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.

Can you not just balance your child's diet out over the day / week.

Find a couple of things he will eat - surely it would only take 10 mins or so to check ingredients on a range of foods - it's hardly time consuming.

I have a DS with autism who has issues with food - but I understand my DS's issues are minor in comparison to the issues a child with a nut allergy has. My child might struggle or get upset or refuse to eat but he won't die! So even though it would be difficult for me to adapt DS's diet I would not even question the need for it if I thought there was a risk another child might die.

To be honest some of the points you've made sound a bit selfish.

My ds is allergic to many, but severely to 2 particular allergens. If he consumes it, he may die. Unfortunately, they are very popular food, but luckily, if he doesn't eat it (or put it in his mouth), he only have hives or rash if touched. We don't ask the school to ban it.He can manage to stay away.
But peanut allergy is totally different. Just being in the same room can kill.

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.

To be fair no one's really elaborated on why Allergy UK et al don't advocate nut bans in schools except that it causes complacency - which I can understand to a point. (from what I've seen, I may have missed bits here and there)

I do understand that children need to learn how to manage their allergies but can we really rely on very young children (both allergic and non-allergic) to be completely sensible and aware 100% of the time? Someone upthread mentioned that another child tried to force a nut product in to an allergic child's mouth as they thought it would be funny. Children can be silly and forgetful at times, no matter how much you teach them about the dangers.

I don't believe there is a need for a nut ban in secondary school as by then they should be more than capable and other children should be mature enough to take serious allergies well, seriously. But there's a huge difference between the level of understanding that an 11+ year old has and a nursery/infant/primary aged child.

Did you say something, SuburbanRhonda?

Who, me? Nah

YABVU that is not a hard list to stick to... Imagine how the parents of these kids feel with having to live with these life threatening allergies? If someone told me I would be putting a child's life at risk by sending these items i wouldn't even question it! If you can't be bothered finding an alternative to a muesli bar snack then I sincerely hope you are never faced with such a terrible worry as severe allergies in your family.
As for people saying you don't remember these things growing up.... That's just pure ignorance. It doesn't mean they don't exist. Allergies have been steadily increasing over the years... Do your research.

www.allergyuk.org/why-is-allergy-increasing/why-is-allergy-increasing

Jesus, now we have a poster who actually went on the Allergy UK website but didn't read the bit about them not supporting nut bans in schools!

This would be funny if it wasn't so frustrating.

My son ( who manages his own serious allergy well) was hospitalised from high school after fellow student in food tech class was stirring mixture for peanut butter cookies in a bowl across the room from him. He was unaware of this of course - or even why he was falling ill until an investigation afterwards.
School was aware of his allergy - but things get 'forgotten' or overlooked more at high school. He or I could have done nothing to prevent this near fatal incident - but a school wide ban would have prevented it.

Actually suburban if you read my post you will see I'm addressing people saying they never heard of allergies when they were growing up.... Why so grumpy?!

Obviously the OP has a problem her kid is quite fussy

There is a big difference between "quite fussy" and being a major food refuser.

Anyway, this whole thread is rather pointless.

My daughter has a nut allergy. I think you should Google anaphylaxis. She carries an epipen, but when this is administered she has to be blue lighted to hospital and admitted for a minimum of 8 hours as there is a chance she could suffer a second attack.

Worst case scenario is organ failure and death!

So yes, I think You are being unreasonable. As a parent it is petrifying.

At secondary school a child is more able to be responsible for what they ingest and should be able to manage administering their epipen. But not at primary school age.

If you'd rtft mamakitz, you'd know why.

Schools do NOT control what parents choose to feed their children in their packed lunches. It's a lie for any school to pretend they are nut free! It's a false reassurance for those parents who do have a child with a nut allergy. Legally THE SCHOOL have the duty of care for the child with the nut allergy! Not other parents. I know parents who blatantly disregard this 'nut free' school rule! It can encourage 'neurosis' amoung certain parents and hostility from those who will NOT, quite rightly be TOLD what they can eat! I have made it very clear to my son's school that he WILL continue to eat nuts in his packed lunches. What goes in his packed lunches is my choice and not theirs! The anaphylaxis association UK do NOT support bans in schools! The schools are terrified of being sued. Rather then provide a 'safe table' and supervision they try to pin the responsibility on to other parents. Many nut deaths are teenagers unsurprisingly! Probably because they are no longer in their 'nut free bubble'! They have never had to learn to question what is a 'safe food' for them and safeguard themselves! Also where does it end?! A child with an apple allergy - ban apples! A child with gluten intolerance - ban bread! My opinion is that this new phase of 'nut neurosis' should not be encouraged by lazy schools which cannot be bothered to implement policies to sit and supervise children with allergies safely!

It is perhaps a little unreasonable and I agree with Mouikey, but can also sympathize its tough to make loads of changes when you have 3 children.
Perhaps you should start a thread asking for suggestions on nut free swaps for school lunches if you are worried about the hassle it may cause, I am sure there are plenty of parents who have experienced this and could give you a helping hand. It may also be useful to have such a list as you could share it with the school and politely suggest that they make it available to other parents or even keep a 'suggested swaps' list of their own should other parents inquire as to what's acceptable.

"Nut neurosis"

FgS

It's not immensely hard to remove nuts from your lunch box. My DD is allergic to eggs fish nuts and a few other things and recently had to be dairy free and we managed fine.

Wow Shelly, you make some valid points but you kind of spoilt it with the tone of your post. You sound delightful.

Safe table? Really? So my 9 year old daughter should be ostracised?

Haven't had time to scoot through all messages so apologise if this has been stated - an epipen has a minimum duration of action and a second shot sometimes is needed. In some countries a second epipen is carried for that very reason. It's a holding measure and not a cure all for a nut allergy.

My DH has severe anaphylaxis - it's a PITA even as an adult. A child can come into contact with anyone at anytime and in junior school is a lot less responsible than in comprehensive. There are plenty of alternatives which are nutritious - namely fresh food like an apple or orange to go with sandwiches. There are also excellent peanut butter alternatives - soya butters (wow butter in Holland and Barrett) orginating from countries such as Canada (Ontario has an excellent school policy as a kid died tragically infront of their classmates - as a result a whole culture of nut free products/bakeries/labelling has been set up and parents have to abide by it).

labelling on food is idiot proof - once you find something suitable then stick with it.

I have made it very clear to my son's school that he WILL continue to eat nuts in his packed lunches. What goes in his packed lunches is my choice and not theirs!
So you are quite happy to risk the fact that your son's school lunch could possibly cause the death of one of his classmates just because it is your choice to put nuts in his lunchbox?

Our school is nut free too and it's infuriating but I've always assumed there must be a child there with a serious allergy, in which case I understand it.

As an aside I would not give a child biscuits to take to school! Won't he eat a sandwich if he gets hungry enough? When my daughter doesn't want to eat something I don't ever replace it with a treat, that just trains them to refuse proper food and expect something sweet.

our school had two kids with Nut allergies and thwey have repeatedly sent out ltters to parents telling them not to include products with nuts in them especiall Nuteela sandwiches

there was also a boy with coeliac allergic to gluten ..which is also found in loads of cakes sanwiches etc and nothing special was done for him . even a crumb off a peice could have caused him to be ill

but as you say i often wonder how a nut allergy person managed out in daily life ...we did have a girl in nursery when i worked there and she had an epi pen but although we watched what she ate in the room it was not a strict whole school / nursery ..
nut free zone policy for everyone else

As i mentioned in a previous post my job was to supervise a 'safe table' in a primary school. There were several allergies on the table and even on the table I had to make sure the children did not sit near certain children who were eating something they were allergic to, I would say the children were lovely not at all bothered about the 'safe table' and just wanted to eat their lunch and then go out to play.

My friend has a "gluten intolerance" - she has coeliac disease - and while eating gluten will make her ill, it's not going to make her go into anaphylactic shock and potentially kill her within minutes.

It can have serious long term health consequences if she were to frequently eat foods containing gluten, but it's not really comparable to a severe allergic reaction.

TBH you're being a bit OTT. Nut allergy is on the increase and a lot more common than you realise. You assume, OP, that if the allergy is that severe the child will have an epipen. Most do but have you ever seen a child having an anaphylaxic reaction? I really doubt it or your original post would have been a lot less aggressive and more compassionate. A young child who is swelling before your eyes and turning blue while struggling to speak, breathe, panicking and pleading with their eyes for you to do something if incredibly traumatic. You have sent someone to get their epipen which is probably a minute at most away but feels like hours, all the while you are trying to recall all the training you've been given and worrying that the epipen may not be there in time. When the epipen arrives you do exactly as you've been trained and administer the pen. The ambulance is still not there and your mind is whirling hoping the pen will do its job. Once the paramedics take over, you can go and fall apart in the staffroom. I have had at least one child in my class for the last four years with an epipen and once had to administer one to a child who sat next to a child eating peanut butter. He didn't even eat it. I have heard of a child in another school who died. The epipen wasn't enough. So it maybe a PITA for you to check packets and it may effect your child's nutrients intake but it may save a child's life.