To think allergy mum is OTT

[Boogiewoogieanddance]

I genuinely don't know if I am or not, this is a genuine question as I thankfully haven't got any experience in having a child with serious allergies. I am, of course, happy to do what I can to prevent a reaction.

There is a child in my DDs class who is allergic to a list of things so we aren't allowed them in pack lunches. That's fine, I have no issue as I know kids can be careless and gross about their food hygiene. My issue is with the nuts, literally anything that says "may contain nuts" or "may contain traces of peanuts" is not allowed... if the occasional time I don't realise and send something (These are not nut flavoured things or anything with nuts in the ingredients, but I assume are just made in the same factory as nuts.) it is sent home unwrapped and she hasn't been allowed to eat it.

But is it really possible that an allergy can be so served that something that may contain nuts could cause a reaction if opened in the same room.

Many thanks!

My daughter is allergic to nuts and the school had procedures in place to keep her safe.
Obviously nuts shouldn't be allowed in schools but banning may contain is daft

Is banning nuts not increasing allergies for others though? Like if your nursery banned nuts and then your school did would that increase the likelihood children would be allergic as a lot of the children would have never have really ever had exposure?

That seems unmanageable - what do they do about families who scratch cook? My children had homemade granola bars or wholemeal veg muffins in their lunches, nut free (ish, our kitchen isn't but free) but no labels. I make my own bread too. My eldest is autistic and nuts are one of the things she always ate!

@moomoomoo27

Of course it's not a relevant example! It's utterly unrelated to the OP's point - you didn't read it properly.

You were on a flight and requested not to eat a nut product due to a passenger with a nut allergy. So you didn't eat your Snickers (containing nuts).

The OP is talking about a ban on products that don't contain nuts, but are made in factories where there were nut products. It's not remotely comparable.

You need to read a bit more carefully.

Ban on nuts totally should be in place. Ban on 'may contain traces' is crackers, the certified nut free products are so expensive, if every family in the school needs to buy those then maybe the school should be centrally catering instead? As others have said home kitchens aren't certified but free and most children aren't. Should the child not be playing with children who've parents have nuts at home?

It's a minefield. Poor child and mum though, this must be so stressful for them.

It is possible however I do question how the child functions outside of school. Can they walk round a supermarket or go to a restaurant? If they can do either of those then I would say the restrictions are silly.

Precautionary Allergen Labels (PALs) such as “May Contain” are voluntary, so there are many, many products in the market which are “May Contain” or at risk of cross contamination that don’t have that label. Anything produced in a kitchen that handles an allergen is also “May Contain” because the possibility of cross contamination exist. Therefore assume anything produced in a school kitchen is a “May Contain” product, unless that kitchen is free from that allergen. The policy of banning products cannot be applied to all allergens, my son is allergic to dairy (anaphylaxis) but imagining requesting a ban on all dairy products, it is not possible. Anybody who wants to understand food labelling (essential for families who live with allergies) should take the free and very useful online training in Food allergies and Intolerances from the Food Standards Agency (took me 4 hours spread over days). The only products that can guarantee to be free from an allergen are the ones labelled “Free From” the rest are not.

I doubt that you actually have a child with allergies if you think people with severe allergies should be imprisoned in hospital for life?

Allergies suck. And people like you who belittle and insult people who have them also suck.

But don’t they cover themselves with a lot of things these days by putting “may contain traces of nuts” on loads of stuff 🤷🏼‍♀️

One hundred percent, the “May Contain” labels are more convenient to the food industries than to the consumers and personally I think that they are used to cover themselves. In America, the Food Allergen labelling and consumer protection Act doesn’t require those statements, because they can be confusing and in fact don’t tell you the actual risk, “May Contain” means it may or it may not, which could make people avoid food for no reason at all. I follow the American Allergy Developments and Organisations because they seemed to be years ahead of the UK ones, I do find great practical advice there.

I did fully read and understand that. Strange of you to assume most responding to the poll didn't.

Is it really the mum that is is OTT here, OP?

Surely it's the school, and the child's specialist who worked towards having this ban in place?

Also - is there no dad in the picture? Let's just blame the mum, like society tends to do.

One of my kids went to school with a few kids in their school level, who were highly anaphylactic to nuts. Both parents worked with their child's specialist and the school to ensure the school environment didn't kill their child.

I saw what the mums went through with the fear of sending their child to school, not knowing if they'd survive the day due to their severe allergies. Just be thankful OP that you don't have to deal with that - you have the easier task.

Personnally I think that "may contain traces of ...." should be safe enough if the allergic child does not eat nor touches it. But! As a mother ánd a grandmother me too I would try and exclude as many possible risk factors as possible. So yes, I would go with it and try my best to do as asked. It may demand rethinking foodshopping and making packed lunches, but ... oh well.....#mothersformothers

I doubt very much a specialist who would recommend the sort of plan the OP describes. It's not within any allergy guidelines issued by specialist organisations.

It sounds like the school and the parents have just come up with a somewhat uninformed and panicky plan that doesn't follow any best practices.

I am one of those parents with a child who has had anaphylactic reactions to nuts, and I'm thankful that the schools my daughter went to actually followed best practices rather than imposing uninformed blanket rules that didn't actually help such as in the OP's situation.

But I do agree that it's sad that once again the mum is being vilified, and the dad is not mentioned.