Nut ban at school

[Topazblue]

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 ?

[trickster78]

Bruffin, yes I understand that, however I mean perhaps in schools they feel a nut ban may be useful as some children may never have been exposed to nuts, so that the first (or second) exposure in the school environment may lead to anaphylaxis. Probably goes hand in hand with the (wrongly held) belief that nut allergies are more lethal than any other.

[trickster78]

And good to hear he grew out of the peanut allergy, love to hear of success stories! How old was he?

[Gileswithachainsaw]

he is a jack as. bloody Morris fletcher

[Gileswithachainsaw]

oops wrong thread

[bruffin]

He was 12 when he was last tested and came out clear for peanuts. He now eats peanut butter etc no problem. He is still allergic to most treenuts except cashew and avoids seeds

[trickster78]

That's great re: peanuts. Hopefully a cure is on the horizon for the other allergies too.

[Bodicea]

My son has an allergy to peanuts, Brazil nuts all pulses and eggs.
Peanut is by far the most serious allergy in most cases and the most life threatening. His allergist says the odd bit of exposure to egg for instance is ok and hopefully he will grow out of it.
He said under no circumstances should he be exposed to peanut and not to have it in the house.
The op doesn't seem to understand how different the allergies are!

[bruffin]

DS wasnt cured, he just grew out of it. But there is research at the moment that seems to be pointing towards cures as well as the weaning studies like the leap study and the EAT study

[lavendersun]

There is Trickster - my DD went on a very controlled programme from Uni of Leicester for dairy, similar to Cambridge's peanut allergy 'cure'. Her IgE response had to be below a certain level before she was eligible, it happened at 7 1/2.

I developed anaphalaxis from shellfish after pregnancy (37!), a friend developed the same from Asprin at 45 - our bodies are changing all the time.

[lavendersun]

Bodicea - for your son .. not for others. We couldn't have dairy in the house.

Unfortunately we discovered that beef and dairy share one of many many protein types when DD stopped breathing after eating a bit of steak - very rare apparently but there we are.

[trickster78]

I'm also excited about the viaskin programme which will hopefully be to U.S. market in 2018 all going well. Sadly my daughter often doesn't qualify for desensitisation programs due to her being allergic to several things and asthmatic.
Bodicea, some children including my daughter is as likely to have an anaphylactic reaction to eggs as she is to peanuts or cashews. The protein (to her) is as dangerous in both eggs and nuts.

[trickster78]

Lavendersun, can you remember how big her skin pricks were to dairy before allowing her onto the trial (sorry to be nosey!) my daughter is now able to tolerate cooked dairy but still reacts on skin contact to 'raw'.

[FeelingSmurfy]

I think the problem is that most people with a dairy allergy or intolerance would not feel ill from sitting next to someone eating it or touching a door handle etc, so people assume that everyone with a dairy allergy needs to actually eat/drink something for them to become unwell

On the other hand, peanut allergy is the other way around and most people don't need to eat/drink something to become unwell

It's like people thinking asthma is something you use a blue puffer for every now and then because a lot of people do only do that, they don't realise that it can kill

I like the saying "if you know one person with autism then you know...one person with autism..." That saying could be adapted to many things including allergies

[lavendersun]

We only had skin pricks once trickster - blood tests every six months every time we saw the consultant after that.

She couldn't tolerate cooked though, nothing at all, would come out in hives in the line to pay at Costa it was so bad.

We tried rubbing a crumb of malted milk biscuit on her cheek not long before the trial and she was very ill . I remember my fear as the lovely doctor checked with the nurse that the crash kit had been checked.

Bloody grim tbh.

[trickster78]

Bloody hell, sounds horrible. Is she able to eat all dairy now?
We have never had a blood test! Hoping to push for one at our next appt in November.

[ArendelleQueen]

"The op doesn't seem to understand how different the allergies are!"

Pot, kettle!

Neither do you understand that, in some cases, the level of risk is not different at all.

[featherandblack]

I can see your opinion and can't argue with it. But I don't for the life of me know what a solution to the problem would look like. Eggs and dairy are such important sources of calcium and protein that I don't think a school could justify banning them for one child. Not for a moment saying that the school as a whole is more valuable than your child, just that I don't know what the answer is.

[lavendersun]

Yes , three months after the trial we went skiing in France and she ate 8 years worth of croissants. We were discharged six months later. We now trip around Europe at every possibility.

I wasn't comfortable travelling abroad with her when I had to check and double check everything.

We spent years exploring the UK with a car full of food. The freedom and lack of worry we have now is amazing, you never forget!

[parallax80]

The op doesn't seem to understand how different the allergies are!

Plenty of people have anaphylactic reactions to dairy / egg / penicillin / latex / kiwi. Peanut is relatively common, but not inherently any more serious than any of the others. (That is, any anaphylactic reaction is life threatening, regardless of trigger.)

[trickster78]

Oh that is fantastic! Know just what you mean, we have just returned from 11 days self catering in Spain where we took a suitcase full of biscuits and puddings!
Lovely to hear of successes. Bet she loves having access to all those previously forbidden items. How long did it take? Did she take a probiotic?

[honestpointofview]

this says it all

The Anaphylaxis Campaign has never promoted the banning of peanuts, nuts or other allergens, from schools, pointing out that there is a drawback to this:

First, no school could guarantee a truly peanut/nut-free environment. Allergic children might be led into a false sense of security.
Second, if you ban peanuts, what do you say to the parent who wants to exclude milk, egg, sesame, fish or fresh fruit?
Third, demands for nut-free zones may engender confrontation between parents. In such an atmosphere, the risks may actually increase.

[WanderingLily]

Please take it seriously. A man I used to work with had a son who was so seriously nut-allergic that he died - that's DIED - because he ate some crisps at a party that someone else with hands that had been in the nut bowl had dipped in.
I witnessed and can feel to this day his grief.
He knew, as people have posted here, that you can't protect them from every risk (the boy was 8) but surely, if you can reasonably do anything to help minimise it for them, why would you not?

[LittleLionMansMummy]

Eggs and dairy are filling and nutritious food stuffs found in many, many things. While allergies to these and peanuts are as serious as each other (it's not a competition btw) I should think that nuts are infinitely easier to ban than eggs and dairy. I don't think the more common, everyday foods should be banned, though there should be more awareness and careful controls around them.

[trickster78]

Wandering lily, this is it for me. Yes, nut bans aren't great for the reasons above. However if your child is risk aware, takes ownership of their own health (as I hope mine does) as an allergic parent this is all you can do. I am gutted to think that other parents would choose their kids preference fo peanut butter for ONE sandwich a day over my kids life. But hey, perhaps this is the world I have brought her into.

[lavendersun]

Just being the same is still such a thrill for her trickster, even 15 months on. She is just so grateful that she can be like everyone else.

Birthday parties for instance. I always made such an effort with a plastic silver (sounds hideous) platter of treats and food but it isn't the same.

Five months in all and no, no probiotic suggested and I didn't give one. She was very premature and had strong antibiotics for a long time am sure that must have influenced it. Only ever had breastmilk but I had to give up dairy at four months as it was affecting her then. Picked up very early because she was being seen by a paediatrician every month.