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.

The school should check first whether this child does eat the "may contain nuts" items before banning those items in addition to nuts as it would make quite a difference. Nut allergies are no joke so ultimately you have to accept it but also I think you will find that many nut allergy sufferers do eat items that say "may contain nuts" where it is in fact that the factory the food is made in also produces food that contains nuts.

A child in my son's (secondary school) class had a full blown anaphylactic reaction having borrowed a marker pen from a child who had been handling almonds 2 hours previously. I used to think it was ridiculous until I realised how much responsibility that child's parents must be carrying every day. I'd be terrified.

@Karmabites do you believe your child is at risk from another child eating a may contains nearby? I have a child with peanut allergy we never give them may contains, but we do have them in the house for others to eat. If there is a trace (which is unlikely) the chance of it touching something my allergic child will then eat is not possible.

McVities biscuits don't tend to be "may contain" and nor is Hovis or Kingsmill bread. Walkers crisps. Kinder stuff is well labelled and they have things that are ok. Fridge raiders and peperami are ok. Penguin biscuits. Club biscuits. Tesco mini breadsticks. Mini Babybel. Crunchies. Twirls.

Now try having a coeliac child or a child allergic to milk and see how much of that list is out of bounds

email to school asking for details as to how you can support this child not to have an allergic reaction and what foods do they suggest that are on the safe list

bet they don’t give you many

We don’t eat may contains at all because of allergies. It’s a lot of reading and a lot of work and I wouldn’t suggest that everyone has to do it. But it’s not quite the starving situation that some people have made it out to be.

Allergy life can be really tough. I understand people being frustrated at being subjected to similar guidelines, especially when they aren’t entirely fair or necessary. I think that there are better solutions out there especially given all the various diets to consider.

But I wish that just once, one of these posts came from a place of empathy rather than outrage or inconvenience. None of us want to live like this. It’s isolating.

Biscuits, crisps, fridge raiders, pepperami, penguins, and chocolate bars.

What a fantastic lunch

I'd really rather stick with the sort of thing we usually send, if home made food is still permitted!

OP realistically they can only check labels. Do your best to be sensible, and don't send in anything containing nuts, you don't have to declare your kitchen/pack lunch as guaranteed nut free.

The Head, Cook and community nurse and dietician need to hold a parents evening to discuss what can be safely eaten and bought in qnd come up with some alternatives. Anaphylaxis is very serious but there will be staff and parents who really don't know what to cook, what to have in the house and car, how allergic the child is, what poses a risk and the staff need training in recognising anaphylaxis and epipens.

I have a life threatening nut allergy (carry an epi-pen and all my reactions have been to traces of nuts in things I've eaten; I've never had an actual nut) and I think this is over the top.

The school I work at is still struggling to communicate/get compliance with banning actual nuts - we'd have no chance of getting people to avoid "may contains" foods. I tend to avoid may contains unless it's something I've had previously (and they haven't changed the recipie recently). I think a child would have to have an extremely severe allergy to react to people around them eating may contains products - for most people I would think banning actual nuts and getting children to wash hands after eating and wiping down tables well (especially if they eat in classrooms) should be enough.

WRT eating nut products for breakfast, I would think you're fine so long as they brush teeth and wash hands after breakfast, and maybe not eat in school uniform, particularly if the child is in their class.

I also suspect that unless your child is in the class with the child with the allergy, and you don't send food with actual nuts in, I doubt school staff are going to have time to check all the ingredients labels. If your child has chocolate spread make sure they know and can tell someone it's chocolate spread rather than nutella, though - in the school I work they all seem to say nutella when they mean any kind of chocolate spread (although I hope they do and it's not actually nutella!)

What a fantastic lunch

Funny how you missed out all the healthier options that poster suggested isn’t it! - Breadsticks, Babybels, Choobs, sandwiches, fruit, carrot and cucumber sticks. They were all great suggestions.

Can't have sandwiches or cucumber sticks, they all may contain traces of nuts - it's unlikely all parents will comply with proper cross contamination procedures.

Once you start really looking at the implications, it's really quite restrictive.

Now re-write your post as if you’re the mum of the child who has the potentially fatal nut allergy.

Then you’ll see who’s being unreasonable 🙄 🙄

I think you've misunderstood the position those of us who are critical are taking. The outrage is mostly because it won't work, and it's actively dangerous

I don't think the school is being unreasonable. You can do your best to avoid nuts. Obviously traces of nuts isn't quite possible because companies use it as a catch all but it's perfectly possible to avoid nuts. I went to secondary school with a child who was severely allergic to nuts. It's been over 20 years and I still remember the terror of watching him have an allergic reaction. He swelled up incredibly quickly and was clawing at his own throat trying to breath while the teacher tried her best not to panic. He ended up in hospital for several days but made a full recovery. It taught us to stop being so blasé about a life threatening allergy. Several boys had joked about throwing nuts at him but they never joked about nuts again after that happened. We honestly thought he was going to die and he was very lucky he didn't.

I don't think the school is being unreasonable. You can do your best to avoid nuts. Obviously traces of nuts isn't quite possible because companies use it as a catch all but it's perfectly possible to avoid nuts

So you admit that avoiding traces of nuts, i.e. may contains items is not possible but still think the school is reasonable in banning them

The school does need to have a meeting and talk through what they are expecting from other parents. Not sending nuts in seems reasonable, but avoiding "may contains" unworkable (as in people won't be able to do that).

I'd also be concerned about nut oils in cosmetics like shampoo, hand creams and suncream. Has the school mentioned those?

And to a previous poster - Free from products often contain nuts. Almond flour is a common ingredient in gluten free foods. Has the school considered how this will impact on other children with restrictive diets? And are they clear themselves that free from doesn't mean no allergens?

If it's not quite possible, how are they not being unreasonable.

I'll spell it out again. Allergy restrictions are not an area where you should feel free to interpret the rules more loosely than specified. Laxity kills.

The school does need to find a reasonable balance. They may have just inadvertently created a situation where another medically fragile child will now struggle to be fed at school.

if you want to push back, I wouldn’t complain. I would simply ask for a list of suggested packaged foods and guidelines for best home kitchen practices for homes to keep nut products from contaminating packed food. Give the school the chance to think this through and offer suggestions or to clarify the policy or it has been communicated poorly.

"Just eat separately"- how would you feel if you were made to sir apart from your friend's because of something that is not your fault? My DD has allergies to nuts and sesame. I would hate for her to have to sit alone because of it. You have chosen to be a vegan, my DD did not choose to have life threatening allergies.

Holy cow. Can people not read?

I agree with them banning actual nuts and nut products

I am going to avoid sending anything that contains nuts

It's the ban on anything that may contain traces of nuts because the place of production isn't guaranteed nut free that I have concerns about because I don't think I can actually do that without radically altering our diet and homelife

Holy cow. Can people not read?

Doesn't give you much faith in people's ability to read ingredients/labels!

As someone with a nut allergy, I really hate the ‘May contain nuts’ labels. It rules out almost all food I can ‘safely’ eat. I gave up on ‘May contain nuts’ years ago and am yet to have a contaminated batch.

I did, however, get contaminated by someone at work who decided his mid morning snack was more important than my life threatening allergy. The whole office was warned with numerous emails and notifications from HR and manager. He chose to ignore it, didn’t wash his hands afterwards and I ended up touching something he had used in the kitchen. I ended up being rushed to hospital…

C U N T

If i knew there was a child in my kids class that has a life threatening allergy then id be doing whatever i could to ensure that my children weren't taking anything with nuts to school. There's plenty of food out there that doesn't have nuts/traces of nuts in it. Isn't that what any reasonable person would do?

People's ignorant replies are probably representative of the admin who sent the email. Of course banning 'may contains' is impossible. Most packaging states may contain just to cover their backs, when there are no nuts at all in the ingredients list. If would be insanity to expect to ban all may contains rather than just foods with nuts in the ingredients.