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?

Is this a joke?

People die from nut allergies hence the ban.

Vegans

SwirlyThingAlert have you read the thread? There are two posters who have said their DC have had serious reactions to airborne dairy particles, so though it may be much less common than with nuts it's clearly a significant concern for them so there's no need for the capital letter, rolly eyes, exclamation marks and calling posters bloody stupid.

Swirly I think perhaps it's you that needs the awareness course.

I think what swirly means is that the allergies aren't the same because she doesn't care about dairy allergies.

YANBU.

I'm very severely allergic to peanuts and mustard, and my daughter more mildly to peanuts only, but I don't believe that either of us is made safer by nut bans, except in very confined spaces where air is recirculated (eg planes).

It doesn't help that in the UK there is a little awareness that peanut is not a nut and that many peanut allergic people are fine with tree nuts. This is especially frustrating on UK food packaging. In continental Europe the distinction is usually made and I am much safer as a result.

You do realise that some people are vegan because they have allergies (eg dairy, egg?)

ignorant people.

Gently benevolent what a crock of ....

I think what swirly means is that the allergies aren't the same because she doesn't care about dairy allergies.

I was merely saying that all allergies are different and have different reactions. I DO care about dairy allergies, I have one myself to milk.
Dust doesn't come off milk, that's why I said what are you on about.
If you can indeed get reactions from airborne milk, that just reinforces my point that there just isn't enough awareness of all the different reactions that people can get, and we DO need awareness levels raising! (Including myself in this)

Just to add that I've lived in France full time for nearly 2 decades, almost all my peanut and mustard reactions during that time have been in the UK when visiting for holidays or business. I'm convinced that the rather hysterical attitude to nut allergy in the UK certainly doesn't keep your children any safer.

My Son has severe allergies to peanuts and all types of tree nuts.

I feel he is safer with a nut ban in place at school. End of.

Norfolk - in what way? I'm a vegan rather than a veggie because I'm severely (life threateningly) allergic to eggs and dairy. It's not a crock of shit at all. You are just ignorant. Also, rude.

If a child died because you brought a nut based product into school how would you and everyone else feel about that, knowing that you deliberately brought it in knowing the possible consequences.

My son has a seafood allergy it never crossed my mind to ask school to send letters out saying no seafood in school, but if my child had a nut allergy I would be v v concerned as so many foods contain nuts all hidden. Obviously people are not allowed to share food at school, so the risk is probably as low as every other environment child will find the self in

Gently - like I said vegans AIBU ?

That's an interesting observation Mistigri I think my reservations about blanket bans on all nuts in all school, regardless of whether any pupils have nut allergies, is that people may become complacent and think they are just a health and safety overreaction and unnecessarily restrictive.

Yes Norfolk you are BU and rude.

Swirly it sounds like you may be confusing intolerance with allergy. Many people are mildly intolerant to milk (or even strongly intolerant). That's a different thing to being allergic.

Milk allergy is horrendous to manage because milk proteins can be in so many different things (including things you can touch). It's not just about getting the squits. :(

Norfolk - I don't want my kids to bring nut products into school. They don't bring nut products into school. I'm not arguing against a nut ban. Read the thread.

If a child died because you brought a nut based product into school how would you and everyone else feel about that, knowing that you deliberately brought it in knowing the possible consequences.

Exactly.

Swirly - but your're fine with milk though.

Cheers for that.

As long as the school is aware of the allergy and has conducted a basic risk assessment it's quite simple to keep children safe. In some cases a ban may be necessary, but blanket bans just put people's backs up and I suspect actually increase risk (because other parents, rightly, believe that they are OTT).

YANBU
Both ds and dh have nut allergies. Ds was allergic to peanuts but grew out of it, still allergic to treenuts and sesame. Never heard of a school banning humous despite sesame is just a deadly allergy as peanut.
DS schools never banned nuts although did not include them in school meals.
Ds consultant wrote a letter to school telling them that he should be allowed school dinners.
There are numerous reasons why nut bans are wrong number onw being they are a false senwe of security.

Who is arguing for that though SwirlyThingAlert? OP was talking about discussing a blanket ban on nuts with school because she believes the only allergy that a child at the school has is to peanuts.

Mistigri presumably because, as a person who has lived outside of the UK for at least twenty years, you are not as familiar with UK products as you are French ones?

People being complacent about a nut allergy really annoys me. I volunteer in a class where there is a child with a severe nut allergy, when I was in the staffroom the teacher had some chocolate from a box taken in for birthdays, as did I. I put back the one with nuts saying it was because of child X and the teacher said it wouldn't make any difference - it bloody well can make a difference if the allergy is severe.

IlovePud yes agree with what you wrote above. In my experience as a person with severe and potentially life-threatening food allergies, it's often the environmental allergens that are really out to get you, and schools can do almost sod all about that (I once nearly died on a school trip because we went into a restaurant where there was a caged bird, and as a uni student working in a nursery I had a similarly dramatic reaction to something in the nursery garden).

You can't remove all risk and it's almost certainly dangerous for allergic kids to grow up believing that they live in a risk free environment. Much better for them to learn to be alert and to ensure that the adults who look after them are prepared rather than lulled into a false sense of security.