School nut allergy policy

[PigeonPairinSomerset]

I’m fully prepared to back down on this one but keen to know if anyone supports my view - our school has a nut free policy which I know is common. I am aware how severe these allergies can be in some cases. At our school however , there are children who would only have an allergic reaction if they actually ate food containing nuts. Some of my children’s favourite foods are peanut butter and houmous, which they can’t have in their packed lunches. AIBU to think that the school could just encourage kids not to share food? And for the parents of those affected kids to teach their kids not to eat their friends’ food?! I feel like some really healthy options for my kids are now off the table.

Honestly, someone’s child could die if they shared food. It’s really not worth the risk for an easy lunch for you.

If your child was allergic and could die if they took something like penicillin, would you be happy with taking unnecessary risks? I’m sure being an allergy parent is hard enough worrying that your child could die if they ate something without worrying about someone’s sandwich options.

Unless you literally had a teacher sat with every pupil all throughout lunchtime you could never be absolutely certain that this wouldn’t happen, so of course it’s safer for all involved to say no nuts and realistically its 1 meal a day, your kids can have a whole jar of peanut butter and humous for dinner if they want to, they just have to have something else for that 1 meal. Rather your child have a different spread in their sandwich than another child die.

Humous isn't made with peanuts

There is no way you know the severity of every allergy in the school. Give them peanut butter at home. Your inconvenience isn't more important than other children's health/lives.

Your reasons are very weak

If it was your child with the allergies would you want the rule in place??

A lot of the allergy/anaphylaxis charities don't advocate for nut free schools. They provide a false sense of security and don't prepare children safely for environments where nuts may be present according to Allergy UK. There are also other allergens which can cause anaphylaxis such as milk, you can't really have a totally allergen free school, so what happens for those children?

You’re telling me you know ALL kids in the school and their conditions in detail and up to date??
also, your kid can have all the hummus and PB they like at home.is it really that hard to do a nut free snack/ lunch for you.
what nuts are there in hummus - I’m aware it containing sesame only in terms of seeds but no nuts.

It's a minefield unless the school provides fully-screened school meals as parents cannot always be certain of what's in the ingredients of the food they're sending in with their DCs.

And @questionningmyself - I think humous has tahini in it? Which has sesame seeds.

You can easily make houmous without tahini if sesame seeds are banned.

https://www.yummytoddlerfood.com/homemade-creamy-hummus/

Many people use sunflower seed or pumpkin seed butter as peanut butter replacement. There are other nut free butters too.
my kid’s school uses Wowbutter (made of soy) as a nut butter substitute

It isn’t about having a bite of someones sandwich, its about that child touching a pencil, desk etc and the child with the allergy touching that and then their face.

I'm not sure that you understand how serious these allergies can be.
Your children can enjoy as much PB as they like at home.

Yes YABVU. Avoiding a small handful of foods for just 5 out of the 21 meals they eat in a week is really not a hardship and you're pretty selfish for thinking your DC have humous or peanut butter should trump a child's welfare. Spare a thought for the family who panic every time their child eats a meal away from home.

If it was your child with a potentially life-threatening allergy, I think you’d feel differently. There are nut-free peanut butter subs you can use and plenty of other foods! It’s not about sharing foods necessarily - it’s about contamination like when they share a water jug or flush the toilet for example.

An intolerance can flip to an anaphylactic reaction on one random exposure.

Please don't be so stupidly short sighted on this subject.

Homous usually has a bit of sesame in it. A lot of people are allergic to this

Oh, just teach your child not to sneeze. Or to open their sandwich next to an allergic child. Or six foot away. Or to not touch a child in the playground. Or to cough. Or be sick.

I'm sure it'll be fine and not a bloody stupid idea to give them a peanut butter sandwich.

Might be a plan to teach them how to use an epipen and do CPR, too, seeing as they'll be the ones who cause the anaphylaxis.

Exactly this!

No houmous because of the tahini? Most schools are nut free unfortunately I think it's a real shame. We have an egg allergy child but we are not an egg freez school!

Nut free schools are no longer advised, as someone else has mentioned.

However, you don't get a say in this - it's not your child with an allergy, and you're not the teacher with responsibility for someone else's child with an allergy. Your only stake in this is avoiding nut and peanut products in a packed lunch.

Nut free only applies to primary schools and not secondary schools. This is because children often won't tell anyone when they feel unwell or are unsure of what they are feeling. I have seen children faint and when they came round admitted they may have felt a bit hot but didn't remove their coat (school trip) or just didn't want to make a fuss when in a line queueing up for lunch and they know they are meant to be silent and orderly (passing other classrooms where lessons are still taking place.)

I think you should be so pleased your children do not have an allergy, do you realise how worrisome life is for parents of children with a nut allergy? Be glad yours can eat peanut butter.

I think it’s just one of those things where the risk is huge and the school can’t reasonably be expected to ensure no kid is ever sharing food. It’s much easier to have a blanket ban and know a child won’t eat it than to rely on young people not to make mistakes now and then.

The other consideration is that allergies are unpredictable. A child might only have had a reaction to an allergen which was ingested previously only for the allergy to escalate to any contact. That kind of thing can only be avoided by the environment being free of the allergen.

It’s an annoyance for sure but the balance is in favour of protecting children with allergies.

Sorry OP but this is peak entitlement.

Your children can survive without a blimmin peanut butter sandwich for six hours a day.