Nut ban at school

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I don't understand this, well I do. But had a rather heated discussion with a 'friend' this afternoon. Her do has a peanut allergy, my dc has a dairy/egg allergy.

Both docs have to carry epi pens etc so equally serious in my mind.

My dc reacts to egg and dairy just from being nearby. We have had incidents due to yogurt splattering at pre school and being nearby when meringues were being made.
I mentioned how I didn't see why there was a nut ban and not a dairy/egg ban when the allergies are just as serious

She got quite irate saying that peanut allergy IS more serious and I told her that as far as I'm concerned anaphylactic shock whether from a peanut or other allergy is still anaphylactic shock ???

Apparently though it would be unfair to have a ban on dairy and egg as children need to eat those things whereas nuts are easy to exclude.
AIBU to think that children should be treated the same whether it's a severe nut or other allergy and if you are going to ban one thing then ban them all or none at all ?

Gileswithachainsaw

Yes they are

Banning the food is about minimizing the risk not eliminating it completely. Of course a child is safer if people around them aren't eating snickers or peanuts or whatever. Yes a ton of things say may contain nuts. MAY. Not "this is a nut product".

My school has a nut ban, I comply don't send my children with peanut butter sandwiches or a pack of peanuts but I don't check the ingredients of say a cereal bar. I have enough on with my husbands gluten intolerance and daughters vegetarianism. How far are parents responsible for other children's allegeries?

You are right, and a nut ban doesn't guarantee the safety of a nut allergic child anyway. The school I work in used to have a nut ban, children still came in with things that could cause a reaction sometimes. Thankfully it's been lifted now.

The main reason dairy is so "impractical" is because it would stop schools being able to fill the kids up on cake and custard and screw up their un-inventive cheese fest that is their lousy vegetarian option.

about time there was some honesty really.

The allergy is equally as serious if it requires an epic pen so it is unfair it's treated differently. that's all

The anaphylaxis campaign have spoken out against nut bans because banning creates a false sense of security and means that many children do not learn to manage their own allergies if they are continually led to believe that they are in nut-free zones.

Added to that, the thinking has recently changed to reflect the theories that one of the reasons why nut allergies are on the increase is because children are exposed to nuts too late and the body does not have a chance to develop proper resistance if necessary. As a result the nuts in pregnancy advice has now changed and women are no longer advised not to eat nuts in pregnancy.

Also,a nut ban creates the (false) impression that nut allergies are more serious than other allergies, and this in turn leads children to have less understanding of dairy/egg allergies in their friends for instance.

I think it's fair to say that schools don't ban nuts in order to keep children safer, they ban them because it means they don't have to be responsible for the nut allergic child in their school, whereas the dairy/egg ban would create far more of an issue for children.

Children need to learn to manage their allergies themselves, they will not be in nut free zones when out at the park, the shops, the supermarket, on the bus, etc.

I agree that a nut ban gives a false sense of security.
All it takes is for a different parent to make the packed lunch, a child to buy something on the way in, a parent to forget or think that once won't hurt and it's all for nothing.

I agree that many people don't think that a dairy allergy is as serious as nut as nut gets all the PR.

I think if you are asking for the whole school to ban nuts, dairy and egg then you are asking a lot.

And as I put on TES, say "We have a number of staff/children who are at serious risk from nut/other allergen allergy, and they and their parents would greatly appreciate it if you and your children did not bring any such allergens into school." I am sure 99% of decent humans would think on and not do it.
Say "We are banning xyz from school because we don't want to be sued for causing pain/death to a kid, so don't dare to even think about even slightly sending yourself or your child to school with anything blander than courgette" and you are not really courting cooperation, are you.
And we can all spot the difference.

I'm in the ban nothing at all camp. There are allergies to numerous foods, you can't ban them all without severely limiting what the majority of the kids can eat.

Ds2 has a peanut allergy and yanbu at all in saying they are both equally serious. However it's much easier to exclude nuts?

I read this as 'NUN BAN AT SCHOOL' sorry

So how do they manage these allergies at secondary school?

I agree with the nut ban leading to a false sense of security, however for the most part I feel that if other parents don't send in peanut butter it is less likely to end up on door knobs, stationery etc. I feel it lessens the risk in our particular circumstance (no airborne allergy etc). As my daughter is multiple allergic she has to be aware of getting unidentified stuff on her hands and hand washing. Obviously dairy and egg can get smeared places too but I feel in our case it does lessen the risk on a day to day basis.

I am sure 99% of decent humans would think on and not do it.

Children of school age, however decent, can be seriously thoughtless. Most of us have brought up children and we all were children; so we know that.

So even WanderingLily's softer form may not be effective.

As for dairy: Gileswithachainsaw - don't see how you are going to stop children who bring a packed lunch from having sandwiches of bread, butter, and whatever. Or a bar of milk chocolate. You just cannot restrict other parents' choices that far.

Assuming there has not been a significant increase in food linked allergies over the last 20 to 30 years, I have no recollection of nuts etc being banned in primary or secondary schools. What has changed?

No idea supermanspants, I have only had a child that stopped breathing for 9 years so not qualified to provide any historic data.

""So how do they manage these allergies at secondary school?" they don't. By secondary age children should be expected to take responsibility for knowing what foods they can and cannot eat, which is why a ban at primary is so dangerous because children assume that they are in nut-free zones and often don't learn to take responsibility for knowing what foods they can't have.

There is a child in my ds' year with a severe nut allergy, he is fairly on the ball tbh, but he did come to my house and ask whether m&m's had nuts in them just before he helped himself to one. and didn't tell me he had a nut allergy until he walked into my house, past my parrot cage with a bowl full of food some of which was peanuts.

There has been an enormous rise in food linked allergies in the last 20 years.
www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats

Struggling to understand how a 3 year old can 'manage' his allergies? Surely common sense says ban, to the best of your ability, the easier allergens? I also think peanut allergies (severe) are commoner than severe fairly allergies. I'm talking anaphylaxis

Which is why I don't really think banning anything is a good idea.

because giving bans a rank just serves to cause people to think.that the only one to worry about is nuts. and it's not.

The reasoning behind it may be valid but showing a preference to keeping one child safer than another seems unfair.

fyi my ingredients cupboard contains open packets of nuts and seeds stored together. seeds I use in bread I send to school. without a bigger kitchen ican't fully keep them separate.

What has changed

schools have got lazy and dont want to take responsibility for managing a nut allergy.
My DS has nut allergies since he was 4 and will be 20 next month. His whole school life there was no nut bans and it was never a problem. The anaphylaxis campaign are against nut bans for many reasons including it leads to complacency.

Allergic children have to take ownership of their allergies in order to keep themselves safe. My daughter will not eat anything unless it has been checked by me/someone who she knows 'knows about her allergies'. She has to take packed lunches to parties (including family parties sometimes....!)
She is 6 and knows she/we don't go anywhere without her allergy kit.

I wonder also about nut bans being for undiagnosed allergy. Obviously by the time a child is 4 they will probably have encountered dairy and egg and will know whether or not they are allergic. Is this always the case with all nuts?

Our primary school had a nut ban, but I don't follow it any more after I found that the affected child's parents eat nuts in their own home!!i

It seems the onus is on the child at secondary school but I can't see how this is realistic or practical in a school with nearly 2000 kids. So a child goes from a primary school with a nut policy to a much larger school without a policy. Is a child able to a manage that transition? As a parent that must be very stressful.

Trikster

You are not born with allergies, they happen any time of life. My ds's allergies appeared at 4, even though he had eaten sesame seeds, nuts and peanuts for years.He did actually grow out of peanut allergy but not the others.

OP

Schools dont ban hummous either. My ds is allergic to both ingredients and sesame seeds on a roll get everywhere but nobody thinks of banning those.