To be pissed off with the school?

[ShamefulUsername]

I'll try and be brief. A child in ds's class has some food allergies. All us parents were told about this in September, and told not to allow our dc bring any of the items into school/avoid eating them on the way.

Today they had a class trip and needed packed lunches. I, and many other parents, forgot about the restrictions and sent some of the food stuff in. It was all taken off the children before the trip so their lunches were missing bits.

Aibu to think the school should have sent a reminder to the parents given that it was only mentioned 9 months ago?

Yanbu! Parents have enough to worry about with their own kids let alone trying to remember details about other people's too.

That said, it is probably at the forefront of the school's mind on most days. At ds's school, anyone with serious allergies like this has their picture somewhere in the classroom along with high urgency details, and I'd imagine it's the same in the class room. They probably just took for granted the fact that they are reminded daily, but as parents you aren't.

If all these children usually have hot dinners then I guess a reminder would have made sense. But I imagine that, like you, the school forgot! If it isn't usually an issue, it wouldn't be at the front of the teacher's mind.

But it does rather depend what the items are - nuts are fairly common and I would expect parents to remember. Dairy would be more tricky and makes up a much larger part of the lunch.

*imagine in the staffroom too

The list off the top of my head included nuts, eggs, oats and bananas among other things. So not so easy to remember.

In that case yes a reminder should have been given. But rest assured the teacher will have learnt their lesson - going through 20+ packed lunches must have been a real pain. I would have felt really bad taking their food as well, poor kids!

God, combined with rather draconian attitudes of done schools to 'treat' foods, that's pretty bloody restrictive! My kids have an oat flapjack and a banana in their lunch most days.

YANBU. There should definitely have been a reminder.

Yes, but if your child had a serious allergy to one of these then you would be thankful to the school taking the time to check.

I imagine the organising teacher is already in a heap of trouble.

Aibu to think the school should have sent a reminder to the parents given that it was only mentioned 9 months ago?

Yes and no,.

Yes, the school should have reminded you, but is there any reason you couldn't have kept that list pinned to a notice board or something for reference during the year?

Our kids school has a list that they send home at the start of every year and expect parents to abide by all year round.

Clarrp - it would not occur to me to bother to do that. DC1 has school dinners, I send in food once, possibly twice a year at most. I know to avoid nuts, (whole school is nut free) but beyond that, assume if my DC having the particular food is enough to set off a reaction then before the odd occasion DC1 has to take food in, it would be added to the reminder/request for food. (Eg. "please remember to bring a packed lunch, but avoid X Y and Z foods due to allergies in the class.")

Dinosaurs agree with you, a reminder on the trip letter would make the most sense.

They had told you. You forgot. Not sure why that's their fault. It's not them being picky. A child with an allergy can die if they came into contact with something they were allergic to.

It depends really. Are you pissed off because they didn't send a reminder and that potentially put an allergic child at risk of serious reaction or death?.

Or are you pissed off because your child missed bits of their lunch?.

With a list of allergies like that they needed to remind parents before an event where packed lunches were going to be taken.

Hmm not sure. There is a girl in DDs class who is allergic to: nuts, oats, dairy, oranges, soy and fish

Makes doing packed lunches awful

If my child was the allergic one I think I'd prefer parents to be reminded before something like this

If they're sending s letter about the trip anyway it's no extra work to add a line about banned foods. Much less work than sifting through everyone's lunches!

What wolf said

A reminder would have been nice,but you have already been told

What would you have liked to have happened? They had no choice but to remove the food. Allergies can be life threatening

Yabu to be pissed off with them. Yes a quick reminder on the letter about the trip would have been a better idea, but the school gave themselves a lot of trouble through forgetting, it's not like they did it on purpose to annoy you.

They remembered the important part, keeping the allergic child safe, anything else is a harmless human error that I can't imagine they'll repeat in a hurry.

What did you want them to do? Risk what could be a childs life instead?

If you were told 9 months ago not to eat the items on the way to school how have you suddenly forgot on the day of the trip?

It's interesting though, as that's a massive imposition on other families - restricting their food. I wonder what the alternatives are, and also, how safe that rule actually is?

Yes as pp just said, are you not supposed to be avoiding eating these items every day on the way to school?

Maybe the school could send out a list for parents to pin up at home.

Not sure which part of my post indicates I thought the school should leave the food in the lunches and put the child at risk

I think as the majority of children have fsm, then on the rare occasions a packed lunch is required they should put a reminder on the letter.

I regularly pack food for my dc for days out, picnics etc outside of school and I automatically put the food in I knew he'd eat. It wasn't intentional, and if my child had the allergies I'd be furious.