School rules and nuts

[Bagsalot]

My daughter is 11 yesterday was her birthday. She took an asda tray bake to school with her. She wasn't allowed to share it as apparently some where on the box it says may contain nuts. This has never been an issue before. Today an email came out stating no nuts or seeds allowed in school including lunchboxes. My daughter's in year 6 has been at the school since nursery age 2, this has never been mentioned. I've asked to see the risk assessment. I feel it's an unreasonable policy but possibly I'm being unreasonable

@Abra1de

My mum ate peanuts/most nuts throughout 4 pregnancies. I have a peanut allergy my DSis has a walnut allergy. Other siblings have no food allergies.

DD2 is allergic to cashews, sesame, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachio I had hazelnuts and sesame during her pregnancy. She is not allergic to peanuts.

I know they're trying their hardest to research allergies but I don't think they're anywhere close to understanding them personally.

Haven’t rtft but it definitely gets the stupid thread of the day award

As a teacher you have to say everybody or nobody, if you know in advance that the allergy is an issue. It really isn't on to have one little child sitting there with no cake at school.

Our schools and nurseries cope with this by having alternative allergen-free cakes or snacks on hand for kids with allergies (such as my daughter) provided by the allergic child's parents. This works fine.

It's interesting to note that many of the YANBUs have come from posters with experiences with severe allergies.

Yes, including me.

My extremely nut-allergic child went to elementary and middle schools that did not ban nuts. The schools focused on making sure all the children were aware that other children had allergies. The children were taught not to share foods and to practise good hygiene. There were nut-free tables for children like DD - her friends would choose not to bring in PBJ sandwiches so they could eat with her, so again they were learning about allergies. Her classroom was nut-free. Other classrooms were dairy free or banana free (yes, one child had a banana allergy).

It worked for her and the many other children in her school with a variety of allergies.

Now she's at high school she is able to manage her own allergies and her friends are aware of allergies and are careful not to contaminate her.

I think asking for the risk assessment is a very good idea. Not least because it will remind a school it should have one and review it from time to time,

And of course because Anaphylaxis Campaign UK does not necessarily support a ban of allergens on schools, so comparing the two stances could be illuminating.

www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/2018/01/05/full-statement-regarding-ide-primary-schools-nut-free-environment-policy/

And, for completeness, I ate peanuts and all the other allergens my DC are affected by during pregnancy and during breastfeeding for at least 18 mths for each child. Neither I or DH have any allergies. The whole thing baffles us.

And no, I am not a clean freak either. I only took care in housework when on as kids, at which time, it was obviously too late.

I think that unless you have frequent contact with people with anaphylaxis, especially to multiple foods, it's hard to comprehend just how much it actually dictates everything you do, and everywhere you go. The other kids can easily miss out on the cake without suffering.

Looks like a post of mine explaining a useful insight has been deleted because I used the f word. Shame. What a waste of effort.

Why don't you delete the original post, MNHQ? I found that abhorrently offensive.

There have been three cases in the news recently regarding teenagers who have died from traces of nuts/seeds in prepared food. Nut and seed allergies kill!

I imagine that either 1 - your child’s school now has a child who had a nut allergy or 2 - the school has reviewed their policy due to awareness raised by recent incidences.

I work in an office with someone who has an airborne nut allergy. There are notices on all entrances warning visitors not to bring in nuts, and have gel. We can not bring in boxes or chocolates or cakes or anything containing nuts. You really don’t want to be responsible for causing an anaphylactic reaction. Nut allergies can be incredibly sensitive. The chap at work will clean his desk if someone else sits at it. His life is literally in our hands.

My friend is cautious about everywhere she takes her daughter. Even one crumb left on a table, one drop of milk on a tray. It's exhausting, and she needs to know that school is a place where she'll be ok.

There have been three cases in the news recently regarding teenagers who have died from traces of nuts/seeds in prepared food. Nut and seed allergies kill!

They do indeed kill.

But you can't prevent nut traces being brought into a school - it's impossible. A parent might prepare their child's sandwich using a knife that has traces of peanut butter on it - the school can't prevent or police this. This is actually how I had my worst peanut reaction (ate a contaminated jam sandwich).

The fact is that a nut allergic child is at far greater risk from unlabelled home-prepared food in other children's packed lunches than from a food item with a "may contain" label (that almost certainly doesn't contain any nuts).

Schools like bans because they look good and take very little work, not because they are the most effective way of keeping allergic children safe.

Nut and seed allergies kill!

So do other food allergies but as I (and others) have pointed out, those sufferers don't get the same level of protection or consideration.

@Andro yes there is a lot of inconsistency.

Schools should treat all home-prepared food as potentially contaminated and unsafe for nut allergic children. Biggest risk for these kids is sharing other children's food, and if nut bans result in reduced caution about food sharing then they may actually increase the risk for allergic kids.

and if nut bans result in reduced caution about food sharing then they may actually increase the risk for allergic kids.

Most primary schools also have rules about children not sharing the contents of their packed lunches, for these and other obvious reasons.

I had to take a box of actual peanuts off a child in our 'nut-free' school. I only happened to walk past him in the lunch hall and see them. His mum went ballistic about me taking her child's food away (parents are told every year they can't send in nuts), but what neither of them knew was that the child sitting opposite him was allergic, as he was in a different year. Luckily our deputy head was on the case, and you don't mess with her

I remember when I was at primary school in the late '80s, a little boy started who was allergic to nuts (he must have been in Reception). He was put in front of an assembly of the whole school and everyone was told never to give him food! Must have been mortifying for the poor thing.

My DD has a nut allergy and her school is not nut free. Fortunately she is not allergic to nuts that are air born and it’s only a problem if she eats them. Ultimately she lives in a world where nuts are present. She is 9 and knows to check ingredients in food. If your daughter had taken the cake to her school then the teacher might have stopped her eating it due to “may contain warning”. If you had bought the cake to my house I would have let her eat it. This is over zealous labelling because manufacturers are covering their own backs. People with nut allergies need to learn to live with them and “nut free schools” actually don’t help the problem as they create a false sense of security. Sending a tray bake in to school was a lovely gesture and it’s a real shame that the kids without allergies didn’t have a chance to enjoy it.

Man slaughter guys ?

Completely standard here. Our school is nut-free. All children bring packed lunches and no nuts are allowed. "May contain" items are fine, but no nuts or products with nut ingredients.

Bluegreygreen
Show me research.

Blimy. Op did not send in nuts only a product that "may have a trace"

Even my bread that I just toasted says that. What are you going to do? Ban sandwiches?

I agree with the posters saying good food hygiene should be taught from the first day. No sharing food, proper hand washing and no actual nuts. If there is a child with a severe allergy everyone should know about it so they are able to ensure their safety better.

It doesn't matter that the product 'may have contained a trace' of nuts. That is all it takes for an allergic individual.

If you wouldn't offer such a person a product face to face that 'may contain a trace of nuts' then you don't send it to school.

The issue with nuts is not that a nut or nut particle could be ingested. Even being in the same room as a nut or nut particle or nut oil could have terrible consequences for those who are allergic. Hygiene is not going to help.

It doesn't matter that the product 'may have contained a trace' of nuts. That is all it takes for an allergic individual.

This is a silly argument.

Literally any item of home-prepared food brought by a pupil "may contain nuts", because of contamination risk, unless you ban all families from buying and storing nuts (maybe you should ban the sale and ownership of nuts completely while you're at it).

There is zero risk of airborne nut reaction to a traybake that "may contain" nuts, and highly allergic children should not be sharing food anyway.

OpiningGambit's post below shows that nut bans are ineffective anyway and that careful supervision of allergic children is better. It's a lot easier to supervise a small minority of children with a severe allergy than to police the lunchboxes of all the kids.

The best protection for severely allergic children is behavioural. Schools are never actually nut-free and pretending to allergic children and parents that they are creates a false sense of security.

On the subject of airborne peanut protein, the anaphylaxis campaign reports on a study that exposed children with severe peanut allergy to peanut butter through smell (they held a large portion of peanut butter one foot from the children's noses) and skin contact (they dabbed peanut butter on the children's backs).

None of the children had a severe reaction and none required treatment. There were some mild skin reactions at the site where the peanut had been applied.

As a severe peanut allergy sufferer I hate being around people eating peanuts. I hate the smell and it makes me anxious because of the associations. But it doesn't put me in any danger and the research suggests that in fact the danger is minimal to non-existent. The main risk is in cross-contamination eg sharing of utensils and cups (but highly allergic people shouldn't share utensils and cups anyway).

I can't believe someone would have an 11 year old child and not know about the nut ban in school. I've been aware of that since DDs were in pre-school.