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.

Our school now has this rule. To the point that at breaks the children are being checked as to what they're eating and if it does not contain ingredients, it's not allowed out on to the playground. Not only is this infuriating my child, with SEN as this is their breaktime being "wasted", they don't feel this is fair,given their restricted dietary intake.

Now, my lo has allergies also. And my personal take on this is that if they cannot be around the food whilst it's being ingested then they need to eat elsewhere.

If they have such severe allergies that exposure even if eaten is an issue, then really I don't think that this can be mitigated for in a mainstream school,unless only food made on school property is consumed by all, staff and children alike. So no biccies dipped in the caretaker's tea!

You obviously haven't seen a child having an anaphylactic shock.

You won't be so ignorant if that day ever comes.

Every nursery/school has this policy and your school is merely reinforcing it.

Don't complain because you'll just show yourself up.

The problem is most parents will just ignore this request (they might manage the actual avoiding nuts part) so it becomes a pointless measure. My son's school is supposed to be nut free due to allergies (including the sibling of a child in my son's class) but I know of 2 kids who regularly have Nutella sandwiches because 'they won't eat anything else.' I know the mum of the boy with the allergy hates it and is naturally very worried, but even she wouldn't attempt to bring in a 'no traces of nuts' rule, because she knows it would just be ignored.

The child with the allergy should not eat any may contains just in case there is nuts in it.

The rest of the school should not eat actual nuts at school and give hands and face a good clean if eating for breakfast in case they cross contaminate the allergic child's food.

Cross contamination from a may contain is not a risk.

And you obviously didn't read the OP properly or any of the reply.

@cecilthehungryspider

Kinder now make large Easter eggs that are nut-free and the Kinnerton ones work too of course - Tesco had a Crayola egg with Kinnerton chocolate this year.

This

My sons have nut allergies too and I totally agree with your post. Great advice.

Yanbu, I agree with you that it's fair to not send stuff in that contains nuts, but if it's stuff that contains nuts that is super super restrictive.

Agree with what others have said, I think someone has misinterpreted? We are a "nut free" school but it doesn't include may contains. Only nuts or nut containing products e.g. nutella (it's always nutella no matter how many times we ask people still come in with it regularly. )

My child has a nut allergy and I don't give them may contains. No, they won't "starve" if I don't give them may contains, as pps have suggested. All those parents who have children with nut allergies and give their child "may contain traces" , and are quite boastful about it , 99 times out if 100 you might be okay but that one time you might not be so lucky. If you want to take that risk, thats fine, it's your child and if anything were to happen to them it will be on you, but you should not take or advocate taking the risk with other peoples children. There are plenty of consumables that don't contain traces. One just needs to make a little effort. To all those arrogant parents whose children don't have allergies and find the schools request ridiculous, be thankful that your child can gobble up anything they want but be mindful that allergies can come about suddenly and at any age, so be humble, you or your child could be next.

You sound very unsympathetic regarding this child with a life threatening allergy. You just need to use your common sense and don’t send anything that with nuts in. That’s all, it’s not rocket science.

Your only reason to start a thread was because presumably you want to get fired up to make a fuss and with any luck force the child out or something.

If you are that concerned, talk to the school. Perhaps ask for the advice they have been given, what they are telling their pupils so they can seek help should the child concerned have anaphylactic shock.

My child is allergic and I'm on a parents group with lots of allergy parents.
It's not even legislation that products where cross contamination may be present have to mention that on the packaging. Ie. unless something specifically states it is "free from" a particular allergen everything is a potential may contain. On top of that there have been various recalls of free from products which actually did have the allergen in it.

If they had a child with dairy anaphylaxis would they ban all milk? All cheese? Of course not.

I have plenty of sympathy for the parents but you can't just ban everything that's potentially a may contain.

It's a stupid policy because for the child with the severe allergy to be safe, they need to be working on the assumption that they can't rely on 100% of parents to comply with the policy 100% because they have no way to check and no way to enforce the policy, so they might as well not have it.

The child with the allergy needs to be supported to be safe on the assumption that any item brought in by any other child could be unsafe. Any sandwich could have been made with a knife that was previously used for dad's peanut butter on toast breakfast. Any item of baked goods could have traces unless it is packaged as guaranteed nut free. Yes it would be nice if every parent of every kid in the school was careful to avoid that because they know about the allergy, but people are fallible and such mistakes will definitely happen, so there's no point even hoping that the policy will be complied with. And a policy like this that is only complied with 80% is pointless, if it's not 100% it's a waste of everyone else's time and money (you aren't going to get the whole school shopping from the expensive "free from" aisle to get the nut free versions of basic foods).

As a mother of a nut allergy sufferer I do feel
This is ott

Dd can not consume nuts and we are lucky she never reacts to others eating them in the same room.

She eats may
Contain herself

So I appreciate we are lucky

But
This school
Seems
To be going way over what's needed

Contact anaphylaxis.com for advise.

Many still die despite adrenaline being administered
Actually, they don't. People do die of course, but not "many".
I've got 2 allergic children and I worked in Intensive Care Medicine for 30+ years so I have probably got more experience of anaphylaxis than most, and I am not intending to trivialise it. It's horrible, terrifying to treat and worse to experience - but things need to be kept in perspective. People are not dropping dead all over the place from food related allergies.
There was an excellent review article in the BMJ last year showing that although rates of hospital admission are going up, death rates have decreased significantly. www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n251
It's very interesting to find that the commonly held belief (and I did think the same) that deaths from food allergy are rapidly increasing is just not true. More people are reacting, but better recognition and treatment mean the percentage who die is actually falling.
There were 187 documented fatalities from food related anaphylaxis in the years 1992-2018 - just under half were nut or peanut related. Of those deaths, 66 were in school aged children, and the most frequent causative allergen was cows' milk.
For context, over 1400 people died as a result of road traffic collisions in 2020 alone, and more children die from cancer every year in the UK than all the paediatric food allergy deaths recorded over the 26 years of this review.
Obviously that is no consolation to the families who have lost loved ones, and of course it is right to take reasonable precautions to protect people, but the data just do not support the idea that children are dying because a school mate in another class eats a biscuit that may contain nut traces at lunch.
Someone mentioned planes earlier. They are a special case, partly because of the air circulation systems, but as a PP mentioned, it's now thought that a significant proportion of reactions on flights are due to direct contact not airborne particles. Fast turnaround times mean that hygiene standards on board planes are not great. Tray tables and seats are often not cleaned, blankets get resused by multiple passengers between washes, and so on. So if an airline is not permanently nut free there's always a chance that nut particles are present on surfaces which the allergic person then touches with their hands or their own food and accidentally ingests. It will be interesting to see if enhanced cleaning post covid decreases these issues.
As schools are also not super hygenic places, it makes sense to prevent actual nuts being brought in as much as possible. But banning all items labelled as possibly cross contaminated with nuts seems excessive.
I don't suppose anyone has accurately calculated the risk of death to an allergic child from a schoolmate's lunch as it's probably impossible to do so. But if you consider how improbable the chances are that a product labelled may contain actually does contain a significant amount of nuts, the likelihood that a child eating such a product leaves enough residue somewhere that an allergic child in a completely different class comes into contact with it in sufficient quantities to cause a reaction and the quoted death rate of around 0.2%- 0.3% of those who are unwell enough to be admitted to hospital with anaphylaxis, then the overall risk must be very small indeed.
Not I hasten to add, am I advocating ignoring the issue, and I understand very well the anxiety of leaving a child at risk of anaphylaxis in an uncontrolled environment, but there have to be limits on what restrictions are attempted. Make the school nut free, ok. Maybe even have tighter restrictions in the child's specific class if there is genuine evidence that they are so sensitive that a "may contain nuts" item poses a real threat.
But to attempt to make an entire 3-18 school follow those rules is almost certainly unnecessary, and futile. People don't follow rules they view as excessively restrictive so they will start breaking them. Then if they don't see any adverse effects, they break them some more, which may well lead to actual nut products being brought in and a real risk developing.
It is an illogical knee jerk reaction on the part of the school in my opinion. It won't achieve what they hope and does not absolve them from the responsibility to provide appropriate care and supervision for the allergic child/ren. Time would be much better spent on delivering the Anaphylaxis Campaign's allergy awareness courses than trying to control the entire school's diet.

Right so are you suggesting I send a sodding Easter egg as my child's packed lunch? I'm not sure I know of much else out there that guarantees absolutely zero potential nut contamination

Please, tell me exactly where and how I'm "being ignorant"?

A lot of posters are missing the point.

The rule is unenforceable. To enforce it would require every label in every child’s lunchbox to be carefully checked, and that’s before you consider home-made products. How are you going to check if a sandwich has been made with bread that may contain nuts?

Any rule is totally meaningless if it can’t be enforced and this will lead to complacency, and people completely ignoring the rule because they know it won’t be enforced. Much more effective is a less restrictive set of rules which are strictly upheld:

• lunchtime supervisors walk around checking lunchboxes. Parents contacted if they have sent in nuts or legumes.
• strict no swapping food rule
• all children wash their hands before and after eating and all surfaces wiped down (which should be happening for basic hygiene anyway)

Every nursery/school has this policy and your school is merely reinforcing it.

that’s not remotely true.

Many now realise that those policies are unhelpful and follow guidance about working around allergies rather than being complacent (which happens with a ban).

Tryhard40 · 16/05/2022 15:10
I think what they basically mean is "don't send in nutty cereal bars /things with proper nuts in". They are not going to ban your dd from entering school if she has a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast or whatever. How could they, they wouldn't even know?
**
Just be sensible.

HRTFT but just in case no one else picked you up on this, peanut butter sandwiches would NOT be ok.

If a child has a serious nut allergy, that means potentially fatal. So it’s actually really important to take what the school are saying VERY seriously. Unless you are happy to risk causing the death of a child because you wanted your child to have peanut butter.

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make light of a serious post, but whatever MN’s formatting has done to your message has made it read exactly like a William Carlos Williams poem

strict no swapping food rule

this is one of the key rules in DD’s school. Touching other children’s food is one of the major rules and carries heavy sanction.

This has been strictly in place ever since a child had a major reaction a chicken crisp swapped with another kid (turned out they were cooked in nut oil).

@Aprilx You sound very unsympathetic regarding this child with a life threatening allergy. You just need to use your common sense and don’t send anything that with nuts in. That’s all, it’s not rocket science.

I'M NOT GOING TO SEND ANYTHING WITH FUCKING NUTS IN

Sorry for shouting but I've said this at least 3 times on this thread and still people don't seem to be reading what I'm actually saying.

But I have questions about the banning of anything that "may contain traces" (which would mean a ban on any home cooked food for most families) and apparently so does a leading anaphylaxis organisation so yes, I'll be emailing school to clarify it.

No nuts = sensible, fair, proportionate, I'm in agreement!

No food that "may contain traces of nuts" - a massive PITA for most people and I want to know if this is really what they mean!