To wonder what is dangerous about my child’s lunch

[NameChangeAK]

I received a message from school today saying my child’s lunch contained a prohibited item and to please review the policy “as there are children with severe allergies and it’s dangerous not to comply”

I don’t usually provide packed lunches - DC has school meals, but they did like todays meal options.

Ive responded and asked what the item was but waiting for a response, but I’m confused - it’s clearly a nut free school but I can’t see anything else anywhere about other banned foods

the packed lunch contained:

• ham sandwich (with butter) on brown bread
• apple
• frube (strawberry flavour)
• carton of own brand apple juice
• Pepperami
• babybel

any ideas what could be the problem or Aibu to think they’ve mistaken the ham as peanut butter or something ridiculous?

Christ lol.

I’d be emailing back with ‘clearly it’s not THAT dangerous if you don’t want to tell me exactly which item it was and make me guess, risking me sending it again. Until you clarify exactly which item was dangerous, i’ll assume you have emailed the wrong parent. Thanks’.

Can I just say that I love how Frubes, Babybel and Pepperami in lunchboxes are still going, as this reminds me of my own packed lunch in the 90s 😁

Bloody hell I wouldn't know what to pack in my son's lunch if everything had to be dairy or nut free. Good luck with finding bread that hasn't got a label saying it may contain nut traces.

@VeraForever

read the OP's posts

If they can’t be bothered to tell you what is wrong; don’t change anything.

@Isittimeformynapyet no need to be rude.
Yes I read the OP.
I wrote my reply and posted it - but then realised almost straight away I had made an error with what I had said so edited it barely 10 seconds later.
Is that ok with you?

@Isittimeformynapyet

Did you snark before reading the post fully?

lol yes this

the ham sandwich? Maybe the school bully is allergic to wheat or their religion doesn’t allow them to eat ham?

It's a brand of yogurt, in a little plastic tube so it's convenient to eat (no spoon required)

Ridiculous but could it be the bread?
I know someone allergic to wheat, and I mean anaphylaxis carries epi pens for it.

But I honestly don't think schools can or should ban so many allergens, you'd really would end up with nothing that's not banned.

Wheat is in so many things besides the obvious bread, cakes and pasta, its used as a thickener in loads of stuff from ice cream to soup it would be almost impossible to avoid both it and dairy.
I bet the school kitchens wouldn't avoid both either.

My DC is allergic to dairy and soy.
Made it difficult to pack lunches (no school lunches here), as whole pre-school was nut free, then the class was strawberry, watermelon, egg, coriander, and oat free due to specific allergies. Dairy and soy were not banned, but my DC knew not to eat anything not packed by me, and to not let anyone touch his food.
It is hard with allergies at school, and if it is an allergen that the school wrote to OP about, they should have clearly stated that fact.

My daughter choked on a baby bel when she was little so it could be that, or I'm betting the pepperami.

Any chance some swaps were done with another child? You sent a totally blameless lunch but the some element got traded for contraband?

@NameChangeAK
Real weird why school didn't inform you straight away what phobited food allergy 🤔 is,
for clarification..

Ask your kid? Surely they will know which was the offending item if the check was carried out in front of them.

I now need to know what the dangerous item was. I'm very glad my DDs are adults now and I don't need to deal with this stuff any more!

Me too!

I would send the following:

"Dear school, this is your packed lunch policy (copy and paste).
These are the items I sent in Tina's packed lunch (list of items)
I can't see any item which contravenes your policy as stated above so am assuming your communication was sent to the wrong parent or was otherwise sent incorrectly. However do let me know if this is not the case and any of the above items are in fact against the packed lunch policy and I will make sure that they are not included going forward."

My DH has an anaphylactic allergy to nuts, peanuts and sesame and it's not difficult to find bread he can eat. And anyway, most schools that ban nuts don't include products that say "may contain" in the ban. That would be far too much. Bur bread isn't really an issue.

But I honestly don't think schools can or should ban so many allergens, you'd really would end up with nothing that's not banned.

It's also not generally recommended by allergy charities, like anaphylaxis UK.
Although despite that I can understand why schools don't want children bringing actual nuts in.

But are babybels a particular choking hazard compared to other foods? I mean, some things are specific hazards (grapes etc), but you can still choke on any basically any solid food.

It would be far simpler if the school said what the problem was in the first communication. This is on the lines of “something is wrong, but we are not going to tell you what it is”.

It is ridiculous that whole schools are sanctioned for the tiny, tiny minority

She emailed them - what's the difference?

We aren't allowed to send any pork products to school (but we live in a Muslim country so it's to be expected)

Do you live in an area with a large Muslim population? And maybe they copied and pasted the allergen line from elsewhere?