To think this is NOT good enough?! I am furious!!

[Peanutsaga]

NC’d So dd (8) has a nut allergy and has an epipen that she brings to school. Long story short, a girl in her class brought in a cereal type bar into school with her lunch but it had peanuts and other nuts in it as well as chocolate chips (you know the ones!)
Dd informed me that she saw said girl with the bar and then avoided her for the rest of the day and she could even smell the peanuts. I called into the school to let them know that this had happened but in short I was told, that the school had informed the parents of the no nut policy and sent it out via letter and newsletter, and that there wasn’t much else they can do as they cannot police the lunch boxes every morning. Is that it? I feel really let down and nervous about dd at school now!!

I actually have a fantastic understanding of the law.
Which is why I know you're just chatting shit.

Yawn. I don’t really care what you think. Ddraig you don’t Understand the law. Anyway go well, my son and daughter are safe because they follow their consultants advice.

Lower case needed there on "understand" I'm afraid.

Also it's consultant's (if you mean one of them) or consultants' (if there are more than one.

Hello everyone. We're dropping by with a quick reminder of our Talk Guidelines. It's fine to robustly disagree with another poster but please do so without resorting to personal attacks or deliberately inflammatory behaviour. Thanks.

Saying I don't believe you is really really not illegal.

But your people can get in touch with my people and then we'll all have a laugh.

Good luck finding me 😂

Our doctor actually is against allergy blanket bans in schools because it doesn't teach children properly how to manage allergies. In this situation for future I think your daughter should raise her hand for a lunch assistant member of staff and request to be moved to a different table or that the child eating peanuts is moved. She is obviously very mature and able to be aware of her allergies and people around her which is brilliant because it will mean you can train her to be proactive about her allergies ready for every day life. Also whilst the school can't check every lunch every day if your child alerts a staff member that someone has peanuts the school is capable of sending a reminder to that child's parent directly which might help.

I do think
It’s weird that as cooked school lunches are but free, you chose, for a child with severe allergies, a school with no prepared but free meals but instead home packed lunches eaten in the classroom.
To be risk adverse, it was a poor choice of school imo.
I never knew that pesto has nuts in it!
Whole grain brad too Is so
Popular in schools.. So easy for parents to send non-but free without meaning to.

It’s an awful thing to have such a reaction but I feel it is not for the school to search for peanuts.
I’m sure you’ve educated your daughter what to do, does she wear a SOS bracelet or something.
If it were my child I’d make up big laminated posters and have them put up in every classroom and dining hall and ask the school to have a talk with all the children about these conditions so everyone is aware.

In my daughter's primary school the children had to eat their sandwiches in their classroom or outside so not sure how they can police lunchboxes in that case. I feel for children with allergies besides nuts as they are left to fend for themselves.
OP clearly your daughter is very sensible and dealt with the situation well but I'm not sure what else the school can do? They can't check every lunchbox.

And if schools don't want to be sued, then they should start listening to the professionals who are saying bannings don't work.

Yea airborne allergies are a nightmare, like nuts, but then so are some other allergies that can also have the same impact. Worst-case scenario death. One of the most popular fruits in schools is the innocent orange. Cross-contamination is very hard to stop, yet they remain in schools throughout the country. Yes, it's rarer, but it can still cause death.

Banning nuts also doesn't work as many people who are allergic to peanuts are allergic to other legumes, but these are never on the ban list. So what's the point?

A child can be happily chomping away on the mn popular hummus and celery sticks. But have some cake with marzipan on, and it's confiscated. Makes no sense at all.

My sons school have 3 people with nut allergies.
My child is on a medically controlled diet with prescribed food items that contain nuts, they legally have to provide for both of these medical needs.
My son is separated from other pupils to eat and his hands and face washed after his snack, he is the only one subject to this treatment, i make a point of labeling everything that contains nuts as having a medically fragile child myself i would never wish to be responsible for anyone else's medical crisis.
However to the best of my knowledge no other childs lunch boxes are checked and they also happily serve up cakes/treats for birthdays sent in from parents that dont meet allergy requirments. My son can end up in medical crisis if he gets hold of outside food sources so i find its often been easier for school to remove our kids from the situation that it is to police the other 20 odd kids unfortunately

I think getting the other children in the class informed and involved is key. An eight year old is quite capable of telling their parent they can't take a particular snack to school because it might make their friend very ill. I think this would work better than another letter which might be overlooked. I hope all goes well OP.

This is too hard to police realistically but the school could at least try and it starts with sending a strongly worded letter home and as it's health related they are within their rights to introduce a blanket ban on nut products.

No one NEEDS to eat nuts, they can find something else to eat. As a parent I would have zero problem with this.

I was on a plane in December and the cabin crew informed us we could not have these products for this reason: if they can implement it on a plane they can implement it in a school.

My niece has a deadly reaction to bananas and yet her nursery were giving pieces of banana out and even gave some to my niece so it could be worse op... my niece stopped breathing and they had to run to the school to even phone an ambulance, which they did not do they phoned the mother instead and she phoned the ambulance

I feel that this thread has been somewhat derailed by a few posters which is a shame. Going back to the original OP I would not be satisfied by the school's response but maybe take some stock of what you would actually like them to do. For instance would you prefer for your dd to be segregated at lunchtime? How else could the school make you feel that they are taking your dd's allergy seriously? Could the teacher speak to the kids in your dd's class and remind them of the importance of avoiding bringing in foods with nuts? Could they do that every year as she moves through school? Posters in the canteen and reminders every quarter to parents? Go in and speak to the school with a list of things that you could propose they do and be open to discuss. It is great that your dd is aware of how to deal with her allergy but maybe look at ways you can increase her confidence to approach a teacher. Hope all goes well for her, I can only imagine the stress and worry you and other parents whose children have serious allergies experience.

The school could have at least said they will send out a reminder text to remind all parents. My sons school has done that in the past.

Speaking as a teacher, it is VERY tricky to police lunch boxes or snacks each day but we send stroppy texts out to parents and we expect parents to.

Speaking as a parent, my son goes to school with a child who has severe anaphylaxis if he comes into contact with peanuts and are a nut free school and have been VERY clear about this. Parents seem on board but staff can’t monitor lunch boxes. However, parents who slip up are called in for a meeting with the head and are spoken to directly. This boy can go into anaphylaxis if someone ate a snickers that morning and then touched a table that he was sat near. It’s that severe. Because the head has really pressed home the importance of it, other parents are on board. The head should be taking more responsibility for this imo.

With nuts and peanuts where does it stop? Do we ban all these foods

Why is these allergns perceived to be the only "dangerous allergens" when children do die from other equally dangerous allergens.

Why is a child with a citrus allergy being seen perceived lesser than a child with a nut allergy?
Why is the child with a citrus allergy allowed to be in contact with their allergen and not the child with a nut allergy?

Isn't a citrus anaphylaxis reaction the same as a nut anaphylaxis?

Yet you dont see schools doing a blanket ban on other known dangerous allergens.

Airborne peanut and nut allergy IS RARE and people dont seem to realise this, as is my DS dog allergy, yet ds cant have a "dog/dander free" policy impossible

Allergy food bans goes against UK Allergy and Anaphylaxis Campaign guidelines, yet with a nut and peanut allergy this gets ignored, I wonder why this is?

For me its education, the public not being aware that ALL allergies have the potential to be life threatening.

How awful and upsetting for your daughter. There really isn't much the school can do though, except check every single child's lunch/ break etc every day, if other parents are that thoughtless

That’s a bit frightening, I think I’d be worried too but your daughter seems well aware of the situation and hopefully is clued up enough, maybe someone should contact her parents and make them aware maybe they forgot.

I cannot imagine the constant, horrendous stress of a having a child with such a severe allergy. My heart goes out to every child and parent who is is affected. However I think it is also unrealistic to rely on a school to be a 100% safe zone, and doing so is also dangerous.
As a parent sending in snacks & lunch everyday to 3 different classes I have a minefield to dance through:

• nut free school - which is pretty clear, although I recently was asked not to eat a packet of M&S chocolate bites on a flight as there was a severe nut allergy on board, and I was shocked to see on closer inspection of the back that it was not suitable for nut allergy sufferers, so it's clearly more complicated that I thought!)
• child 1 can't eat various fruit products due to her own allergies and cannot take in bananas
• child 2 can't take in strawberries and egg products
• child 3 can't take in dairy products, including hummus,

and on top of all this it's a healthy school so :

• no chocolate, no cakes unless homemade and no crisps unless it's friday.

My children are actually pretty good at policing the food that they are allowed, but realistically, you should put the most faith in your daughter, and teach her to be responsible and not trusting. With the greatest will in the world, it's difficult to get it 100% right, 100% of the time.

What happens when children with allergies go to secondary? Genuine question as I've never heard secondary school even mention it. I mean I assume they don't sell nuts and the children are obviously older but how would you ensure no contact with nuts or anything else? Are these children at an increased risk at secondary? That is a horrible thought but why do you expect a lot more from primary school? 90 children in every year group at primary so not exactly a small school.

My friend has a DD with a lot of allergies that include AS peanut allergy. She’s allergic to dairy (all things cow actually), eggs, soya, legumes, tree nuts.
She reads labels EVERY time she buys something and will mostly send her to school with a packed lunch but the school canteen has an allergy list on the wall and EVERY child in the school with an allergy is on that list next to their allergen. Friends DD is next to most of them.
The DDs classmates all know the situation, the school is nut free due a teacher with a severe nut allergy too but we all know that Nutella appears in school time and time again and the newsletters remind us all again. No child is allowed to share food at all. It is about education.....the allergic child as well as the rest of the school children.