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?

[ILoveDolly]

yabu the school has told you not to bring in a certain type of food. That warning was presumably meant to stand for the whole year. I know its inconvenient to remember stuff like that if you don't usually do lunches but you were told.

[kitkat1968]

my ds went on a school trip to a Victorian museum and had his only drink, orange juice, removed for not being Victorian enough!! presumably cholera-laden water would have been more appropriate

[ineedaholidaynow]

A relative in DH's family is allergic to banana. They recently ended up in hospital after touching a work surface where someone had previously left a banana skin

[clam]

Schools can't win here. We had an issue with a severe nut allergy whereby the parents complained that it was too recent a notification for us to have expected them to take it on board. Then we had the allergic child's own best friend bringing peanut butter sandwiches (triggering an instant attack from the other end of the table) and the parent gave an only slightly embarrassed laugh and blamed the grandmother for making the packed lunch and she'd forgotten to tell her about the ban.

[ShamefulUsername]

I'm not sure what happens with the fsm, if the menu is restricted or if the child sit away from the others. Obviously the priority must be keeping them safe though.

Everyone who enters the classroom must use hand gel which is something I don't particularly agree with. The kids use it at least twice a day. We were told this is because of the allergies but I've since found out antibac gel wouldn't kill allergens so they may not be too clued up.

[StillRabbit]

I can understand the removal of any nuts but the other things will only be a problem if ingested surely.

DH is allergic to egg but I can sit next to him eating an omelette with no problem. A good friend is allergic to pineapple but she serves it to her DC. My ex boss was allergic to gluten but could make her children's sandwiches and eat with them to no ill effect so long as she didn't actually eat the bread.

I would definitely be cross with the school if they took away my child's food without giving them something else.

[SouthWestmom]

Banana

[SouthWestmom]

That's a really good point re free school meals (infants) - surely the kitchen can't make nut, egg, oat and the other thing free meals and still cater for halal, vegetarian, kosher etc? Or even a range of meals?

[itsmeagain1]

Have never heard of anyone being allergic to oats or bananas just to touch then. Nuts, of course.
Sounds excessive to me.
No child with severe allergies is going to eat another child's food, even if they were permitted to, which they aren't. As in the schools generally impose strict rules around sharing food.
However if you were sent a note about this at the beginning of the year I would expect everyone to remember.

[pristinechristine]

The school definitely should have reminded parents. If I were the parent of a child with serious allergies then I would have reminded the school to do so too.

[littleducks]

I hadn't really considered the impact of free school meals for infants but I evict free children now have a packed lunch. Are the school make free from all of those ingredients?

It seems like a huge imposition and unworkable to me (how can they check items without any packaging ie. Homemade banana cake doesn't sideways look like it has bananas in). I don't think it's a good day policy.

[OldJoseph]

Even if the school had sent a reminder I think they would have checked lunch boxes as well. No doubt someone would have forgotten / couldn't be bothered.

[BeYourselfUnlessUCanBeAUnicorn]

Yep, exactly what youarenot said. I'm assuming parents have had to remember each day not to send their children in with these items in their packed lunch or on the way so the day of the trip should be no different.

The school did tell everyone. It's not their job to constantly remind people everything. I would have kept the letter up on the board if it was something I would struggle to remember.

[ShamefulUsername]

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.

[SissySpacekAteMyHamster]

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.

[SouthWestmom]

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?

[youarenotkiddingme]

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?

[Lurkedforever1]

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?

[EsmeraldaEllaBella]

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

[EsmeraldaEllaBella]

What wolf said

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

[WreckingBallsInsideMyHead]

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!

[FoxesSitOnBoxes]

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

[Janefromdowntheroad]

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

[Newes]

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

[mylovegoesdown]

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?.