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.

Nope, sorry, "medical condition" or not I am more than sure that the school will still serve up it's school dinners which will have all of the banned ingredients in. Which makes the whole list redundant.

We'll be banning 'normal' bread because of the crumb danger for coeliacs or insisting that we don't feed our children satay for tea in case they burp peanut breath next..

I am considering switching to packed lunch since my children were offered either burnt or raw sausages recently. The meat is often grisly or tough. They run out of food. Only the year sixes are allowed salad/jacket potato. We pay £3.50 a day. If we switch to packed lunches we have to pay £1.50 a day. Bloody annoying, knew when we signed up before anyone says it but for £3.50 a day we expected decent properly cooked food.

Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, not citric acid. Both are in stacks of things but I've never heard of an allergy to Vit C.

The fastest growing allergy in Northern Europe is to apples. Prepare for them to be added to the list soon.

i just looked on the website for the school meals company, and everything on that list, minus crisps, is on the menu!

This sounds like an over-the-top reaction that has not been properly thought through.
They may be concerned about one child's health, but as a result of these restrictions a large number of other children will not be getting a proper varied diet. What about THEIR health?
Surely there must be a better way of protecting the particular child's health by keeping them away from other childrens' food. He/she will have to be supervised anyway at lunchtime to keep them away from the school dinners.
In your position I would be demanding (in writing, with a copy to the governors) a copy of the safety assessment. They can redact the child's identity of course. I would also require from them a suggested menu of five different lunches that meet their published restrictions and still give a healthy diet, allowing of course for other childrens' particular problems such as wheat allergy.

Wow lots of people showing quite a huge understanding of anaphylaxis with suggestion of just leaving nuts out and taking the rest in. Nuts are absolutely not the only thing that can give such serious reactions. It sounds like one new start has some very serious medical conditions and could easily be in danger every single day at school. Poor Kid.

For those of you who would 'just leave the nuts out'...... Please please please educate yourself on this area.

If you really want to put the feline amongst the winged ones ohballs then highlight the menu and ask both school and LEA level simultaneously [laughs evilly]

ask to see the risk assessment,

because if they have done one, they will have found it is consider dangerous to try and implement a nut(or any other) free site,

you would have to have one point of entry, every person and item coming on to site would have to be checked, no moisturises, sun creams, every person would have to wash their hands, in case they had touched nut oil,

you have to protect a child by assuming there are nuts (any other) around, and protect the child by giving them a clear space to eat.

will they be banning all lipstick being worn by any adult on site, as it contains quite a few fish products, if your lipstick has any luminous, or metallic shine, that is created from fish scales.

I carry an epipen, it is incredibly hard to keep even a personal space clear of even none common substances that are issues, trying to make an entire site free of so many items is impossible.

Also if you start to instal in so many children that these items are dangerous and bad then some of them will start to avoid those food groups,

Vigilance for the individual is far safer and easier than trying to police the masses, which is what any risk assessment will show.

£3.50 a day??? For a school dinner?

If either of my DC had a serious allergy, I certainly wouldn't be trusting other parents at the school to keep him safe. That's clearly not a good idea. So what happens is that the school bans foods (and annoys everyone) and the children with allergies still have to assume that it is not safe. I can't see how that would help anyone.

Worse still, it will make the other parents (and children) resentful of the child with the allergy because there is absolutely no way that everyone won't discover who is the 'cause' of the banned list very quickly.

There have to be much better ways of managing food allergies (and there will be ways that don't involve sending children to eat in segregation). The problem is that doing so might involve some imagination from school management teams.

Those who are suggestingthat a child be segregated for their allergy absolutely astound me. How would you react if your child was expected to sit on their own because of special needs or a disability?

well said quoteunquote

Those who are suggestingthat a child be segregated for their allergy absolutely astound me
Well be astounded then. If the child is sensitive to everything on the official school dinner menu, what else can they do? Stop serving dinners?

I like the idea of asking for a sample list of acceptable lunch boxes.

ArbitaryUsername - our classes eat at their desks before going out to play. We focus on not sharing/swapping food, and the kids eat, pack away and wash hands before going out to play. We only ban a food for an individual class if a student in that class has an airborne or touch allergy.

There will be ways of managing these things that fall somewhere between trying to police everyone's lunch boxes (impossible) and singling out a child with an allergy and sending them away (not exactly inclusive). But doing so would take imagination and (probably crucially) resources.

I would ask for a copy of the amended school dinners menu (including list of all ingredients used) so that you can check that none of the items listed are included in any way for those on school dinners.

If all of those have been removed from all school dinners, then clearly there is a child at the school who is at such great risk that I would just go with it.

If, otoh, ingredients or items in the school lunches contain anything on that list, I would play merry hell.

Ohballs

Ok you need a plan!

If they are banning this number of food groups then they need to be BANNED, not just from lunch boxes but from school diners otherwise the whole is not only redundant it is dangerous.

Certain allergens can be airborne, (peanuts, citrus etc) other still can be contact based. (eg, cmp, peanuts etc) ie one child eat allergen gets it on their hands which they fail to wash then it is on everything. THIS can still happen if the child eats said allergen at home and comes into school with traces on there hands, face, top etc.

I would speak to the head and ask politely for a justification of why they are doing this. If they say is it medically required ask why (not for details) but eg, is it becuase of air born, contact etc allergen IF they say yes, point out that the school diners contain these same allergens and again ask for justification. etc.

With DD allergen (which is a little unusual here) I offered (and did) go into school and did a talk for the parents explaining everything and saying if you have any questions please please please ask me or DH or even DD. This did me a great service, as DD is invited to parties etc and the parents make a point of contacting me to sort out foods etc so DD is included. I have NEVER nor will i EVER ask for this allergen to be banned, as it would have to baned from the entir earth! DD goes to clubs, soft play center etc. where this allergen may have been transfered by contact onto equipment etc. DD has learnt this maybe a risk and acts accordingly.

Segregation isn't great but if it means the child with the allergies is completely safe why not?

Midnite - I think I'd be glad that my child could eat their dinner without worrying about their safety to be honest. Like someone said upthread, they had an allergy and had to eat separately but could take a friend. This seems like the most sensible option. When I was at school I would have felt special going off to eat somewhere else with my friend.

ohballs2013 I'm not surprisped that the banned foods are in the school dinners.

It's got me thinking though, do you think it might be to do with insurance?

as in if something bad happened and a parent 'sued' that if the food was prepared on the premises they would be insured but if the food was brought in from outside (in a packed lunch) they would not be covered?

I just can't see a reasonable explaination otherwise?

Not unsympathetic to allergies at all here, but how is a tight banned list for packed lunches going to help if school lunches and staff lunches still allow these foods?

I'm also wondering how a child so very allergic manages to go to sainsburys or even just around people in general? we can't regulate what the kids are having for breakfast and many infant school age kids may be wearing their breakfast when they get to school (even if we do get the wet flannel out as they go to the door!).

Midnight: that is an example of a school policy where there has been some thought, and presumably one that would be revised in relation to changing circumstances. So a middle ground...

Tbh, I think there can be no one size fits all policy for this sort of thing because it will depend on the specifics in each particular case. And largely they will revolve around thinking of the school as a community that cares for each other, rather than a bunch of individuals who happen to be in the same building.

these blanket bans have been shown to make the situation far more dangerous for children as items with nuts(other available) either come in by mistake, or are smuggled in,

and because the staff/ carer/ child are going under the assumption that it is nut free, they are not using the correct precautions.

It is very dangerous and lazy to even attempt to implement the ban it from site method, and does not follow professional advice.

I haven't read through all the pages but am dying to know if the OP has spoken to the head? What was their justification??

I don't think everyone should jump into allergy-bashing.

Just go in and talk to the school, and find out what the reasoning is. After that, you can decide how to address it.

Don't jump into getting cross with one child/parents and deciding what that child/parents should be doing, when you don't even know the scenario. (I'm not suggesting you would, OP, but some posters are.) Just find out a bit more info first.

A parent at my children's school got very uptight about the school cook putting 'special' stock cubes in the shepherds pie. She thought that her child's health was potentially being damaged for the sake of my coeliac children. The cook pointed out that they were simply ordinary stock cubes that happen not to contain gluten, and that she'd used that brand for years before my children even started at the school, because it tasted nice.

People get very worried by food, it's a primal thing, I think.