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.

As an aside, DDs primary has no rules about lunchboxes whatsoever other than the standard nut ban.

Isn't a banana allergy linked to a latex allergy? ie if you are allergic to one there is a fair chance you are allergic to the other.

There is also the fact that children start school throughout the year and there are new intakes every September and January. If a child joined who was allergic to dairy or soya or wheat would they add those to the list too? I mean it would be an unfair stance not to as if u cater for one allergy you theoretically have to cater for all,

"the standard nut ban"

Sorry but that is still insane.
Kids who are at risk need to be supported to learn to manage that risk - as the cotton wool does not exist at most secondaries.

The sooner the child learns their own rules (as one of DSs friends does brilliantly and politely when he comes round) the sooner everybody gets to eat healthily for themselves

Craziness

soupdragon our primary has no rules at all. I was surprised but appreciated sending dd in with her fave peanut butter sarnies.

Is it pieces of meat on the bone (chicken leg) or would it apply to chicken strips in something like a salad?

[shrug] mine don't eat nuts or peanut butter anyway so it makes no difference to me.

No nut ban at our primary school either, on the advice of the county apparently, so that children with and without allergies learn to be responsible.

I still think it's more to do with hygiene, smells amd pest control (esp in this warm weather) but interested to hear what the head has to say

Our school doesnt have a nut ban either and there are children with nut allergies.

The anaphalaxis campaign and othet similar charities dont recomend an outright ban as it just leads to a false sense of security. Eduaction and careful management seems to work, especially as children get older and have to learn how to manage allergies themselves.

Marking my place to see what the HT says when they get back to the OP.

I am so glad two of mine are finished with school, and the third is at senior school, so we don't have lunch box issues to worry about any more.

I would definitely be asking the school if all the banned items were going to be banned from school dinners too.

Thinly veiled push to up the numbers for school dinners whilst absolving selves of responsibility for potential allergens.
Mad.

1. speak to head.
2. get full ingredients list from school dinners providers.
3. all parents launch formal complaints if no joy with 1.
4. if policy is allergy related ask school to provide suggested packed lunch menus that are nutritionally balanced yet varied each day.

This is a crazy list.

I do hope the OP comes back and updates.

Fwiw, imvho if children are over seven they can manage their own allergies: prohibiting any food is such a bad example for children who are developing their tastes.
It's giving such a mixed message about food. Good food, bad food, dangerous food.

Surely the children who have nut and other allergies can manage this by not sharing their lunches, and wearing gloves in communal areas.

Nuts for example are essential for healthy diet. They provide essential oils and a good dollop of protein.

I bake breads (wheat free) using walnut and hazelnut oils, it's delicious.
My dd has allergies to dairy, but I don't make the whole school kowtow to her restrictions. She manages her allergy herself.

Agree with many others thst school should explain why such a long list,some of it looks like not wanting rubbish in bins rather than becaudse of allergies. dd has an allergy and find people are far more co-operative if they're given an explanation.

I would disregard it all, apart from the nuts, as someone may have an allergy.

Nuts are no more dangerous to a person with a severe nut allergy, than a different allergen is to someone who has an anaphylactic reaction to it. To suggest that nuts need special treatment is both naive and insulting - the only reason they're treated differently is because they're an easy target to remove/ban.

quoteunquote Tue 09-Jul-13 11:15:07
ask to see the risk assessment

I agree with this. A proper risk assessment wouldn't just lead to a list of banned foods.

Given the number of different allergies, it makes sense for the children to be taught to manage their own allergy as some posters are saying here.

I know various people who between them have such a wide range of allergies, that the list posted by OP would be twice as long, meaning that once these foods were banned, people would have real trouble putting a decent packed lunch together.

In addition to OP's list, I know people with allergies to kiwi, melon, strawberries, pineapple, dairy products, certain herbs, apples and I bet there's more.

Has the Head teacher called you back yet OP?

No rules on lunchboxes here either, They send home a ' Suggestions for a healthy lunchbox' leaflet every now and then though.

A lot of people don't realise that there are differing levels of allergy. Whilst many people have foods that they cannot eat, there are others for whom even a minute particle in the environment can cause a reaction. There is absolute no reason for a ban when there are students who have a reaction when ingesting an allergen, but more precautions are needed for those with contact/airborne allergies. In those classes, asking for students to avoid that allergen between 8.30 an 3.05 is not too much of an ask. We manage it within individual classes - we have one class with a ban on honey and one with a ban on shellfish right now, but that is all. All the other students that have allergies are managed by everyone eating at their desks and implementing a hand washing protocol before going out to play. We haven't had an anaphylaxis incident in a few years now, so it seems to be working quite well.

MidniteScribbler Your school sounds sensible, but do you really think that parents would be amenable to a ban on cheese (my own issue) or a ban on ALL dairy (not an uncommon issue) for example? Especially if these issue coincided with other severe allergies in a class?

ohballs

While a Head could easily dismiss a complaint about the list from a parent, on the "we are trying to act safely" grounds, if you go in armed with the alternative method from MidniteScribbler you are showing you are trying to be reasonable and thus less easy to dismiss out of hand.

In fact going in with alternative suggestions will show you are trying to be fair while still challenging blanket bans, which often seem to be more of a knee-jerk reaction designed to look as if they are doing something.

Andro, it would depend on if it were an ingestion allergy or a contact/airborne one. Each issue is looked at individually and a action planned developed to come up with what works.

Dh has read the OP, and says that she should write to the school and ask for a written, quantified risk assessment that demonstrates that this approach is the only reasonably practicable means to address the hazard that they believe exists.

This is the most basic level of analysis, on the basis of which the school should be imposing risk management policies like this one, and he would suggest that it is unlikely that such an analysis would show that this is a reasonable approach by comparison with other approaches - eg. managing the pupils' allergies properly - via education of all the students (no sharing food, washing hands properly after eating to minimise the risk of contact allergies etc), via liaison between the school and the parents of children who have allergies, and maybe, in severe cases, providing somewhere else for the severely allergic child to eat (and friends for them to eat with, who understand the issues).