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.

Presumably all parents' first language is English. Many parents in my area would have great difficulty in understanding what they could or could not send.

My DS has a severe Nut allergy, and a moderate egg allergy. He is currently in pre school. The school has issued a blanket ban of all nuts and things like peanut butter. This decision was made by the school nurse, Health Visitor (she did the Epipen training with all the teachers) and the head teacher. We were only informed of it just as DS started.
Whilst he is in preschool it is easy to be 100% certain that nuts are not eaten at school. All the children have a school dinner (except my son as school dinners cannot be totally egg free and may contain traces of nuts).
So far this has been enough to keep him safe.
I worry a lot about how things will be managed once he goes in to actual school. I have heard parents complaining about the nut ban, and everyone knows it is DS as school have allergy warning signs up.
I do worry that the parents who are complaining would go against the policy.
Eggs have not been banned, nor would I expect them to be. I know first hand no eggs means no buns, no pies / sausage rolls if they have egg in the pastry... the list goes on.
We have just trained DS to say no to food from anyone other than his teachers who are all very up on his allergies. He has his own snacks for birthdays just incase buns are handed out etc.

How precious are the parents of these new kids that they are dictating to the whole school :O

The school have clearly taken the easiest path to dealing with the parents of the children with allergies. I doubt they have done any sort of risk assessment, and if I were ohballs I would be refusing to adhere to this list until I had seen a properly quantified risk assessment stating that this list of banned foods was the BEST way to tackle the issue - not just the easiest for the school.

I agree with the person who mentioned that a long list of banned substances gives the parents and school a false sense of security. Even if every parent successfully implemented the ban, there will be days when a child's lunch will be prepared by a grandparent or carer who doesn't fully understand the rules, or a child who normally has dinners will need a packed lunch for some reason and their parent will forget what is and isn't OK. Or someone will just get it wrong and unwittingly include a risky product because they didn't realise it contained banned ingredients.

It's not as though banning items means that the school can sit back and relax - they and the child will still need to be as vigilant as ever.

Oh, and she should be asking to know what other approaches were considered and rejected, and why they were rejected.

JerseySpud - In our case school took the decision to ban nuts. We as the parents of the child with the allergy were not involved in the decision to ban. Maybe the head teacher has made the decision without the parents input?!

If it's a newly-diagnosed allergy, the parents are probably in a total tizzy.

The school should be guiding them in what's appropriate, and practical. They're clearly failing there.

I don't think anyone should be wading in with criticism for the parents. It's a big thing to come to terms with, and there's a lot to learn in how to handle things, with no clear answers. They need support and help, not to be laughed at or called precious and entitled.

Did OP not say that the parents had requested this list to be banned themselves?

If i am wrong i apologise

Ds1 has severe anaphylactic reactions to nuts, eggs, cows milk and shellfish.

Nothing is 'banned' at his school despite this and he just sits separately to everyone else. They have the usual no fizzy drinks/chocolate etc and crisps only on tues and thurs but nothing else.

I think the list of banned foods in OPs school is ridiculous, what are they meant to have in their lunchboxes?!?

We have several kids at school with allergies. One has a severe nut allergy (not just peanuts) and the parents make no fuss whatsoever. Another has a slight allergy to strawberries which results in very slight eczema (only if he eats them) - that parent kicked up a right fuss. This is why people go all

The thing is JerseySpud I think the letter sent out at our school was worded as though we had requested the ban. We hadn't at all, and only knew of the ban when DD (who is in year 1) brought the letter home. Then on chatting with school as DS started they said that the healthcare professionals had advised it.

To be fair though they banned just nuts for DS, not a massive list, and I agree that list is very excessive. They also haven't said if products containing eggs are going to be banned at OP's childs school.
I think OP should have a chat with the head and ask that they go in to specifics of what can and can't be eaten and exactly why.

That list is outrageous

I would really struggle to provide lunches my dcs would eat, and to provide enough fruit if berries and oranges are banned

I am sympathetic to the anaphylaxis argument, and would happily contend with banned nuts. But we have child who has a severe dairy allergy in dd2s class, you can't ban dairy form the whole school can you? So why ban the others.

Also - banning eggs - but loads of stuff has egg in it, so are they banning all of that? If not then it is pointless, and actual egg is much easier to spot than a biscuit with egg in it

It also depends on the specifics of the Egg allergy. Some people with egg allergies can eat egg cooked in things. For example my sis can eat buns and cakes, but if she eats scrambled eggs her eyes go puffy and she is sick.
DS can have no egg at all, even as a glaise on food, as he gets hives immediately on contact. It all comes down to severity of allergy.
I think school need to call an assembly to discuss this list and brainstorm with parents a way forward that suits everyone as well as possible.

This is absurd. OP - if the school refuse to see that they must reconsider this I would remove your child. I wouldn't want my child being educated by people too stupid to understand that this policy is unworkable.

I wonder how these ridiculous food bans would stand up if challenged?

but, still, if you have a dairy allergy, then most bread would be excluded - i would like to see the school that announced only Asda own brand wholemeal pitta bread (for example) is now allowed as it is the only one guaranteed dairy free

It just wouldn't happen, so why does it happen for other allergies

How ridiculous.

At what age do they expect the child and parent to take some sort of responsibility for what they touch and eat??

Littleprincess - I think the HT told the OP that the parents have requested the ban.

If they refuse to provide a separate safe eating area for the children with suspected allergies, I would be asking for a nutritionally safe area for my child to eat in order to ensure that they were getting a good wholesome diet. I also would be asking for a list of allowed foods, because from that list I am struggling to see what can be eaten. I would also seriously question the feasibility of the ban if school meals aren't affected. If the allergens were exceptionally serious level ones I could to a point understand, but for suspected ones, no, serious empathy looser

SDTG - That may well be the case, but as I said previously the Head at DS's school made it sound as though we requested the ban. When in actual fact we didn't. She may well have told other parents we requested a ban, when in actual fact the school nurse and HV did.
The only way OP will know for sure if it was the parents that asked is if she talks to the parents.
That said, no matter where the request to ban food came from the school need to look at what is sensible and what isn't. Banning 1 food (such as nuts) is doable for most parents. Banning everything on that list is not so easy.
As much as I wouldn't want DS to be segregated, if he was allergic to so many foods I would see it as a safer option for him, and he has to be safe at school.

How on earth are they going to enforce that?

If the school have lied to the OP as they lied to parents in your school, LittlePrincess, that would be appalling - and it was appalling that your dc's school did it. I imagine that it could cause resentment, which must make a difficult situation more difficult.

I should say that wasn't having a go at you - I thought you might have missed the post where the OP told us what the HT had said. If I offended you, I am sorry.

How ridiculous. If they are not banning those items in school dinners because the affected children aren't eating the school dinners, then they don't need to ban them in packed lunches as the children will not be eating other children's packed lunches.

The responsibility falls to the parents to teach their children not to eat other people's food as it may contain something they're allergic to and to the lunch time supervisors to ensure no children are sharing food.

SDTG - not offended at all. I have had to be pretty thick skinned when it comes to DS and his allergies and eczema (which was very bad on his face - people stopped us in the street and accused us of burning him - thankfully a new dermatologist has sorted his eczema with a miracle cream - but I digress lol).

I was just trying to explain that school may say parents requested it when the request comes from elsewhere.
It is possible the parents requested it, and it may be on the advice of their allergy consultant / school nurse.

I think our school said it was us so they didn't shoulder the blame as it were. I know the head explained to one parent who complained about the ban that she would want nuts banned if they could kill her child, so could she understand if we wanted them banned. That parent then agreed the ban was a good idea. So I guess they said it was us to make it seem less like the school were going health and safety mad.
It puts a personal slant on it.

I do agree that the list in the OP is too extensive to be enforceable.