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?

Hmm...I don't know. What do you do if you need to fly? See; it's tough...banning cheese from all in-flight meals would be harder than banning nuts I'd think but you deserve to have a safe flight too. Do airlines do anything to accommodate other types of anaphylactic allergies?

5madthings. Seriously? You're comparing the hypothetical risk of anorexia in later years with a child whose airway swells up and has to be rushed to hospital because they can't breathe? I'm not really sure how to respond to that.

Perhaps I should defer here to parents that have allergic children/kids with eating disorders. I have personal experience of neither. I just think that it's really not that difficult to do a little thing to support parents who must worry constantly about their kids' safety while they are at school.

Can you imagine how you'd feel if you sent your child in with peanut butter and another child died :(

It's a none issue at the moment as DS is severely flight phobic, but I've discussed this with many people in the past and had varied responses - I was curious as to yours

I've always been very clear about my allergy and the response differs between airlines, ranging from refusing to let me travel, to removing all cheese from the flight, to moving me to first class where my environment could be more easily controlled.

As someone who has had a nut allergy from infancy into adulthood which started as 'nothing' and most recently resulted in full blown anaphylaxis, God am I glad my teachers were more informed and sympathetic than many on here seem to be.

With nut allergies every reaction is worse than the last. So while it may seem trivial, preventing mild reactions in childhood can save lives later on.

Before the ban on nuts was brought in at my school I was forever being caught out through contamination as a small child trying to manage my allergy.

Whilst I sympathise with the worry OP's friend must have about her DD, the disregard and misinformation about anaphylaxis on her is terrifying.

Visionsofj0hanna I really feel for you, my allergy developed the same way - at least yours was accepted as a 'valid' allergy. Mine wasn't until I ended up in hospital (and my GP still tried to deny it was an allergy).

My sister has a medical note to confirm the severity of her allergy and the fact that it is triggered by airborne particles to and has never had a problem with an airline banning nuts. I would hope that exactly the same would be done for any other allergen which was triggered by it being airborne.

There is no evidence that every reaction is worse than the last and that has certainly not been my experience. Some people even outgrow their allergies. There is a debate going on about whether exposure is positive or negative but nobody knows yet so until the research is complete there is no point in stating anecdotes and guesses as facts.

The point us this child's issues are serious and the school cannot pit one against another they have to accommodate ALL needs.

The anaphylaxis campaign etc do NOT recommend an outright ban. They will help schools deal with these issues, there is training and support the school can get. Both on how to help prevent a child coming into contact with an allergen and on howto cope if it does happen.

By banning foods you do not eliminate the risk, people bring it anyway, some foods contain it and people dont realize etc, all it does is breed a false sense of security.

I have allergies, not anaphylaxis tho I get an itchy nose/throat and inside of my mouth if I eat peanuts.

other posters who have allergies or whose children have them have said banning is not the answer.

Training and management is.

IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou - you can't make a blanket statement about every person's reactions, but it is valid to state it in respect of your own.

My ds is allergic to treenuts and seeds,but has outgrown peanut allergy, so allergies dont always to get worse.
My dh also has had brazil nut allergy for as long as he can remember, that hasnt got worse either

Agree with the training and management PLUS the nut-ban for schools with young children in order to minimize their risk. It's then encumbent on the entire school community to be vigilant about what goes into lunch boxes in order to minimize the risk for affected children but it's really not that big a deal...and we all LOVE peanut butter in our house. Nobody is really suffering if they can't have a PB sandwich at school.

incumbent

With regards to nut allergies being more prevalent these days, studies are / being done now to explore whether nuts being banned and excluded could be one cause of this.

Apparently in Israel where one of the prevalent weaning foods for baby's is nut based, the incidence of nut allergy is very low. It's the countries with nut exclusions that tend to have higher rates.

Obviously not in the case of severe allergies, but exposure to foods can help to build up tolerance.

Apologies for not having links to hand, this was something my son's dietician {He had multiple food allergies, his diet was so restricted in the beginning we needed 2 specialists, one for skin and one for gut allergies, and also the dietician to try to advise on a diet for him given the amount of things excluded from his diet.} was telling me about a few years ago, when I was pregnant with my second and trying to work out how to manage my diet while pregnant with her, and weaning her etc.

If you friends daughter had it explained to her the reason why she couldn't take peanut butter sandwiches, do you think she might try a different type? Apologies if that is a dumb question, but if it is a control issue, she might ok to swap to one other kind of sandwich if she feels a reason too? I dont know. But I don't think the school are being unreasonable really.

There have been recent trials with severe allergies where they built up exposure a microgram at a time and those children are now tolerating whole peanuts every day.

Andro, I was responding to the poster who said "with nut allergies every reaction is worse than the last"

Maybe she was talking about her own reaction but that isn't how I read it. My 'blanket statement' isn't about every person's reaction, it's about the medical research that dismisses the claim that every reaction is worse than the last. As most reactions are as a result of accidental exposure there is no way of knowing the amount of allergen that a person is exposed to, which is likely to be the biggest contributory factor in the severity of the reaction and there are other factors that may lesson or increase the reaction. Some peoples reactions may very well get worse but it is wrong to say "with nut allergies every reaction is worse than the last" unless you are going to include a qualifier such as 'my' nut allergy or 'some' nut allergies.

Could the girl come home for lunch, unrealistic?

My DS (4) is severely allergic to peanuts as we found out in November after he tried a smear of PB, by smear he had a small amount on his finger and touched his lips. We had tried him once before but he didn't react on that occasion. he went into anaphylactic shock and needed an adrenaline injection to save his life. He now has an Epipen.
His nursery have banned all nuts and are trained, just in case to administer his adrenaline should he need it. Would I want a blanket ban on nuts in his nursery group, at this time? yes I would and am thankful, whilst he can still come into contact at least the risks of that happening are reduced. His nut allergy is acute, it can kill him in minutes.

I cannot agree that with bans, all it does is breed a false sense of security. It does save lives as well.

Andro, I am wondering if cheese on a flight has caused anyone with a cheese allergy to have had a flight diverted.
I presume flights have been diverted in the case of nuts, and that is the reason that airlines are tight on the issue.
Sometimes, I think things in life are determined by sheer numbers of people and that other thing called costs.

The school is right. Its not worth the risk.

I've only read page one so sorry if I've missed loads but what else will she eat? What about just bread and butter? I assume she has butter in her sandwiches anyway?

I would imagine that if the children in school were so allergic to peanuts that this girl eating peanuts in another room was such a problem in case she touched them or breathed on them later in the day then a letter should have gone home requesting that children not be given crunchy nut cornflakes for breakfast.
I think there would be some middle ground but it would mean eating away from all the other children which would not be a normal situation and would perhaps not help her eating disorder any more than going home for lunch would.

Your friends child could eat other food but chooses not to, no matter how complicated that choice is, she could physically eat other foods. Speaking as a parent of a child who was anaphylactic I was often amazed at the ignorance of some people who think these allergies are in some way negotiable. Having a child in school with peanut butter sandwiches is to some children like having a kid in school with a loaded gun, it could kill them. This makes me furious. I once had a friend who insisted her little shit of a spoilt child HAD to have peanut butter as a snack infront of my child who it could kill. Oh really fair enough, your need for peanut butter is ore important than another childs life. Your friend is being an arse and needs to get child in psychotherapy for issues with food and to not expect the school to endanger the lives of other children. Actually I think this post is a wind up, surely nobody could be so stupid.

I seem to recall a child dying after being kissed by another child who had earlier been eating a nut containing food.

It happens. It might not be convenient for a lot of the posters on here (how unsympathetic are some of you to nut allergy sufferers? Its all a bit "well its putting me out a bit so tough!") but that's the risk.