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.

I find these thread really sad, some people never understand the risk some children have to live with. You don't die from not eating something at lunch, but some child can. Also all the restrictions they have to live with.
My ds can't eat most of the things any child enjoy. I have to carry epi-pen everywhere.
Life is already hard without seeing these threads.

Yes, it could save a life. Equally it could also save another child the experience of severe hives or their tongue or lips swelling up.

YABU. My dd's friend (16) is so allergic to peanuts her life is endangered if she so much as inhales the breath of someone who has eaten nuts in the last two hours. She has twice been taken to hospital from school with anaphylactic shock. Her life is greatly restricted but she manages to maintain her education as her schools have worked hard to ensure children and parents know not to bring nuts into school. She is now at secondary school and the school give constant reminders about avoiding nuts - I have certainly been educated about this allergy and think it is a good general reminder to everyone to be generally aware. I would not now take peanuts anywhere out of the house as she is not the only person with a nut allergy.
If ever I have thought 'no nuts, how inconvenient' the thought is very quickly followed by the realisation that I am very lucky my dcs do not suffer with this allergy.

(Oh and I make my own granola with no sugar so ).

Also, it is very rude to go on about how easy my life is compared to having a child with a nut allergy. You really have absolutely no idea about my life, or the issues my children have. Nut allergies are not the be-all and end-all of life's problems.

YABU. I'm assuming they have a child in the school or coming to the school with a severe allergy to nuts. Parents making a little bit of extra effort when thinking about what to give their children to eat at school is a small price to pay to prevent a child's death.

Yikes, you asked the question and we answered. My son has major sensory issues so his diet is limited but I would still try to follow this sort of notice to avoid harming another child.

Except when nut allergies are fatal.

It's not simply about a kid with a nut allergy sharing food. Nut oils can be transmitted on hands and then it's on doors, play equipment etc. I won't mention the horrific and escalating effect on the child with the allergy as already excellently described but a safe school environment for every child should be a given surely? Take this as an opportunity to expand your lunchbox ideas maybe and practice during the hols, maybe involving the kids themselves in choices and recipes as cookery is a great way of getting fussy eaters to try and like new things.

INeedNewShoes ... it has been repeated quite a few times on the thread that increased exposure makes following attacks more severe. The allergy is cummulative... it gets worse each time... hence why allergy sufferers need to avoid having ANY attacks.

Before my children's time at their primary school & before schools had to provide hot dinners so all was packed lunches, dcs' school did have a nut ban, with a request not to eat nuts before school eg in breakfast cereal. But also on the list were strawberries & some other foods and because the list became quite extensive - and one parent was very vociferous in complaint because her child's serious reaction to milk wasn't catered for in the ban - parents broadly ignored the 'advice'/was very hard to police & it got a bit heated.

The children with food allergies eat separately and they have education about eating safe. The letter about allergies & eating safe said they were operating in accordance with latest guidance. That seems to conflict though with other poster's schools...

I recently went to look round a nursery and they said they had a toddler with such a severe nut allergy that parents were asked not to feed the children nuts at home before nursery. Apparently the kid's dad ate a Mars bar in the morning at work one day and when he came to pick them up at tea time, the kid reacted to it on his breath. Poor thing. I guess if they have a child like that at school they need to be extra careful.

My friends boy has a severe allergy.

Last reaction he had was sat outside eating at a restaurant and people on the next table had nuts.

He can use hms epipen but even with that will still need to be blue lighted to hospital. Reactions tend to get worse. If he was having to use his epipen frequently chances are there would come a time it wouldn't work.

I know that blues but the reactions I had as a child helped me to learn how serious it was and to learn not only how to protect myself, but that I needed to.

I am concerned that children who are protected both at home and at school by parents and policies may be more likely to make a tragic mistake once they have more free reign.

By the time I was old enough to go anywhere on my own without parent/teacher supervision I was under no illusions as to how important it was that I asked about everything I ate because I had been taught to do so, but also because there had been cross-contamination mishaps along the way.

Am a bit shocked that someone would consider little Kevin only being able to eat a sausage roll for lunch everyday is a problem when the other option of him noshing on his pistachios could cost a child their life.

I've watched DS have a severe asthma attack, fighting for breath and I'd happily go out of my way to ensure no other child had to go through the horrific experience.

Children need to not think that the world around them will adjust according to their needs, because sadly it won't.

Will these children never go on holiday, get on the tube, go to the cinema, go to university, live in a house-share?

Building a bubble is the instinctive reaction to looking after a child with particular needs, but that bubble might give a rather unrealistic view of the world.

"Also, it is very rude to go on about how easy my life is compared to having a child with a nut allergy. You really have absolutely no idea about my life, or the issues my children have. Nut allergies are not the be-all and end-all of life's problems."

Do you actually have fear of your child may get severely ill/ die, everyday, when you send them to school?

When that bubble keeps them alive there sometimes is no choice!

Lunches are often eaten in the hall which doubles up for PE. Even if children with nut allergic children eat their lunch separately, there is still a chance that they could encounter nuts spilled on the floor and missed during the tidying up. reading an ingredients list seems a simple way to save a life and surely you want your child in a school where everyone looks out for everyone else. YABU.

This child is probably a new starter in reception if it is a new policy. The child has a right to a safe schooling. Granted the whole world may not be as safe but surely we should be protecting children, whether our own or those in the communities that we are a part of.

My DD22 carries an epipen for a severe allergy to cashews, pine nuts and a couple of other nuts (not peanut fortunately)

Those of you asking how it is managed in secondary schools - no there are no nut bans (or there weren't in her school anyway)
I made sure her friends knew the signs of anaphalaxis and how to administer the epipen as I had to accept as she got older, they were more likely to be with her in a life threatening situation than me.

It did happen - she snogged her (now ex) boyfriend and instantly had a reaction. We never isolated what he had eaten, as he avoided her allergens when they were together, but he caused the reaction somehow, but saved her life too.
I'd like to keep her at home in a sterile bubble, but I have to let her live her life.

I do appreciate it is very difficult with children with allergies and I do feel for them. At the last school I worked in we had to sit children with allergies on a separate table lunch time from other children and it was my job to collect each individual child from their respective class, sit them on a separate table in the dinning room and monitor/watch what every child had in their lunch boxes. Some children were allergic to milk, nuts, diary, some fruit and herbs. I had to make sure that certain children on the allergy table did not sit near each other and share food, I also had to make sure they left the dinning hall after eating and not stop and talk to other children.

I always found these things simple OP, it's not rocket science.
don't send in the foods on the list, read all the labels rather than refusing to do so and your dc won't have food confiscated.

As a parent of children with anaphylaxic reactions to foods that are not nuts, the thing that annoys me is that schools are happy to introduce nut bans but rarely will ban other items. One of mine had to go through primary school with not only raw tomatoes being served and eaten but actually being grown in grow bags in the corner of the reception play area.
It is possible to train a 4 year old not to touch items they are allergic to and not to share anyone elses food - I had to.
He starts cookery lessons at high school next term so that will bring a whole new set of challenges.

I havent read ALL Of the post so forgive me if im repeating anything.
I used to think the same OP, i thought schools were being over the top, until they banned nuts altogether at my daughters nursery. I had a moan to the mum standing next to me at the time, and to my embarrassment, she was the mum of the child who had the allergy and the cause for the ban. Thankfully she was not upset with me, she explained how her DS nearly died at only 3 years old, and how much she worries that a child may offer him some food, as he was far too little to understand about 'nut trace' ect... Shecwas so happy with the ban, but still worried some parents may not take notice. I really felt for her, and to be honest, we pack boring ham sandwiches/wraps, yogurts and cucumber sticks so my DD was not missing out.

But the most awful example was when my 10 year old DS came home and told me that his friend had lost his father over the holidays. Im not close to the family and i dont know the exact details, but i know he had a nut allergy and ate something which contained nuts. Like i say, i dont know details, but i know there is a little boy growing up without a father due to an allergy, and i for one would not take the risk of harming another child. Your child can eat all the nut bars, and cakes and and whatever else when he is not at school.
But if it were your child, you would hope that other parents would be sympathetic and understand towards the ban.
Its really not the end of the world is it? You're not being unreasonable for finding it a little annoying, but YABU for not putting yourself in the shoes of the poor mums who have to actually live with children with allergies on a daily basis, constantly worrying about what they eat.