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.

Our school also has a ban on nuts, they say it's one of the teachers who has a severe reaction to nuts so it's not always about the kids. And since kids notoriously DON'T wash their hands and handle everything it could be life threatening for her to even tidy up the classroom if nut dust was on any pens/pencils etc.

On another note in two years at school I've seen 3 newsletters reminding parents that Nutella contains nuts so please don't send it!!!! I'm sure those parents aren't checking labels carefully.

OP, in my opinion YANBU. I regularly care for two children who have severe allergies (including nuts, dairy, eggs) requiring both to have an epi pen with them at all times. At the age of three, both are very clear in what foods they can and can't eat, and very quickly ask an appropriate adult if a new or offered foodstuff is ok for them. I would therefore expect school age children to be even more capable of managing their own allergies.

It is impossible to create a totally allergen-free environment for children (birthday parties, restaurants, play dates will all pose potential threat). So I do not understand why the school would seek to create an un-natural environment for the affected children.

Surely far better to make a positive learning experience about this for all the children - have a positive discussion about healthy eating, including allergies as part of the curriculum, making it clear that packed lunches and snacks should not be shared without checking that a food is ok to share.

Let's give our children some respect and credit them with some intelligence.

OP is sympathise with your situation and am sorry you've had a dose of the common vitriol.

I think you ABVU. If you had ever lost a child to a nut allergy you might realise just how unreasonable your post is. A child with a severe allergy to nuts doesn't need to come into physical contact with them to have a severe reaction, just being in the same environment can prove fatal, there's not always time for medication eg antihistamines, epipen, etc.
I don't think the school are doing this to be a pain but rather to allow a particular child, probably only starting next term, to receive an education in a safe environment. Isn't that what we all want for our children!?!

I think these threads are important to educate other people who don't have allergies..

I find at times kids are much kinder than adults. in our school. I am aware a boy in my DS's year has a nut allergy. We have a no nut policy Children are aware of his allergy and never share food with him..

Ask your child if he would like to continue the same breakfast when he could make a child very poorly.. ( I am not sure they need to be scared into can kill the child although it is the reality.) I can't imagine a child would say no..So reason a parent wouldn't understand that.

As a vaguely considerate person with no real world experience of allergies it is quite possible I would have failed to check the label of everything. Things I considered high risk obviously (and I do a fair amount of cooking so have some clue) but reading every label (low or high risk) takes a long time. There's also the risk of ingredient changes e.g. Aldi bourbons were dairy free then the floods happened and they weren't and now they are again... without dealing with a minor intolerance (i.e. crap night, explosive nappies) I would not be quite so aware.

Quite a few curry type things have nuts - coronation chicken. Realistically all a nut ban can do is reduce the level of nuts in the environment - it might well be worth pointing out that hummus has sesame in it.

Hummus being banned would be a 'mare for many dairy allergic children - we use it instead of butter as the dairy free spreads are pretty meh (apart from an olive oil one I found once and haven't seen since) Dry sandwich time I guess...

I think the biggest issue is that nut is not the only anaphylactic reaction that can kill - just the most common. In banning nuts (and only nuts) people forget about other equally severe allergies and don't ban them or take as much care. Secondly thinking things are banned

Tickle76, I am shocked to read your post. My ds is very aware what he is allergic to. But when he was in reception, one of the child tried to put the food he was allergic to in his mouth by force, as a joke. When he has a pin prick test, it makes a huge bump on his arm. Can you imagine what happens if actual thing was in his mouth?

YABU if it were your child with a severe nut allergy that could be very easily set off I'm sure you'd hope others would be helpful and avoid nuts for school lunches. Theyre not saying you cannot feed your children nuts ever. Our school has a nut and kiwi ban - doesn't bother me in the slightest

Sorry didn't RTWT before posting above.
Possibly if the allergy sufferer is on your child's class then you would be told so the kids in the class could be educated about nut allergies and not sharing food etc. They would possibly also have higher hygiene standards to make sure that traces of nuts are washed off hands at least.
Could you make cakes with no nuts? I don't like nuts so I leave them out of recipes all the time.

Amazing how despite the explanations about why it's a good idea to have a nut ban there are some really unempathic stubborn people who won't listen the word ignorant springs to mind.

Oh and the whole school ban rather than a class ban is because at unplanned times classes may be split into other classes if, for example, a teacher or 2 are off unexpectantly and their classes are split into groups to join other classes for the day, because they cannot get subs to cover this always

As the parent of a child with a severe peanut allergy, we live in a hypervigilant state. He is nearly 4 and will always question what someone other than us gives him, but there are so many ways to cross contaminate food without actually eating it. What if child A has a mini snickers, drops a bit, DS sets his apple down on said crumb, lifts it and eats.

He's about to start pre-school and for the first time he will be without us, relying on others to be vigilant. Thankfully they are fully on board. No external food allowed.

But next week he's going to a summer scheme with request to bring snacks and lunch. Small bit at bottom of info to say 'we are nut-free as we have children with severe allergies. Please do not send any food containing nuts'. I appreciate that and hope people understand.

If you've not come across this or have direct experience you might think it will cause some annoying reaction. It won't. It will cause anaphylaxis. Who wants to give a 3/4/5/6 year old anaphylaxis??

The older a child the more responsible they become but in juniors, not fair.

Incidence of peanut allergy is mostly quoted as 1 in 70 but in reality it is edging towards 1 in 40 now. Not everyone knows they have it and it can start at any age.

The current fashion for peanuts in food will probably help reduce this in the longer term but right now with a 3 year old it is stressful.

I really can't believe someone would grudge "having to look for an alternative to muesli bars" to keep a child from having a deadly reaction. Trust me when your child has severe allergies you constantly have to look at what they eat. Is everyone just about themselves these days?

As for posters saying the world won't look out for kids so they have to learn to look out for themselves well that's just tough shit for kids with learning disablities then. And with inclusion there may well be children with more difficulty managing their allergies in mainstream schools.

My daughter s primary school is nut free, it is very quick and easy to come up with a nut free packed lunch, not difficult at all. Yabu....

Sorry. I won't 'tell off', but I think YABU.

As someone who has to check all packets of food for husband and son it's not a big deal to check packets once you get used to it.

When you mention that the policy only projects those with an unknown allergy, those with a nut allergy will not want to use their epi pen every time someone whiffs a nut in front of their nose. So it's important not to have nuts around them. Also, nut allergies can get worse with exposure, so why have them around?

Please place yourself into the position of parents who have kids with severe allergies...I'm sure you'd not feel the same then!

What I actually meant to include was that I'm shitting myself about the summer scheme because of the snacks. I understand that people don't consider it when it's not on their radar and they think the policy is probably vague, blanket and OTT. But save standing at the door on first day handing all parents a letter and looking like a total weirdo, don't see that we can do more. Ugh.

We also have quite a comprehensive 'no nuts' policy in our school. DS has packed lunches so it is a bit of a pain sometimes, but I do understand and I'm not complaining. I don't think there is anyone with extremely severe nut allergy in our school, but even if it's not one of those extreme cases, were I a parent of a nut allergy child, I would be grateful that the school is at least trying to keep them safe. I agree with those who said that as much as an 11 year old can be sensible about not eating something they shouldn't, a 5 or 6 year old may not be able to remember to check for ingredients when another child offers them half of their cereal bar... As for epipens, I don't think children with allergies carry them with them during the school day; in our school all epipens are kept in the school office and I would imagine similar arrangements exist in other schools. If someone has a bad allergy and eats something they shouldn't at the far end of the playground, it may be a bit too late for them until someone runs to the office to fetch the epipen and gets back... Sometimes even a couple of minutes may be too long to wait.

Yes, nut allergies can be very severe, even fatal, because they can involve anaphylactic shock rather than a "normal" allergic reaction, but I know someone who gets this reaction from strawberries, a friend's child gets it from peas (and have you ever heard of a pea-free primary school?). I have never come across a blanket ban of anything other than nuts on the grounds of someone else's allergy.

And although it might just be a PITA to most people, my child had to have a seriously carb-restricted diet for a while a couple of years ago, for medical reasons. He couldn't eat wheat, rice, pasta, potatoes or oats. We joined him, because it seemed really mean to deny him all his favourite foods while we carried on eating them. The only way we could get anything like a balanced diet was to use nuts and nut-flours in place of the things he couldn't eat. His packed lunches however, had to be restricted to veg sticks and dips, which he got bored of in the first week.

YABVU.
My friend has a severe allergy to certain fruits, including bananas. This has become much worse over the last two years as she has been exposed to bananas in the workplace by selfish unreasonable people who even though they knew how it affected her, didn't see why they should stop eating bananas at work, and a useless management who failed to do anything to protect her.

The anaphylactic reactions have become more severe and on one occasion she nearly died and the paramedics only just managed to save her.
The after effects have also become more debilitating and it now takes her much longer to recover from one of these episodes. I have seen her in the throes of one of these reactions and it is really scary. How much more scary must it be for the affected person and even more so if that affected person is a child?
My friend gave up her job in the end as the risk to her health wasn't worth it.

An allergic reaction is scary for anyone, let alone for a child or a child's carer. Anything to prevent and minimise the risk should be done. I would follow the advice and try my absolute best.

Yabvvu.

My child could he's anaphylactic to dairy and egg.

Amazing how despite the explanations about why it's a good idea to have a nut ban there are some really unempathic stubborn people who won't listen hmm the word ignorant springs to mind.

Allergy UK and the Anaphylaxis Campaign don't think it's a good idea, but then you'd know that if you had RTFT

Is everyone just about themselves these days?
Sadly I think that a lot of people are.

I've come to the conclusion that all posts that state that Allergy UK and the Anaphylaxis Campaign don't support nut bans in schools must be invisible.

merimum my son and many other could die from dairy as he's anaphylactic to dairy and egg. I think it's not banned as its less likely to be airborne than nuts. And there does have to be limits asking other people to avoid dairy would severely limit what they could eat.

Op an epi pen gives you 10 minutes to get medical attention it does not stop the reaction! Bear in mind they will have to go find the thing as the teachers won't be carrying it on them in that time a child could die. But hey ho as long your child gets their pistachios.