To email school about them banning any food that "may contain traces of nuts"?

[PartyGoose]

Had an email last night from DD's school (it's a school that goes right through from 3-18 so covers all age groups) saying that as of today give us plenty of notice why don't you no food can be brought onto school premises that contains nuts or "may contain traces of nuts" due to a child with a severe nut allergy starting there.

I can't see how this is workable. It rules out about 50% of bought food, and 100% of food made/prepared in my kitchen as we eat a lot of nuts at home.

Obviously I am more than willing to avoid sending any food that actually has nuts in, and I'm going to take extreme care to check labels etc going forward.

But...surely they can't expect everyone to avoid anything that "may contain traces of nuts"? That's just not doable for most people.

Your universe may but everyone elses doesn't

Your universe may but everyone elses doesn't

exactly this. Whilst I would try my best not to send food containing nuts in to school, I’m not going to spend lots of time reading labels and making 100% sure and finding alternatives to ‘May contain nut’ products. I wouldn’t send obvious things like peanut butter or nutty cereal bars in but wouldn’t go further than that.

Well, ultimately, your inconvenience isnt as important as tbe life of a child.

I think you need to consider how difficult life must be for this parent, as it is obviously severe.

I'm sure youd rather be in your position than theirs.

Excuse me?
Your universe doesn't revolve around stopping a child dying?

Wow.

I wonder how these posters would feel if it was their child.

Are they banning makeup and eczema cream as well? Prunus dulcis oil is almond oil and arachis hypogaea or usually arachis oil is peanut oil. They'll also have to ban nivea kids suncream as that has almond oil in it. I realise that oils are usually refined and considered allergen free but if they're going as far as banning 'may contains' then they might as well go the whole hog.

The myth that nut allergies are the only serious allergies and all others are intolerances REALLY annoys me. One of my kids is a coeliac and has reacted to seemingly miniscule anounts of gluten before. Gluten x contamination is an absolute nightmare yet I don't see my child's school going gluten free to keep him safe. One biscuit won't hurt him, will it? was what I was asked by one teacher once. Errrrr, yes it will and I'll be up all night with a distressed poorly child.

We are adopting a vigilance around the child approach to my son rather than outright banning gluten around him because it's near enough impossible, and besides how would you police it anyway? Even bottles of ready-mixed paint often have gluten in them ffs. As does Maynard's wine gums and Vimto.

I'm Mum to a child with multiple anaphylactic allergies food bans don't work, neither the anaphylaxis campaign or allergy UK support them. There's also evidence of increased epi pen usage in schools that have bans as they get complacent and assume the school is allergy free so don't have other safe guarding/cleaning in place.

Nut allergies aren't more likely to be airborne than other allergies from what I've read sesame, fish and eggs are more likely than nut and schools rarely ban them.

Also may contains aren't a legal requirement so something that doesn't say may contain nuts may be more of a risk than something that does.

The way I see it my child doesn't live in a vacuum so has to get use to navigating a world that contains their allergens, that's mine, their and the schools job to do not other parents.

But coeliac disease isn't an allergy is it? Your son doesn't go into anaphylactic shock on contact with gluten does he?

I agree

I don't disagree, but a distressed poorly child (bless his heart) is not the same as one who could instantly die should they be around traces of peanuts

Sensible post and one to mull over. Thanks.

My 6yo child was offered chocolate snuck in by one of their friends at play time he's anaphylactic to cows milk, he had the sense to ask if there was an ingredient list when the child said no he took it to a teacher to check if he could eat it (he couldn't) but it shows how important it is make the child aware of their allergens rather than giving them a false sense of security that the school is allergen free.

I get that, and your post made so much sense.

It was the "the universe doesn't revolve around your child" that got me.

That poor child, and their poor parent.

Mother of two Epipen carrying children here. The eldest had an anaphylactic reaction in school to a food that had no nuts in it but “may contain” them. He had to be treated at school with Epipen and asthma inhalers, ambulance to hospital, A&E for several hours.

Banning “may contain” for the entire school is unreasonable because of the amount of precautionary labelling by food companies BUT parents of the children in that child’s class should be made aware so that they can liaise with the allergic child’s parents when there is a birthday party or similar. No nuts in school makes sense because even at secondary the children play pranks that could have serious consequences for an allergic child: for the last two days someone has found it funny to put empty snack wrappers in my son’s bag at school. If they had been containers of snacks with nuts it could have been quite serious.

Having said that, the heartlessness of many people on this thread is staggering. Can I remind all of those who say “I cannot limit my child’s life to protect yours” that you are actually suggesting that not eating a peanut sandwich for lunch is somewhat too great a sacrifice to protect someone’s child from death? Would you ever say that face to face to someone you know? No, I thought not. So don’t say it on the internet either. We are all humans, some of us have the misfortune of having these illnesses, which make life difficult enough without the complaints. We’d rather not be allergic too. It is not like it is a lifestyle choice.

Hear hear! @SuiGeneris

Sorry I meant to quote my own post 🤦🏻‍♀️. I completely agree with you, the complete lack of empathy in some of these responses is exactly why these bans don't work their will always be people who disregard them. It's hard enough sometimes getting family to wash their hand after unsafe foods and these are people who genuinely love your child and have seen them react horribly.

Bans were mentioned in my son's school when he started but we asked them not to as they'd only exclude some of his allergens not all anyway so we'd still be in the same position regardless but I'd be lying if I said fear of backlash from other parents and their children didn't play a part.

Do the school not provide school dinners? Or do parents have to send in lunches?

If you email the school requesting clarification I reckon that someone just hasn’t thought the wording through properly and they actually meant ‘foods containing nuts’.

No, they meant traces, because legally foods have to contain traces because they're all made in the same place.

Some people are really hard of understanding. It’s not just not sending in foods labelled as “may contain nuts” The OP eats nuts at home. So anything prepared in the OPs house “may contain nuts”. She can’t send in sandwiches or cucumber sticks as these need to be prepared at home.

if you are a nut free home and prepare nut free food like a sandwich or a cucumber stick then it remains nut free. However if you are not and you have yesterday’s leftover satay chicken in the fridge next to the cucumber then that cucumber is now “may contain nuts” so the only way to follow this rule is for the OP to keep a nut free home, which is unreasonable.

if the poor kid is that allergic that being in the same room as something that may have been in the same room as a nut is lethal then that is really bad and I feel terrible for them but asking a whole school and their families to forever change their diets is madness. (And some medicines contain nut oils - what about kids that need those medicines)

Essentially the school have banned all home made food made in a home that eats nuts. I doubt they actually meant that which is actually really worrying as it shows they don’t understand what “may contain” means and if the poor kid really is that allergic then they will be at risk from cross contamination - bit of crunchy nut cornflakes detritus on another kids coat etc

This!!
Nearly everyone commenting has missed this point -

JUST BECAUSE A PRODUCT DOES NOT SAY "MAY CONTAIN XYZ" DOES NOT MEAN IT IS ANY LESS OF A CROSS CONTAMINATION RISK THAN AN ITEM THAT DOES STATE THIS

THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO STATE MAY CONTAINS

As a parent to an allergy child (not anaphylactic thankfully) this was an important thing to learn - especially after finding that certain brands that didn't declare a may contain were very likely to provoke a reaction in my kid compared to other brands that did have this warning.

As someone posted upthread Kit-Kats are not a may contain, yet everything made in the same factory as the kit-kat chunky with peanut butter (very likely every kit-kat product) will be a may contain for peanuts, and potentially more of a risk than something that has the warning.

If you have the allergen in your home kitchen, then everything prepared in that kitchen is a ay contain. Nearly every household kitchen will have a jar of Nutella or peanut butter thus every packed lunch brought into school will technically be a may contain.

1 - "MAY CONTAIN XYZ"
2- "NOT SUITABLE FOR XYZ ALLERGY SUFFERERS"
3- " "

All 3 of the above statements (that's right the 3rd is blank/nothing said at all) mean exactly the same thing, so banning may contains is a pointless exercise and simply means the school have a poor understanding of food labelling legislation.

Well that just confirms how confusing this is - Nestle list multiple KitKat bars on their "nut avoidance list" as being suitable for nut allergy sufferers, if produced in the UK, and promise that "If the product does not contain nuts but has been manufactured in an area where it may have come into contact with nuts or nut-containing products, the statement 'may contain nut traces' will be present at the end of the ingredients list." (admittedly from January)

Not being a nut allergy sufferer, if you'd asked me to provide a chocolate bar free of nut traces, I would have happily supplied one of the listed bars.

@user1471447863 is right about the legislation, and that the school probably doesn't realise 'may contain' listing is optional.

As someone scanning labels all the time, I never completely trust the ones without warnings. The ones I do tend to trust are labels that have 'may contain' traces of some ingredient my child is not allergic to ... for example 'may contain celery'...as I feel it's likely that particular manufacturer would list nuts as a warning if there were a risk. Still not foolproof though.

But it's also true that various manufacturers do things differently. Certain ones state they will only list the warning if there's a risk and if there's nothing written it's fine...you do get used to it after a while.
Nestle are fairly good in this regard actually. They give lots of information online about nut allergies / what's in their products.

Not saying the OP should have to do any of that though!

Where have you been living @PartyGoose ? Under a rock?

all of ds schools have had a no nut policy. I thought all schools automatically had this.

we all know not to send kids in with peanutty anything or Nutella

if I were you I’d establish if the child was likely to be spending huge swathes of time with my dc and if as I imagine they wouldn’t, I’d just make sure the actual lunch had no nut product in it. Otherwise carry on.

it’s not that big a deal. Is this the only thing that is bothering you? Is there something else that’s causing concern? Your anger is palpable