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?

I don't think you can expect a child to go without lunch, I think the school should be working with your friend to agree a solution much like they are working with the parents of those with allergies.

There must be a safe way of dealing with this, I am sure the allergy foundation would be able to provide good advice about this.

Well, the children could die.

Your friend's DD could eat peanut butter later.

Is there anything else at all that she'll eat?

Or could your friend take her away for lunch? (although she could still have peanut on her hands on her return )

I feel for the ops friend
my ds would only ever eat PB sandwiches, no other kind, I was lucky there was no ban. he did change to jam though for a while as he fancied a girl with a mild allergy.
my dd's school don't ban anything(sn school)

Or maybe, the very allergic children should go home for lunch so as to not stop the majority of children being slowed nuts!

The problem here is that the school could easily be contaminated with nuts and the children could die when they return.

Although, I'd enquire about the actual allergies. Are their lives actually at risk from minute amounts of nuts?

Yes op tell your friend to get in touch with the allergy foundation, they can give advice on how the school can manage allergies appropriately. Which is NOT to have an outright ban!!

The Anaphylaxis Campaign does not support total nut bans in schools.

My son is very allergic to dairy, eggs, bananas, peas and various other foods as well as nuts. He reacts on skin contact. I can't see any primary school banning milk or eggs!

Lueji I think this is why the allergy foundation don't recommend a blanket ban, it is more sensible to take precautions to prevent contamination as what if someone had peanut butter on toast for breakfast or something.

I am kind of in two minds about it. I don't think every school has this policy BTW.

whois

That wouldn't work.

I wasn't aware that the allergy foundation advises not to ban foods. Surely the most sensible thing is a two pronged approach, ban them on the premises and for teachers to learn how to cope with an allergy.

For some people with nut allergy, the mere breath containing nut protein from someone that has eaten them is enough to trigger a reaction. However, without knowing what the relationship between the 2 children concerned and the severity of the allergic children etc. That is not an automatic concern.

Without knowing more I would probably err on the side of the school as the balance of risk and benefit is in favour of not having any nuts on site. Peanut butter is a particularly concentrated source.

It is also very likely that the allergic children will have a individual care plan which will conclude that banning nuts reduces the risk to their health. It is possible that the dietary requirements of your friend could be accommodated either an individual care plan too but in its absence I think that the school were within rights to maintain their ban on nuts and nut products

if even nuts on breathe is so bad, how do people cope else where? (genuine question)

Non they say not to ban as it leads to a false sense if security.

There are so many allergies you could end up with a ridiculous number of food products banned.

Far better the school get the help they need to come up with a way of managing the situation.

If all schools don't have this ban then I wonder why?

If thats the case, surely you'd also be able to track the number of children having peanut allergy reactions due to other children's sandwiches. Which would be interesting to see the data on to get a real idea of how bad this risk was.

If this data doesn't exist, it would also suggest that the risk is minimal and being hugely exaggerated.

It depends on the severity of allergies. My sisters nut allergy is so serious that someone eating a snickers in her classroom led to her being rushed to hopsital. Not all allergies are from eating something some are from it being in the air.

This makes day to day life a nightmare, school should be somewhere safe.

I think the thing about nuts is that it is statistically more likely to cause a severe anaphylactic reaction than other types of allergens, that it's very presence in the air can cause problems and that it's not seen as a cornerstone of a healthy diet as eggs and milk are, so less likely to affect the diets of the majority. Can you imagine the implications of trying to ban milk (yogurt, cheese etc) and eggs (egg sandwiches, mayo, baked goods). That would have far more of an impact on non-allergic kids than simply banning nuts. Also, it's very hard for primary children to manage their own condition. Older kids can be taught to be vigilant and can be armed with all the information they need to lessen the chance of accidental contamination. That's not as easy with very small children and it's a lot of responsibility for educators/lunch staff to have to manage those risks.

I can't believe how many posters think the school is being unreasonable
Of course they're not, their first duty is to the children at risk of serious harm from coming into contact with nuts.

flogging the advice from the anaphylaxis campaign and the allergy foundation is NOT to ban.

If your friends dd was still little, I'd support the schools decision. But she's 9, she's old enough not to share food and to know to wash her hands afterwards.

I think in this situation, the school are being unreasonable. One child's need does not trump another's, and the school have equal responsibility to all of the children in their care. The ones who have allergies are not a priority over another child who also has a food issue.

It really wouldn't take much for the school to supervise the children properly in the short amount if time it takes them to eat their lunch.

threesocksmorgan
this thread was running today
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1656409-to-wonder-if-there-really-are-a-disproportionate-amt-of-children-who-are-allergic-to-ALL-nuts

Thingiebob

I know, I don't think either child having to go home is a good answer! I don't think banning nuts is a good thing either, and it seems the experts agree with my ill informed opinion on total but ban. Happy day :-)

Thinking about it, that thread does not that much answer your question I dont think. But it might.

As a parent with a food-allergic child, my recommendations would be:

• your friend needs to visit the school and find out if the ban is because there is a child with a genuine risk of reacting to a trace of peanut on another child, or whether this is more a case of the common misconception "peanut allergies are more serious than any other so we must ban peanuts if we have a child with an epipen because of peanuts." Some allergies (any allergies) can be so bad someone will have a severe reaction to a minute trace, but it is a common erroneous belief that ALL peanut allergies are that bad and furthermore ONLY peanut allergies are that bad. (My DS1 had an epipen because of milk, eggs and nuts, milk and eggs were by far the worst allergies, and he would react if some got on his skin. The school had a nut ban because of peanut allergies . . . I think at one point he was the only child with an epipen!! Needless to say there was no way the school would ever have banned milk.) I do appreciate however that peanut butter is very sticky and does cling to things - I often find it still on the knives when they come out of the dishwasher.

• I'd suggest your friend get a letter from her DC' specialist saying that she needs to eat what she will eat and ask the school to suggest a solution.

• a question to ask is whether the school intend to ask parents not to allow their DCs have peanut butter for breakfast

When we lived in America, the school asked that the children with allergies sat separately.

I have the same problem as you op my youngest son is very, very underweight. The only thing he really used to enjoy for lunch was peanut butter sandwiches.

Here, though...its how it works...blanket bans...I'm very much OK with that.

Much better to be safe than sorry.

Of course schools have a duty of care to all pupils, cloud but it's a matter of severity. A tiny smear of PB left on a desk could threaten someone's life, an eating disorder is obviously not as acute. One's right to eat peanut butter at school shouldn't trump another student's right to be safe at school. Imagine if you were the parent of a severely peanut allergic young child and you had to drop them off at a school every day where the very thing that could kill them was allowed to be eaten there every day. The worry would cripple me.

Cashew nut butter - really delicious and not so dangerous as peanut butter - am I right??? A short term solution maybe