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.

Children are not allowed to eat crunchy nut cornflakes or similar for breakfast either.

How do they enforce that, then?

Suburban- clearly it's not as easy as you think otherwise there would be no need for epi pens and no one would never need to carry an epi pen after diagnosis.

Diazepam I've been hospitalised with anaphylactic shock on several ocasions, I know what it looks and feels like ...

It's certainly true that nut allergy wasn't well recognised in the past. But a wheezing/ throat swelling type peanut reaction is not true anaphylactic shock, which involves a sudden loss of blood pressure and is often fatal - in the days before epipens I had one experience of having no measurable BP by the time I was treated by the paramedics.

Some people can react if there are nuts in the room, they don't have to eat them or even touch them.

That's a standard sounding list OP, our nursery also had to specify no marzipan, as some people didn't realise it is made with nuts.

I never said I thought it was easy, dame.

What I said (in response to willconcern's post about her friend who assumed some food would be OK for him to eat because it didn't normally contain nuts) was that if not checking everything meant I could die, I would make checking a priority and if I couldn't find out, I wouldn't eat that thing.

Some people can react if there are nuts in the room, they don't have to eat them or even touch them

There's not much evidence for this. If it happens, then it's very rare.

Peanut allergic people are often extremely sensitive to the smell of peanuts and go out of their way to avoid it (I know I do!) but there's surprisingly little evidence that it's actually dangerous, except to your anxiety levels.

paperkins

I'm so sorry your DS has to go through all that at school. I hope it will get easier for him as he gets older.

There is a girl with coeliac disease in my son's yr2 class. I am close friends with her Mum and it's really opened my eyes. From what she says, the school (head, catering staff and class teachers) have been brilliant and her DD does not miss out on some of the activities you mentioned.

But gosh...Beaver camps are a nightmare for her!

My sister has a severe peanut allergy.

When she was in secondary school one child thought it would be funny to eat a snickers in the classroom to see what happened - all her year group where aware of the allergy and asked not to eat peanut based products near her - she ended up being rushed to hospital simply from being in the same room.

Schools need to make such policies based on the individual child and how the allergy impacts them.

It's certainly true that nut allergy wasn't well recognised in the past. But a wheezing/ throat swelling type peanut reaction is not true anaphylactic shock, which involves a sudden loss of blood pressure and is often fatal - in the days before epipens I had one experience of having no measurable BP by the time I was treated by the paramedics

But a severe reaction can lead to anaphylaxis, no?

If it's a new thing it is likely that a new starter is severely allergic. It wouldn't really both me as all those things are easy to replace and id rather know I'm protecting a child.

Most schools have a no actual nuts and no peanut butter policy.

There are fruit and cereal bars that don't contain nuts. Other lunchbox items include yogurts, fruit, mini breadsticks, mini cheddars/crackers, cheese string/baby bel, pepperamis, crisps, biscuits, fruit roll up type things, dried fruit.

I have a food refuser but I could still make a decent lunch without any of those things.

Way over the top. A school in our area banned all pork products, lest some Muslim or Jewish kids would eat it or be offended being around it. Some kid drowned in a lake. What did they do? Drained the lake. Some chestnuts fell on a kid's head. They cut down the tree.

Millicent I know that some schools are better than others - often depends how big the school is I think from anecdotal evidence. DS left Beavers because of the blatant disregard for his allergies and the constant exclusion because they just didn't think or care or understand.

teenagers post sounds very scary. I think as a parent, my child's right to privacy would go out of the window if there was a risk of anaphylaxis.

Ds had a 2 huge reactions, one to touching nuts as I said earlier and one from sun cream which had almond oil in it- reaction was so bad his face and eyes swelled up so badly he couldn't see. The hospital / consultants didn't say anything about it being rare.

Yabvu, I thought this was standard for schools and you are fortunate not to have to worry about your dc, others aren't.

Just had another porn pop up, yuck. I'm off for a bit ...

They may not want to disclose the kids name for fear of stupid people berating them or their parents for "the inconvenience" I'd love to say that wouldn't happen but sadly it does.

There are plenty of nut free things you can send in. My food refuser eats very little but I could make a decent lunch with those small restrictions.

I wouldn't care which child it was if its needed I will follow it to protect that child (or children) as I would hope others would do if it was my kid.

id rather know I'm protecting a child.

But there is conflicting evidence (Allwrrgy UK and the Anaphylaxis Campaign for example - links upthread) that a nut ban in schools actually achieves this. So then what do we do?

For the school to be so specific they obviously have a child or a staff member starting with a serious allergy.

Following the ban is obviously for the benefit of the person who has the allergy, but there is a benefit to everyone, your child included, if everyone does - they are saved the horror of ever watching one of their classmates having an allergic reaction. I worked in a school once with a highly allergic child. The year before I started their classmates, a Scottish P1 class so 4 and 5yos, saw the child have a reaction. They saw their teacher dealing with the reaction and heard the classroom assistant on the phone to the ambulance service. It was several minutes before they could be removed from the class. That was eventually traced back to an apple that had been in a bag of goodies collected from guising on Halloween.

People, well adults, can be spectacularly unhelpful though. One charming parent, whose child witnessed the above, basically forced the school to change classes around because she discovered that Scottish HT's couldn't actually ban things, they could only request and she sent her child to school every day with a packet of Golden Wonder chicken crisps (there's something in the cooking of them that causes a problem - I'm not sure what) because she wasn't having her child negatively impacted by another.

But a severe reaction can lead to anaphylaxis, no?

It can do, yes, but it usually doesn't. I've had a large number of serious reactions in my life (I'm 51 and have had numerous severe food and non-food allergies since infancy) but only a small number of true anaphylactic reactions.

It's actually very rare to see true anaphylaxis in children, it's much more common in teens and young adults. All my most serious reactions were between 15 and late 20s.

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

Lol That is on a par with Nana from the Royle Family wondering if Anthony's vegetarian girlfriend could have 'some wafer thin ham'

I did 3 packed lunches for years and managed to avoid nut products without any difficulty.

"Some kid drowned in a lake. What did they do? Drained the lake."

I don't think that is out of proportion. Imagine how you would feel if your died.

I think that children didn't eat so many nut products in the past. When I was a school no had peanut butter in their lunch box or a Marathon (Snickers bar) in school.

I have heard suggesting that all these nut allergies are a middle class afflciton. Certainly none of dd's working class friends have a nut allergy. However I don't think any of their parents like nut products.

My kids' school has the same policy and I also have to provide lunches for ds who has severe food phobias. He has bread with lots of seeds, and a smoothie, possibly a yoghurt. Then he can have peanut butter at home - one plus is he ends up eating some stuff that isn't peanut butter. The dietician says his diet is OK and he may relax a bit around puberty.

Yes YABVU

So my child's life should be at risk just because parents need to think a little bit harder over a packed lunch?

I don't think unless you have lived with the fear of a reaction and your child choking to death you could begin to understand.

Yes, you can use and epi pen but it's by no means a solution. Why should a child be pumped with adrenaline then hospitalised because someone can't think of alternative foods.

paper Our school is a one form entry Primary so about 200 children.
I imagine there is also an element of them knowing that while gluten can make her very unwell, it's not immediately life threatening.

Beavers have been pretty good I think, but it's a lot of work for her parents. There is a lot more awareness these days ie people tend not to just say "well, it was just a little bit" and obviously a lot more properly labelled food, but it is a shame for the kids.