School giving chocolate

[Amicompletelyinsane]

Aibu that school have sent my intolerant child home with chocolate?

"could have" but didn't. Presumably another adult was there.

You have no idea what I deal with on a daily basis.

An

It would have been safer to give out empty Smarties tubes, I am sure the teachers would have enjoyed eating them, that way no one feels left out.

I'm a teacher and a parent of a children who can't eat various foods.
I wouldn't be happy.
I doubt it was the teachers idea to hand them out but it's really hard for children intolerances in this situation. I would have a word with the school. All it takes is someone to let you know in advance so you or they can provide a suitable alternative

YANBU. Allergies can be life threatening and parents may not want children to eat sweets for all sorts of reasons - it's entirely unreasonable to send very small children home with treats that their parents may not want them to have. I had a long career in primary schools and would not have supported this idea for fundraising - there are so many more creative things that children could be asked to do.

I'd say to the child "oh that wasn't very fair, here's a pound to buy your own treat" and then run, hide and eat the sweets all by myself

But the point is to fill the tube with money. Your child doesn’t have to eat them. The chances are they were given them with a “mummy/daddy/next door neighbours cat can eat these later” and moved on. If you would rather they didn’t take part then you need to tell the school. They probably thought that as she wasn’t eating it it wasn’t an issue.

An intolerance isn't an allergy. An allergy can be life threatening, an intolerance far less so.

My other child got fed a cup of milk last week, maybe I'm a little more sensitive than usual but I've had an ill child this week from it and I could have v easily ended up with two. I think some people are a tad harsh! I think sending an empty tube would have been far more acceptable!

I would not of been happy at 4, I would of expected the teacher to hand a tube directly to the adult picking ds up to insure that there was no chance of ds eating any.

I think this should have been picked up. A child with a known intolerance really shouldn't be given something they can't have.
And in the spirit of schools being healthy I wouldn't be overly impressed that my child came home with chocolate. Were you given an option to participate?

Won't someone think of the choking hazard it's not just the intolerant child at risk here people 🙈

Fed a cup of milk? As in forced to drink it? The school should be aware of allergies though.

This sounds like the pta to me, nothing to do with teachers. You could always volunteer yourself to make sure every child's individual needs are catered for, when putting in the work for free to fundraise to help all children.

Intolerance or allergy?

Small children can't differentiate, if a trusted adult gives them something to drink then they will drink it. My ds has never had cows milk but he does drink milk (oat) and I expect is given a glass of milk to drink then he wouldn't question it.

My other child is in nursery and got given a cup of milk and drank it. Not linked to school tho but maybe it's made me a little more on edge. The intolerance makes them v poorly and it's awful to see, so no they won't die from it but I don't see why That should mean it's not an issue

a 4 year old - yes, that was a stupid thing for them to do.

OK, so your child didn't eat it. The school were not instructing the children to eat them nor was it a treat. I'm assuming that the after school club or child minder know of his intolerance so wouldn't have allowed him to eat them anyway. So at no point was he allowed to eat them because he wasn't supposed to be as a) it isn't the point of the exercise b) he isn't allowed to eat them.

You need to decide if you would prefer your child to be left out in future and inform the school of that. Or possibly have such things held back until they can contact you directly. While this particular kind of fund raiser is not something I would like, you can't dictate to the entire school what they should or should not be doing.

They did not give your child chocolate to eat. He was supervised by people who know he cannot eat it.

If at any point he either ate or was close to eating the chocolate, then you discuss that with whomever was in charge of him.

The drink of milk is a different issue. They actively handed something to a child with the intention that they drank it. Do they not have notices up about what children can and can't have?

You'd better join the PTA, OP. Change things from the inside.

There's a point. Who picked your child up from school and were they told about the tube of chocolate?

They should have given the tube to the adult so your child wasn't left out. Or they could have filled it with Jelly sweets instead.

I know a child who, from the age of 3, knew his severe allergies and knew what the products look like and would say he needs to test things on his lips before he eats them (he does this with all new foods). He will not pick up anything and eat it, he is well aware it is serious and he knows any new foods can only be tried after an adult has checked the packaging and he has tested it on his lips.
You child did not eat it although you point out it could have happened. Therefore you need to educate your child on their intolerances and ensure they are as informed as possible on their condition. One parent I know used to send in a bag of sweets their child was able to have at the beginning of the term. Any birthday sweets etc that were handed out were done so and said child got one of his own sweets so he was included in things without any cause for concern. Maybe this is an idea for you to take into school for such events?

You need to drill it in to your child that they don't eat anything without asking an adult if it's safe to eat. I have a peanut/nut allergic son and he has asked about foods from when he started nursery at 3. He questions every school dinner, baking session and snack. He knows not to assume supply teachers and students are aware of his allergy.
Also consider requesting that no food is sent home from school. DS has a swap box for when his friends send in cake and sweets or school give out a sweet treat.

They really should have known. We have a list of kids with various allergies and clearly they haven't respected that.