School catering company asking for proof of my kids allergies before they are allowed school dinners.

[CovidStoleTheRainbow]

Background - my child is anaphylactic to dairy, egg, banana and nuts.
A less severe allergy to wheat, soya, shell fish.

He's entitled to free school meals for a couple of months and we figured he could have jacket potato.

School said not til we filled in a form.
The Chartwells form said not til we have given proof of allergies.
I thought they were joking so I filled in the form but didn't send 'proof'.
School asked for proof, I asked school to photo copy my child's anaphylaxis care plan and send them that.

Got a letter today from Chartwells, saying thanks for the proof of the foods he's severely allergic to, but now prove he's allergic to soya, wheat and shell fish.

I'm a bit 'what the fuck?!' for two reasons.

First of all - proof?! Why? Just allow his limited diet and let him eat a fricking hot spud.

Second of all, the waiting list for the allergy clinic in my area is 2 years before coronavirus issues and it's a fight to get on the list at all so there's kids out there with little to no proof they have allergies or intolerances to food, and many of them will be from families in poverty well in need of free school meals.

Yes I get there will be people who randomly not wanting their kid to eat gluten but with allergies on the rise in the way that they are, they will be the absolute lowest common denominator.

And Cygne

Assuming you're over 18, and not still in primary school, I guess you can safeguard your own welfare.

Chwaraeteg, my dc's experience is totally different. My child has never eaten an egg, ever. Yet my dc's doctor lists egg as an allergen. Same for very obscure nuts, that he has never eaten. Or fruit, that he has never eaten.
And they only prick test limited amount of allergens at one time at my dc's hospital too( you can request what you suspect your child is allergic to though), due to distress dc may suffer, but they can test 120+ allergens from one single blood test. It found out things I never imagined my dc was allergic to.

Hi, I had this with my son in Scotland.

In the end the GP wrote me a letter to provide evidence. But I had to really push to it, the receptionist said it wasn’t urgent and the GP wouldn’t provide it. In the end I insisted on speaking to the practice manager and my GP provided it. The GP was baffled why they didn’t take the parents word; he’s never seen my son take a reaction: he has to go on my word for it

Just ask child's GP to write s letter for you. You will probably have to pay for it.

It might be that they need a definative list, come the day Johhny, who is said to be allergic to XYZ and is allergic to dairy chooses custard, They have grounds to deny him it.

Having been a cook cook, I can assure you its a minefield.

Nothing to do with ignorance around allergies. Give me an egg to eat and things go bad. Give me something with a small amount of egg and I'm usually fine. I still have a bona fide allergy.

Putting nuts isn't at all helpful because depending on tree, peanut or seeds it wipes out a whole range of options.

Telling the school your child has a dairy allergy only for them to be allowed regular cheese, cake and custard, milk and white chocolate, ice cream and milkshakes makes you wonder what they are allergic to. If your child doesn't like drinking milk say so. Don't make things harder for those with allergies/intolerances because you cannot be honest with yourself and other people.

And educate your children about their allergies. Get them used to checking for hidden ingredients from an early age.

I honestly fail to see why you wouldn't want to give proof.

God forbid there's staff sickness and the staff from the catering company change - very likely in these times.

I personally take comfort in the fact that my child's care plan required medical evidence, wouldn't expect anything else.

You need to take this up with your GP and the school rather than telling people on Mumsnet off.

I had the same, DS severe allergy to shellfish. Catering company required proof, ie GP letter or similar, because so many parents were claiming allergies that hadn't been diagnosed and confirmed.

Creating large numbers of specialist meals is a massive logistical undertaking at huge cost so limited only to those with medical confirmation. It's the only way that works.

(The jacket potato's) the only thing he will ever be allowed to eat. He's allergic to every single food they otherwise provide, aside from the plain fruit

Every single other food?? That's a bit surprising, and perhaps explains why they're seeking clarity on this

Frankly I'd do the same

That's a hell of a lot of extra work for the caterers to put in place just so your child can have free school meals for a couple of months. I'm assuming you won't carry on with them when you have to pay? Apologies if I've read that wrong. With those allergies won't they have to cook his potato in a separate oven? Not surprised they want clarification.

@kursaalflyer

Her son is entitled to the free meals so they should provide for his needs.

We put in a lot of ‘extra work’ so the boy in my tutor group who is a wheelchair user can access all his lessons because he’s entitled to an education

Why do people want to make extra work for others though? If things go wrong who will suffer? The safest option is to provide meals from home for the few weeks. And the wheelchair arrangements analogy is completely different.

@kursaalflyer

It’s about catering for those with different needs.

I’m sure the child doesn’t want to make extra work and would rather be able to eat anything.

Because free school meals saves a fair amount of money a month!

Whether is for a week or for years they still need to cater for him and the parents need to help that by provides the proper details to allow that to be done safely

This is pretty standard, I think. Our school requests the same and it sounds really sensible. Of course, they need to know from a medical source exactly what is safe or not. What if there was miscommunication between you and the caterer? And your son became seriously ill?

Also, it does cut down on the folks whose kids have 'allergies' but not really. I once ran an educational trip and you will not believe the sorts of 'allergies' people claim they had - mushrooms, but only if raw, avocado but it's fine if on a salad, etc., etc. It costs extra to make sure safe food is available. It may not always be a jacket potato, sometimes it will be soup and a roll (if he can't eat the gluten, they will source something for him he can eat, etc.). Surely, if it's a genuine allergy, you would be glad they are engaged and double checking?

YANBU. In my experience, chartwells have proven themselves to be massive arseholes.

I would also be very careful, as they are very hit and miss, and there are days when they will not have jackets as they can be disorganised.
So he may go without.

I had this at my sons nursery with "snack time" raw tomatoes blister his skin he can eat them but like ever other three year old its on his face too so I asked them to avoid it as they obviously couldn't be wiping him like I did they were like whatever let him eat them his skin blistered they had to apologise and didn't let him eat them again

They thought I was being a "fussy parent"

@Puzzledandpissedoff

(The jacket potato's) the only thing he will ever be allowed to eat. He's allergic to every single food they otherwise provide, aside from the plain fruit

Every single other food?? That's a bit surprising, and perhaps explains why they're seeking clarity on this

Frankly I'd do the same

Wow.

Have you got a kid in school that has school dinners?
Chicken tikka masala, dairy

If you have wheat, egg and soya allergy you're screwed.
I've attached an example to teach you.

For example, spaghetti and meat balls - wheat
Chicken potatoes etc gravy that contains wheat and would you believe it, often milk.
Pizza, wheat and dairy
Fish and chips, wheat
Lasagne, dairy and wheat
Deserts all have dairy apart from fruit

Does that help? @

@Mintjulia

I had the same, DS severe allergy to shellfish. Catering company required proof, ie GP letter or similar, because so many parents were claiming allergies that hadn't been diagnosed and confirmed.

Creating large numbers of specialist meals is a massive logistical undertaking at huge cost so limited only to those with medical confirmation. It's the only way that works.

That's my point though, so many children won't be diagnosed. SO many parents won't be able to 'prove' their child's very real allergy and missing out on free school meals which is a fricking travesty.

I believe this may have started as a consequence of the Daniel Pelka case (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Daniel_Pelka). The little boy died as a result of parental abuse, and the mother lied over and over to the school about the boy's medical condition, and managed to convince the Head Teacher that Daniel had severe digestive problems, was over eating at night, and shouldn't be given any food at school. The poor boy was starved, abused and his parents have been found guilty of murder.

So now schools need medical proof when there are medical conditions that will affect how schools deal with children on a restricted diet.

I am not absolutely sure there is a direct link to your child, but I believe that's when schools started to ask for medical proof.

@ScottishMummy12

OP you would be surprised by the amount of children that's parent claim that they have allergies and it is just the child not liking a food. The reason we ask for proof in my nursery is because of this reason.

Oh God, this 100%. For my child it is life or death situation - DC had to go through some pretty horrific experiences and I had to accept and live with the fact that their life is just that: careful balancing act of trying not to die. Yet DC regularly shares “allergic” school dinner table with children of attention seeking wankers who are “allergic” to X, Y, Z but then I see them eating X, Y, Z at school fetes, birthday parties etc

My youngest is 15 and has multiple food allergies and we've never been asked to provide medical evidence for school meals, just a letter signed by me. If I had to provide recent medical evidence now I would struggle a bit as he was discharged from the hospital clinic a few years ago. He decided he didn't want any more testing or challenges so there was little point in continuing our 200 mile round trips to say that nothing has changed. The GP has had no input for over a decade, beyond issuing the repeat prescription for his EpiPen. I expect they would issue a letter if I needed one though and it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be a bit irritating.
I presume it is to prevent parents making unnecessary demands on the system, and it does annoy me that people claim allergies that they don't really have as it makes life more difficult for genuine sufferers. However, people need to be careful about judging others without knowing their specific circumstances. Different people have differing degrees of sensitivity and manifestations vary depending on what part of the immune system is involved. It is not at all uncommon to be able to tolerate small amounts of an allergen, especially if it is cooked or highly processed but react severely to the same food in other circumstances. My son has a variety of IgE and non IgE mediated reactions that vary enormously. For safety and simplicity's sake, outside of our home we don't differentiate and just say that he mustn't have any amount of any of his allergens, but in reality there are some of his allergens that he can tolerate in specific circumstances and some that he cannot. I don't expect anyone outside our immediate family to understand or remember all the specifics so there are things that he is allowed at home but not at school. I expect there are those who think it is all made up because they've seen him eat a slice of cake that contained egg and not have an obvious reaction, but they would be quite wrong.

Does that help?

Not really I'm afraid, because you mentioned every other food as opposed to every other meal

I'd have thought it possible to to provide a choice of "mains" DS can eat, with the veg/salad/jacket/whatever as sides, but the reasons they want proof have already been well covered by others

Rightly or wrongly, the "why should I have to?" thing is likely to bracket you with the ridiculous parents who invent allergies, and I just wonder if that's worth risking when the solution's not hard to come by

Problem is they cant just give him a jacket as it may have touched other food and become contaminated. He will need food specially prepared