to challenge the schools nuts ban

[pigglewiggle]

The school has a strict no nuts policy. Apparently this is because someone in a higher year has a peanut allergy. I can understand banning peanuts if the allergy is severe but peanuts are very different to normal proper nuts and reactions to these are not to my knowledge anywhere near as bad as peanuts. It just makes lunch quite difficult as we are vegan and would love to pop something like a nakd bar in lunchboxes.

Aibu to go to the school and at least establish if a total ban on nuts is needed / necessary?

facsicle

nothing is more awkward than the child dying obviously. and no going dairy free or egg free or nut free for One meal a day is not awkward at all.

Just people would probably care more about not sending in a yogurt or a cheese sandwich than they would a peanut butter one. because these are a daily thing fir alot of kids despite being non essential just like peanut butter.

But no one's answered the question, why is it ok to hand out one allergen for free daily and then ban another.

and surely you can see by this thread that it's all about nuts. People honestly believe a school would only ban a substance that can kill so if milks or egg or kiwi or strawberry is allowed then ergo it can't be serious.

People are still poking fun at te op about her diet and banging on about nuts. which pretty much proves the point

And the other point is that it still doesn't mean the school is any safer as kids wearing their Nutella on toast breakfast or sticky from.tracker bars they ate on the way and touching tables and chairs in the class room are still posing huge dangers.

so if teachers are relying on bans to keep the kids safe then the kid is in fact in more danger

Giles
But no one's answered the question, why is it ok to hand out one allergen for free daily and then ban another.

Once again, I'm guessing: prevalence, severity, ease of avoidance. That is to say, I would expect schools to factor these things in to their allergy management policy.

if teachers are relying on bans to keep the kids safe then the kid is in fact in more danger

Implementing a nut ban does not exclude other measures of vigilance.

People are still poking fun at te op about her diet and banging on about nuts. which pretty much proves the point

Proves what point? It is not essential that the OP's children have a bar containing nuts in their lunchbox (I think I'm qualified to say that, given that I am a vegan who has spent the last decade making vegan lunch boxes with no nuts in them!). People are 'banging on about nuts' because the thread is about nut policy.

Implementing a nut ban does not exclude other measures of vigilance

exactly. and these measures are enough for all other allergies schools deal with. so its fair to assume that nuts could be treated the same way should a school want to. provided the allergy the child suffers from isn't airborne (although peanut butter doesn't cause an airborne reaction as a poster linked to a study above)

fwiw I don't and wouldn't disregard a ban on purpose. In fact I ban dd2 from my nut milks and nutty cereal on nursery days. and both Dds are only allowed peanut butter at weekends. to avoid any cross Contamination before people make assumptions about me not caring.

I still agree with another poster though in that the level at which others have disregarded other issues is scary. yes the thread is about a nut policy but plenty have cone on here to say that they have experienced problems with other allergens being present in a school which resulted in no action being taken. including offering chocolate to an allergic child.

There does seem to be an underlying g assumption that nut allergies are the most serious and anything else has to be eaten to cause a problem. which is not the case

teacupcrazy - there have been anaphylactic deaths to milk

Firstly I have not read the whoe thread so apologies if I am repeating anything that someone else has said.
Ds has life threatening allergies to tree nuts amongst a whole list of other things. He is not allergic to peanuts. However, we were told by the allergy specialist that since nuts and peanuts are usually processed in the same factories, that we must never give him peanuts as they may be contaminated by dust from other types of nut.
I would assume that this is the same in reverse for peanut allergy sufferers too.
As to whether or not they should be banned, I sit on the fence with this one as DS is allergic to so many other things that it isn't practical to ask a school to ban them all. He is equally allergic to egg and fish for instance, but that allergy isn't usually airbourne.
However we had quite a few unknown allergic reactions (bad but short of anaphylaxis) and one case of anaphylaxis during his time at primary - possibly due to the fact that after the children have eaten they are not required to wash potential allergens off their hands and so if he touched something that someone for instance with egg mayo sandwiches touched - eg door handle straight afterwards, and then his face - cue huge swollen lips,eyse, wherever he had touched etc.
Scary for everyone.
Small children are generally less tidy eaters and so the risk is greater in a primary school and there is more concact between primary age children.

DS is now 14. All his allergies are just as bad if not worse, yet the only reaction he has had in secondary school is to cocoa in the air in cooking classes.

Not all nut allergies cause anaphylaxis (evidenced by some of the posts on this thread). Severe milk allergy can cause anaphylaxis (and I've seen and experienced non anaphylactic reactions to minute trace contact that have resulted in the person (or me) being hospitalised). I've never known of a milk allergy policy other than 'personal responsibility' for any milk allergic child in school, including my severely allergic child (or indeed, myself when I was a kid).

I am getting increasingly despondent about the concerted effort from some people to minimise milk allergy.

TeaCupCrazy.... Schools do not always ban foods for children with anaphylactic allergies- especially for multiple food allergies.

It's possible to have severe allergies to any foods- not just those as the common legally listed allergens- and it's possible to only have a mild nut allergy.

I know all allergies aren't the same

but question is why, when the reaction is the Same, ie anaphylaxis , why foods causing the bad allergic reaction are not treated the same.

Peanuts are legumes : more closely related to peas and runner beans than they are any of the tree nuts.

So any secondary schools have bans on foods ?
Schools that have 1500 pupils eating all sorts all over the place....

or is the hysteria just at primary schools

Yes I would include you in that. The consequences of severe milk allergy are IDENTICAL to those of peanut allergy: anaphylaxis. The consequences of mild/moderate milk allergy are IDENTiCAL to those of peanut allergy: hives, asthma and itching. It really isn't hard to understand!

And no, there is definitely no school policy in place to ban milk! I doubt you'd find that anywhere in the country, regardless of the severity of the child's allergy. The 'best' you might hope for is that your child gets to sit all on their own at lunchtime .

sorry, I mean symptoms of mild/moderate milk allergy are identical to those of mild/moderate peanut allergy.

Some secondary schools have bans, well I know the school one of my kids taught in had a nut allergy. This was because a boy at the school had a very severe nut allergy, he reacted to the slightest trace of nut, including on another child's breath if they had eaten nuts. I don't know what sort of nuts it was but the school did everything they could to ensure he could enjoy a normal school life, including having a nut and nut free coach for school trips, this was because some parents refused to comply with the nut ban. I assume they would be equally supportive of any child with a life threatening condition.

I've just made lunch for tomorrow and packed it up. It's egg, dairy, nut, seafood, free. It's really just a salad. And I"m not a fan of salad at all. But it's an easy option when planning a meal for lunch. I'm not really a big fan of salad, but I"ll eat it. And I'll be able to avoid any student who has an allergy having a reaction to my lunchbox.

granny
Did that kid ever go to supermarkets, or shopping centres, or on trains or buses or to the theatre or cinema or a gig?

Just that the whole ban something in school is so blinkered.

All the kids need to learn to eat sensibly without impinging on somebody else's eating space.
Banning things removes responsibility for actions.
And school is only 1/6 of a child's time.