School allergy policy and cosmetics - AIBU to think this is overkill?

[Areolaborealis]

DD has extremely dry skin and hair, and after trying various chemical-laden and expensive products, we've found using natural oils in the bath to be the most effective management (rapeseed, coconut, and castor oil usually). We've been doing this for years.

DD9's school has a very strict no nuts and seeds policy that has recently been extended to cosmetics. After a recent bag inspection, DDs moisturiser was sent home because it contained castor oil (I actually didnt realise this). I have no issue with not sending this to school but it got me thinking about whether it's irresponsible to still use these oils at home given that she will presumably take traces into school with her. FWIW, there are no known nut, seed, coconut or castor allergies in her class but I don't know about the rest of the school. I hate the idea of sending DD into school covered in an allergen but I'm not sure how much I want this policy to dictate what we use at home. DD has become anxious about this and has started checking all our product ingredients.

AIBU to think this is overkill?

You can’t ask a stranger to wash their hands! Although not sure why a stranger would be in contact though.

Nut free schools also hurt children who have non-nut allergies which, because the other allergens are not banned, are not considered serious.

Of course you can. If the peanut butter residue on their hands from their sandwich or brownie represents a contact risk for you (ie they touch the door handle before you, transferring the allergen) it's a reasonable request. They don't have to do it of course but ime most people are happy to do something so simple.

Personally I wouldn't bother unless we were going to be in contact with them after the meal, but others need to be more careful.

Exactly. I can't imagine the stress of sending off a child who's anaphylactic to milk.

Have they made a mistake with the castor oil thing though? I’ve never heard of anyone be allergic to that

Why do you think that not only health care professionals with expertise in the field but all the major allergy charities are not in favour of this approach then? The pressure groups who lobby for measures to keep people with allergies safer and run education programmes etc, explicitly advise against "free from" schools. They don't view it as neutral, they think it increases risk.
I don't know what specific data they base their advice on but as allergy safety is their entire raison d'etre and it seems to be a view held widely by people who are experts in the field I'm willing to believe they know what they are talking about.
What do you know that they don't?

In the case of my class, it's my allergy we have to worry about. People very often forget about the staff!

You can't be concerned and then in the next sentence state you are bothered by the interference

Of course you can @tridento!
Getting the right balance is hard.

Just to point out that the experts don't advise making schools allergen-free as a strategy to adopt on its own. Instead they advise training and awareness programmes including instruction in epipen use and, crucially, how to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis.

At present, I'm not sure how many teachers would recognise the signs unfortunately. In my experience they don't often recognise asthma symptoms in their pupils and that's much more common.

From Anaphylaxis UK:
Lessons learnt...emphasise the need for schools to have robust allergy management systems in place, and for all school staff to have an understanding of allergies, to be able to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis and to have the confidence to manage an emergency situation.
We encourage a whole school allergy awareness approach, involving the education of all staff and pupils. The more staff and pupils who are allergy aware and can recognise the signs of anaphylaxis, the safer all pupils with allergies in school will be.

Is it possible some schools think banning allergens like nuts might be simpler than all the training involved? Especially as people sometimes aren't aware that things like dairy can cause fatal reactions too.

In in Ireland so I'm not sure of the situation in the UK, but here school staff are not obliged to administer medication if they don't want to. In addition most (80% approx) haven't received any training on anaphylaxis signs or epipen use.

Ah yes we never assume anywhere is totally nut free.