'm wrong here...)

uk statistics
Date back to 2002 but still in interesting reading as it probably before nut bans started to be introduced.The risk of a child with food allergy dying from that allergy is 1 in 800,000.
Of the 8 children who died in 10 years 4 of those was from milk allergy .
Of the 6 near fatal reactions in 2 years none were peanut, and out if 49 severe reactions only 10 were peanut.

bruffin, what about other nuts
you keep saying peanuts

2002 is old statistically. Especially for nuts I would say, as I think most people would agree with me that the number of people with diagnosed nut allergies has risen dramatically since then.
But I suspect that the number of deaths, thankfully, would not be hugely higher??

OP
Apologies, I haven't read the whole thread. My DD is/was exactly the same. Didn't eat much other than peanut butter sandwiches and went to a school were peanuts were banned. For 4 years she ate absolutely nothing from 9.00am - 3.00pm. It was really stressful. I now have her eating sandwiches with nut free chocolate spread.
Very happy to tell you friend how I did it (took about a year) - just pm me.
It's a horrible situation. Picking your child up from school when you know they haven't eaten all day is not nice.

I don't have a child with a nut allergy, but I have several friends whose children have and who i look after from time to time and have also taught and taken groups of primary age children away on week long residential trips including children with allergies. I have to say that, without exception and at as young as four (not the residentials at four!) all of these children have been really good at managing. They always ask whether the food contains nuts, never eat from others lunches and once they can read will either know safe foods or check the labels. Nut bans definitely give peace of mind, but there is always the risk of the parent who forgets, and good hygiene and knowing how to keep themselves safe is so important. I have a nephew with a food phobia and whilst needing treatment he can't just suddenly start eating more foods. It would be totally wrong to exclude him from eating at school, just as it would to exclude any child with an allergy. Your friend really needs to take this up firmly with the school with the support of the practitioner she and her child are working with. The school nut ban doesn't have to be completely lifted to make this work.

I should add that we were neurotically diligent on checking the food on the trips-didn't rely on the children to do it alone!

Marshmallows don't have egg in them!

Egg allergic DS eats them all the time.

'proper' marshmallows do have eggs in. The packet of sweets king are just gelatine and sugar I think. I did see sugar free ones once which sound absolutely rank. Anyway if you were making a teacake you would have to use egg whites.

I have a friend whose son had a cereal he had loads of times previously and one morning he had it and not long after he had a cardiac arrest and died.
He had a nut allergy that had never been spotted before.
That's really how serious it can get very quickly I'm afraid.

It doesn't even have to enter their mouths either, just breathing it in can also lead to an allergy reaction.

IMO school are not being unreasonable and actually the doctors of this girl should be doing more to try and get her to eat a more varied diet especially whilst she's young. If she gets to her teenage years and still only eating the same food then that's when the serious problems will begin.

Mentallyscrewed read the thread.

What are "proper marshmallows" ?

Actually I think I read the OP's post a bit wrong.

I read it as marshmallows (pink and white things in a pack) were banned because they have egg in (but they don't) and because of this EVEN the chocolate marshmallow "tea cakes" got banned.

Whereas I think she meant that there was an egg ban so cakes were banned and even chocolate marshmallow "tea cakes" were banned as they have got eggs in.

I don't call those marshmallows, they are cakes with marshmallows in. Marshmallows - to me - are the pink and white squashy things on their own. And they don't have egg in.

Gawd why I am I writing a post about bloody marshmallows?

< goes off in search of a life >

Ds is severely allergic to nuts and while blanket bans aren't a great option and do lull you into a false sense of security they DO ensure kids are safe. School is a busy environment and it's not always practical to 'just educate the teachers in allergies.'