To think this 'nut free policy' is OTT for a school

[MerryMarigold]

So, letter home about next term's 'nut free' policy and I think it's a bit extreme but tell me what you think. In packed lunches (I will have 3 having packed lunch next year), we are not allowed to include:

• Fruit and cereal bars which contain nuts
• Sesame seed rolls
• Nutella
• Peanut butter
• Cakes made with nuts
• Muesli bars
• Baklava/ Nougat/ Turkish Delight
• Any packets of nuts

I would assume we are not allowed to give them pistachios in a Tupperware box either.

Anyway, my point is that how can they police it this closely? I know some kids cannot come into ANY contact with nuts, but for example, my kids would have nuts in granola at breakfast and probably not always wash their hands before school (if they remembered to clean their teeth when they first get up). I also refuse to check the ingredient list of everything I put into a packed lunch for 3 children so there are bound to be nuts in something they end up having.

Nuts are very healthy and nutritious, so we basically need to swap nut based products for something less healthy. I am most upset about the Muesli bars and no cakes made with nuts. Ds1 is a major food-refuser. He has never managed school dinners and food at home is an issue too. He nearly always has a muesli bar in his lunch, which I suppose I will need to substitute with biscuits. And sometimes I would include cakes made with nuts just to up his nutrition at lunchtime a bit. He doesn't like any form of meat, fish or cheese in his sandwiches.

I do sympathise that there are (a very few) people who have a 'life threatening reaction to nut products' (quoted on the 'nut free policy' letter). However, I would assume they do carry an epi-pen as it is impossible to create a completely nut free environment in a large school of children who are eating nuts at least at home. So, in reality it is not life threatening unless there is a child who has an unknown severe nut allergy. I would even be compassionate if it was stated that a child (without mentioning names) had had a reaction several times in school, but I very much doubt a child has reacted at school, and there may not even be a child with a severe nut allergy, so this is just scare mongering really.

SO, I do need to feel more positive about this and the extra work it will cause me, the extra moaning from my child and the reduction in nutrition. Please tell me off gently! I've had a bad night with not much sleep though, so please bear with me.

Andrew- a packed lunch? Anything without nuts.

DD's ex was severely allergic to nuts. I once opened a box of nuts when we were all in the kitchen - early days, didn't know him well, and had forgotten, to my shame. He had to escape immediately. I wasn't even near him and it's a big kitchen.

I can see why the school want to be hyper-careful.

One of my kids taught in a senior school with a nut ban. There was a child at the school with a severe nut allergy and even the breath of a child who had eaten nuts was life threatening. Some allergies are more serious than others, I don't think you can say that he can just use the epipen.

Compare that child's life with your inconvenience at having to prepare a nut free packed lunch.

In my experience the hardest thing to find for a nut-free packed lunch is decent bread.

At home we use nuts a lot as a substitute for flours, cream etc because my son has type one diabetes and a dairy intolerance. His school is nut free and I respect that even though it makes food choices more difficult for him.

grannytime, that is nonsense. It is impossible to have a reaction to someones breath.

No, DameDiazepam - I was asking about school lunches. How do they cope with all the allergies?

grannytomine The child next to the one you mention on the bus may have eaten peanuts - as may a child on the way to school. So indeed may an adult. What on earth can you do about it?

At my son's primary and secondary the school kitchens don't use nuts,they can't guarantee it completely and nor should they but ds had school dinners with no issues.

My kids have been at various schools and nurseries, and all have been nut free.

It's not difficult to stick to. Check packaging and if it say may contain nuts don't pack it.

Your child won't die if he doesn't get his pistachios during school hours, however another child could if he did!

I wonder if nut allergy is more common that egg allergy. I've known more people personally who get horribly sick with eggs than nuts.

Instead of all the virtual signalling on this thread, why dont the posters actually bother to read the advise of experts rather than doing "im such a wonderful person" posts.

All the someone "might die" posts are ignorant and dont help anyone, especially those who are anaphylatic to other things than nuts.
Teach washing hands etc rather than banning nuts

And i forgot what about banning bread and cakes etc because cross contamination from gluten is dangerous to celiacs.

A strict nut free policy has been in effect where I live for decades now. My issue was the subsequent lack of refrigeration options available for kids. Peanut butter and jelly is fine unrefrigerated but meat and cheese or cheese mayo and lettuce not so much.

I wonder if nut allergy is more common that egg allergy. I've known more people personally who get horribly sick with eggs than nuts.

I believe egg and milk allergies are more common in children, but nut allergies tend to be more serious and unlike egg/ milk allergy, nut allergy is rarely outgrown. My DD was seriously allergic to milk but she outgrew it by age 7, I'm 51 and still very allergic to peanuts and some seeds.

I'm the mum of a toddler with a nut allergy and moderate dairy allergy, I'm also a Reception Teacher.

When DS start school would I be happy if they had a nut free policy? Yes! The thought of him sitting in the dinner hall next to a child eating a peanut butter sandwich haunts my dreams and makes me feel sick to my stomach.

However I wouldn't expect the school to implement such a policy and I would advise against my own school doing so. You can't ban some allergens and not others, it's discrimination.

I don't really know the answer. Other than to make parents aware and hope they'll spare a thought for my previous boy being rushed to hospital with his eyes swelling shut when they choosing the contents their child's packed lunch.

People don't understand the awful stress and anxiety of having an allergic child until it happens to them.

*Precious, not previous.

Suburban

Yes he checks everything as near as possible but he's 17! It's really hard. Sometimes brands that you have been ok with alter their ingredients.

People don't understand the awful stress and anxiety of having an allergic child until it happens to them.

THAT^^^^^^ With bells on.

. . . but nut allergies tend to be more serious.

No they don't!

You can have serious nut allergies and mild nut allergies. And you can have serious milk/egg allergies and mild ones.

There is no "tend" when you are talking about allergies. An individual is as allergic as they are.

You simply cannot assume that someone is more allergic to something because of the thing they are allergic to. That's just ridiculous.

There is no "top trumps" of allergens: this scores more than that. But people think there is.

And this is where all this over-reaction stuff comes from like I mentioned upthread. The child with a nut allergy "must" have been more allergic than my milk allergic child, and more deserving of being protected from allergens, because HE (or she) had a NUT allergy and my child only had a milk allergy. Despite the fact that the kid didn't even need an epipen, it was automatically assumed that a nut ban was needed.

My son is the one with nut allergy in his school. I had a row with one of the parents at his pre-school, a vegan, moaning how unfair it was that her child would be deprived without his peanut butter sandwiches, she felt I should keep my son at home and not inconvenience her. My son is happy to tell his friends he has a nut allergy and they are all far more understanding than their parents!!!

I know 3 people with egg allergies, 2 of whom (adults) carry epi pens and have been hospitalized after inadvertently eating egg. The other 1 appears to have grown out of the allergy.

I guess you can be fatally allergic to anything.

Flippertydigget

Why do you believe that her son should not have a peanut butter sandwich, when there is no evidence that him eating a peanut butter sandwich next to your son will do your son any harm whatsoever.

They have done blindfold tests and people with peanut allergy cannot tell if there is a peanut put under their nose let alone have a reaction

Our primary school is nut free. Never seen it as a problem. YABU in not making the small adjustments requested of you. What example are you setting your children by letting flount this school rule?

Op
I would go to the school and point out the anaphylaxis campaign guidence, their nut free policy is nonsense, and probably does more harm than good.

Fwiw these are occasions when I've had a significant reaction to nuts, being when ,my eyes and face swelled up to the point I couldn't see and I have hives all over my body (this is on category down from 'critical' wh I've needed 999):

• grandad giving me a kiss on the cheek goodnight, after eating something with nuts in
• playing cards with a group of people, one of whom had been eating salted peanuts earlier I'm the night and had residue on his hands. As the card game went on, I got the reside in my hands and must have touched my face, just sweeping my hair away or something
• poking with a stick at the bird feeder that was hanging in a tree, one nut or whatever was in there fell out and hit my face on the way down
• bowl of Xmas nuts on the sideboard at my friends house that I was visiting

Sitting near someone eating a snickers bar is enough to make me vomit from the smell of salted peanuts.

It's bizarre