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.

As an allergy mum, thank you to all the PPs who support keeping allergy children safer at school. Mine is anaphylactic to milk and I can’t tell you how terrifying it was, and still is, sending her to school each day. We don’t have school meals to be on the safe side and I don’t ever go more than about 30 mins away from the school. It takes over your entire life. Are they cooking? Then I need to check what with. Going to a cafe? Need to call ahead and organise it all. Excursions? I’m usually the parent volunteer. No friends are willing to take the risk in looking after after school, unsupervised parties, sleepovers etc (and I don’t want to put them in that position). School originally sat my DC on her own at lunch in reception! She was so upset not being allowed to sit with her friends.

When other parents who have non-allergic children do their best to understand and accommodate us, it still means a lot. I’m saddened by the attitude of the OP but hopefully this is a learning curve.

Milk has not been banned in DCs school (as it’s in everything basically) but cautions are taken. Funnily, there’s no child with a nut allergy currently attending but the no-nut policy still applies, so it is a bit annoying when your child’s equally at danger from something else I guess…

@SinkingFeelingSoph that's because lots of adults are allergic to nuts and peanuts.

Nawwww your poor kids, I hope they recover from the fact they can eat a peanut butter sandwich anywhere else within their means apart from school.

Poor mites. Hope they can get over this, as your children are 100% more important than the others who are allergic x

You might also want to avoid pink peppercorn as it’s part of the same family and is known for cross reactivity. My lb is allergic to cashew and pistachio, and being tested for pink peppercorn in a couple of weeks.

My daughter is coeliac, the number of times she brings home parts of her lunch uneaten due to someone throwing bread around and her fearing cross contamination is unreal. Kids are unpredictable and accidents can happen, if you can cut out something which you know could kill someone why wouldn't you

@AllThePotatoesAreSinging omg thank goodness I came back and saw that. My son is allergic to pistachios and cashews, no idea about the pink peppercorn!

As peanut allergies can be severe I can understand the ban. When I was a child though I don't know what I would have eaten if it wasn't wholemeal peanut butter sandwiches. I'm vegetarian due certain meats causing anaphylaxis, cheese isn't great every day and egg in sandwiches is unpleasant after a few hours in a warm environment. Peanut butter was always a quick and easy unprocessed protein for my health conscious parents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48148697.amp

you’re being v unreasonable OP

It's a toss up between somebody's child potentially dying and your child going a couple of hours without eating a favourite food.....try think of it that way

This is such a lovely update - thank you! It’s so easy to be unaware - I know I was until I had to deal with it. I do genuinely think it helps teach kids empathy and compassion when they have to consider others for whatever reason allergies, SEN, physical needs etc. so that’s the upside!

@Lkatsea Does your daughter's school have a nut/sesame/peanut ban and if so what do you put in her lunches? My child is also coeliacs and I've found a lot of gf food available to us has nuts, seeds or peanuts. They still get infant meals at the moment but I'm trying to plan ahead.

And what does school say if she can't have her food? Will try provide an alternative so she can still eat something?

Re. pesto, the traditional recipe uses pine kernels ("pine nuts") which are technically a seed not a nut. Apparently it's uncommon to be allergic to these, and the relatively few people with allergies tend not to have other food allergies so there's no strong reason to assume they will be an issue for people with tree nut allergies. Pine-nuts-allergy-factsheet.pdf (anaphylaxis.org.uk)

BUT the issue is that pine kernels are relatively expensive, so lots of commercial pesto uses e.g. cashews instead. There are brands that use pine kernels - e.g., Belazu - but others use cashews - e.g., Sacla.

It's not casual, it's factual. If peanuts are treated this way, it sets a precedent for other kinds of allergies too. Or are you suggesting that somehow peanut allergies get special treatment?

If we treat them all the same, it can spiral very quickly.

First it's the peanut allergy parents.

Then sends, or tree nuts.

Then maybe the egg ones.

Then dairy.

And strawberries...

In a good sized primary school, there can easily be children with serious allergies to any of these things.

So the answer is, according to you, to ban all of these foods?

It's not just the fact that this will be seriously restrictive of all the other children's diets - it's not just avoiding one product like peanut butter. Or that some of these kids may have their own significant issues which make such a restrictive diet a problem.

You are arguing for this despite the fact that the research doesn't support it.

Despite the fact that allergy groups don't support it. Nor do specialist doctors.

I'm not sure how I, or anyone else, is bad for wanting an approach that is both evidence based and fair. It seems to be because you think you can just use emotive language and that is what determines the best course of action.

This is a big part of why these policies don't work.

Most people will try not to pack nuts, but they do not always know what contains them, or what they might be disguised in.

Some parents might not even have English as a first language.

Add the complication that it may be peanuts, seed nuts, seeds - or even other things. Most parents are not experts in how to figure out where these ingredients hide, and they are not going to become experts.

If you have even a small school with 100 families, do you really think you will get all the parents scrutinizing the ingredients every time they buy something new?

Policies that are not realistic never work.

Oh I agree @TempestTost , like I said I don't really support nut free schools.

I just don't think "nah I can't be fucked" is an acceptable approach to take when you have a DC in a nut free school. There should be at least some care taken. Having a child in school means don't lots of little things you don't necessarily want to or agree with - as many of us who send our daughters off in impractical dresses and shoes know all too well!

How do you know the details of allergy of every single child in school OP?

She acknowledged she doesn't yesterday.

I read that update after I posted. Glad OP was put in her place, ebcause asuming she had that knowledge to begin with was ridiculous.

I think this is the underlying problem though.

It's a bad policy, so it doesn't work well, and what's more people know it isn't a great policy and so don't take it that seriously.

Other than maybe very young children (preschool) with a lot of special controls, nut bans are dangerous and shouldn't be allowed.

I’m not arguing that.

I’m not arguing for a peanut or nut free school. I have read the advice and I’m not stupid.

I’m arguing that your attitude is horrible. I’m arguing that many people are ignorant about allergies.

Fuck off.

A lesson to RTFT, this is a short thread and there's only two posts from OP who accepted she was in the wrong more than 24 hours ago.

I'm not the one telling people to fuck off.

I'm not sure either what you'd expect. I can point out that nut bans aren't evidence based, as long as you happen to think the tone of my posting is adequately something?

There are huge numbers of posts here by people who want ineffective measures to make themselves feel better, and are calling anyone who points that out a jerk who wants kids dead.

I find it interesting as in primary school is completely nut free. In secondary they do this and kids eat whatever and just don't share. Haven't heard of an allergic reaction yet.

That's due to nut allergies being air borne. Also makes a difference if the allergy is ige or not.

Nut allergies are no longer thought to be airborne.

Egg and milk allergies can be.