or have the school gone bonkers?

[ohballs2013]

got a letter last night, in the new teacher info pack.
the school have said that as of the new school term a few more items have been added to the not allowed in lunch box list.
we already had the normal,
no nuts
no fizzy drinks
no bars of chocolate

now we also have

no bananas
no berry fruit, including anything containing berry fruit, such as smoothies, youghurts, cereal bars etc
no fish
no eggs
no crisps
no citrus fruits
no peices of meat, ie chicken legs.

now i get that you have to protect as many kids with allergies as possible..but WTF. is it not going a bit mad?
my own child has coeliacs, so i know all about limited diets, but im astonished at this.

Ds1 has come out in hives when exposed to cut grass. Also query strawberry flavouring. Cucumber makes his mouth itch.

Granted - these are not serious allergies. He isn't anaphylactic.

The school has a massive field which is regularly cut. I find out what days they are actually cutting and the teachers know that he can't go on the field on that particular day (seems not to react a day or so later). I also dose him up with antihistamine on those mornings.

He knows not to have anything strawberry flavoured, and also avoids cucumber.

At our school we have the standard nut ban. Dcs love nuts, but it is easy to cut them out. The op's list would be seriously prohibitive for us.

That is utterly ridiculous. And why is there the worry of cross contamination from packed lunches, but not from school lunches? Do they eat separately? I hate to say it, but if the parents expect several hundred other sets of parents to make such massive accommodations (and as I said I'm not fussed about some banned things when it's appropriate) then they are going to get a nasty shock when other people aren't quite so obliging about their special little snowflakes out in the real world.

And to do it without a clear diagnosis? Ridiculous.

What kind of school is it OP? State/private? LEA controlled or academy? This is such a knee jerk reaction it should surely be easy to overturn?

Your local paper would love a story like this too ...

The Daily mail would have a field day with it.

It's ridiculous!

There is a boy in DS1s year who has a severe fish allergy. He sits at a separate table and is allowed to choose a few friends to sit with him providing there is no fish in their lunches.

This is bonkers, no tuna sandwiches, no egg sandwiches, no yogurts, no pieces of meat?! Are they expecting all the lunch box kids to all of a sudden go vegan?

If the children have had anaphylactic reactions then I'm pretty sure they would have been tested asap to confirm the cause as dd was. It's in everybody's best interest to find the culprit and not haphazardly ban a load of suspects. Dd has other severe reactions besides but I make sure she avoids them I don't expect school to ban everyone else from having them.

I would say that, in that case then, as there is a serious risk of cross contamination for your son from the wheat present in other childrens dinners, and because they obviously take this very seriously, then you would like to add wheat to the list.

They will seriously up sh-t creek then, but your case is as medically necessary and important as theirs.
As you have managed thus far, then new parents will have to do the same.

This hasn't been thought out at all has it? School need to withdraw the letter until they have more information, and have educated themselves on allergies. Cross contamination is so easy... spillages, half washed cutlery/glasses, transferring from hands... And surely those with packed lunches are less likely to spill or drop food than those carrying trays of school dinner around. Dear me.

So they don't actually know what they are allergic to send the school is happy to go asking with banning these things just in case...seriously?!!

I know allergies are awful, esp when life threatening but this is ridiculous!

The head should be better educated on allergies. And the parents should be pushing for diagnosis asap.

I think this should be escalated to the governors, along with examples of proper allergy management, and a proper risk assessment.

This is really knee-jerk reaction.

My DS is allergic to bananas but I haven't asked for them to be banned. He knows not to touch them and to move if someone near him is eating one. I did however ask for the lovely lad who threw a skin at him, knowing he is allergic, which resulted in DS having multiple blisters on his hand (he caught it rather than it hitting his face) to be given a stern talking to

The guidelines from the Anaphylacsis campaign are that no foods should be banned ? not even nuts. In fact there is no evidence that severe nut allergy is any more life threatening than say, severe egg or dairy allergy, it?s just that nuts are a soft target so it?s easier to ban them.

Now of course as a parent of a nut allergic child it must be terrifying to think that your child could eat something that is life-threatening, but reality is that banning all traces of said product in order that the child never be exposed to it in fact has a far more detrimental effect in the long term, because, far from learning to manage their allergy, the child in fact learns that everything will be done to ensure they never come into contact with it, and therefore develop a false sense of security.

Children need to learn to manage their own allergies. Children need to learn that they shouldn?t be sharing their lunches in the event their friends have allergies. In fact children should know if their friends have severe allergies in order that they can support them.

All this hysterical banning of everything that might cause an allergic reaction just leads to resentment, and the possibility that parents won?t listen anyway thus probably putting the children at greater risk iyswim.

One of the Governors will be specifically responsible for health and safety in the school. I would ask that she is involved in this issue.

What exactly is their reasoning behind allowing the banned ingredients in the school dinners but not the packed lunches? Because if they're not at completely separate times or in separate rooms, they need to apply the same rule to both.

Could you ask for your ds to sit with the children who eat school dinners, while he eats his packed lunch? and mention this to every other parent so everyone can do it

Or say "what a good idea, could you add gluten to the list of banned food please".

Bonkers (and my own kids were gluten free for a while).

I do see that wannabe but I would hope most parents would respect and be considerate of an allergic child. Food that could hurt someone is no way to try and prove your point after all the child didn't hurt anyone or make the rules. However the false sense of security must be putting them at risk. I would assume that unless you were the parent of an allergic child that many just would not know what to look for. They could see the obvious egg milk soya nuts but wouldn't nessecarily consider casin lactose albumin sesame etc. this information needs supplying if they want to really do seriously try andante children safe.

wannaBe - spot on!

Oh dear, this all likes like a ' little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing'! No one has really thought this through at all.

I have a DD who is anaphylactic to anything made with cows milk. She has had two anaphylactic reactions, one of which affected her airways and she has to carry an epipen with her.

There is no way I would ask for a ban on dairy products - no one would have anything left to eat! Instead DD knows never to eat anyone else's food and is extremely aware of food spills etc around her.

I would be a bit more worried if they had to eat lunch in the classroom as she does react on contact.

The school and parents need to give this all a bit more thought@

Wheresmycaffeinedrip thing is though that the more mainstream products you start to avoid the harder it actually is to do, and the more likely parents are to not adhere to the ?rules? on that. And where do you draw the line? It?s easy enough to avoid say, nuts or kiwi (ds has a child in his class who is allergic to kiwi) and to not include those. But where do you go with it if there is say, a child with a severe dairy allergy? Dairy is a far more mainstream product.. I use dairy based spreads for instance on sandwiches,, should I be expected to compromise those? We have them in the fridge anyway, or should I be expected to either fork out extra to ensure that I have alternative spreads, or even change my family?s eating habbits so we don?t use dairy spreads because of having to avoid a child at school coming into contact with them?

And then if you start adding meat/glutin/eggs/fish into the equation as well where does it end? You can?t just say ?oh we ban x product because it?s easy to do, but y product can?t be banned because it?s less easy, so y child will have to be more vijilant while x child has had all risk removed.? You can?t have one rule for one allergy and one rule for another based on the ease of omition ? it?s either doable, or it isn?t, and IMO it isn?t ? and the onus should be on the parents of the allergic child to educate their child to manage their allergies effectively.

Haven't read the whole thread sorry, but could they give you a suggestion packed lunch? I would be interested to see what it contains apart from fresh air and a bottle of water to wash it down with

Same as Mintyned my ds is anaphylactic to several things, one being cows milk. Id never dream of thinking cows milk products could stop at school because of it, he'll have to contend with it at nursery in a year (possibly).

What made me feel slight inner rage was when a particular poster said people are getting hysterical over this allergy 'Thing'.

'Thing'? This 'Thing' that can kill you mean? Would you refer to diabetes or cancer so patronisingly and flippantly? They can kill.

Perhaps some people are being hysterical over it. But allergies are not a 'thing', its a serious, life threatening, life altering, day in day out painful illness.

It is for us anyway.

They have to do a risk assessment, the county council will give them guidance, but they have to do one.

Make sure you write to the governors asking for one to be done.

So the parents don't even know what their kids are allergic to but they expect the school to ban a whole load of foods just in case?

Mental.

I do agree with you wannabe I just meant that I would hold that parents wouldn't be so flippant as to say stuff it as agree or disagree its the rules at that school. I personally would feel terrible of I was the cause of something.

But you are right kids do need to learn to manage. A wide scale ban like this though is pointless without lists of actual banned products and approved products as mistakes will obviously happen.

It's going up prove impossible for many to accommodate it and cater for their own child's need. The school need to come up with more than "ban it" because the risk is still so very high due to just not knowing about what ingredient is what.