To think schools searching sandwiches is a bit much

[Comewhatmay25]

Just found out my DDs school search their lunchboxes everyday. But not just lunch boxes but open sandwiches to see the filling and open flasks to see what's inside. This feels very intrusive and I wonder if it could have the opposite effect of cross contamination. It's not done by staff in the kitchen just dinner ladies with no gloves on or nearby handfasting facilities. AIBU to think this is disgusting and intrusive or is there a need for it?
Does anyone else's school do this?

So why post? You’re not going to do anything so what does it matter?

Can’t believe the teachers have time for this. It may not be facts. Better double check.

I thought allergies were something 'other kids had' until a month ago when my 11 yo daughter ate peanuts. Nuts she's eaten most of her life. We're now the family carrying epi pens everywhere we go and I'm now the parent that worries about someone taking PB sandwiches into school that could cause anaphylaxis.
I wouldn't wish this on anyone and anyone that thinks taking nuts into school is no big deal is damn selfish.
Before our diagnosis I never felt the need to send my kids in with PB or Nutella sandwiches. There are plenty of other options available. It's stupid ignorance.

I expect there is a child in the school with a severe air Bourne allergy.

This seems like a lot of extra work for staff. Im surprised they have the time.

Why do you not want to find out the reason behind this alleged process???

Yet again as with many things I would expect there to be a standard/rules that have to be followed by every school regarding this matter and for the school to keep you informed. Why is left for schools to muddle through. As a previous poster said the information is available. My dgd has just been diagnosed with peanut allergy at 15 months and it is scary.

You're right, it is scary. My daughter is at Secondary and although she knows not to eat nuts, we have to trust other people won't put her at risk.

My dd has autism. For a very long time, because of her sensory problems, she only had a certain amount of safe foods she could eat. Less than 10 things to keep her nourished.
She couldn't manage school dinners as the smell alone could make her vomit.
Nutella sandwiches were a safe food.
We've worked extremely hard to change that with food and play therapy so now we have more options but at one time, I was just a mum trying to feed my child whatever she would eat.
Don't ever talk about stupid ignorance.

Autism isn't life threatening as far as I'm aware.

I appreciate food issues but that is not the same as a life threatening food allergy.

Genuine question, how would you feel if a child died at school because they ingested your daughters lunch?

Yeah, good try op.

My DC school used to check lunch boxes, however I'm not sure they actually physically checked sandwich fillings.
They did have a no nuts policy which seems to be common

For those that think taking nuts into school is no big deal, just for a moment imagine your child gasping for breath because their throat is closing up and preying an ambulance was able to get to them in time.

Schools don't serve nuts for this reason. To then allow others to bring them in makes no sense at all.

It's hard at first. What helps me is milk - there are children out there with the same severity of allergy as my DD but to milk. Which is everywhere. Every lunchbox, every playground is covered in ice-cream, every cafe full of milky coffees. We know one such little girl from nursery and she's out there living her life at school and clubs.

That helps me not worry about what others do. I just need to make sure my DD doesn't eat peanuts. That's fine, they're not in much. We take extra precautions when there's a chance that surfaces might have something like peanut butter on and do a bit of extra cleaning.

How does staff touching multiple sandwiches and drinks without any hand washing reduce the risk?

Ex lunch time supervisor, this is awful and I honestly don’t know how they have the time to check each kids lunch. It was enough of a rush to make sure all the kids got seated for lunch.
If a child needed help opening something eg yoghurt tube or juice bottle we used to check that they hadn’t tried to open it by putting it in their mouth first.

OP, I’m assuming you work at the school to be in the lunch hall during the school day to witness it…?

Nut bans aren't advised any more because there's no evidence they reduce the risk of serious reactions. It's better to always assume nuts are present and act accordingly. It's also important that our DC learn to live in a world with nuts - if you've joined any of the allergy groups you'll have seen posts from parents whose DC have gone off to uni or want to travel and they don't know how to deal with those risks.

What are they looking for?

When are you seeing this. Lunchtime supervisors don't start work til about half hour before lunch - schools can't afford to pay them to sit at 9am picking through kids lunchboxes. How and why are you still at your childs school with your nose to the glass at 11.30am, watching lunchtime staff open lunchboxes?
Or..... You did not see this and are going on a rumour /something a kid said.
There's no way this is happening 😂

We're only a month in so still trying to make sense of everything. I'm hoping life doesn't have to change too much. (And fingers crossed she is one of the 10% that can outgrow an allergy)

They're not going to execute you for asking the reason for their strange policy are they? They've probably emailed parents about it or sent letters around if they're keen on not having a certain food in school.

Once you settle into it you'll realise that if she was going to have a serious allergy to something, you'd pick peanuts - it's called peanut privilege. They're not in much, and it's always taken seriously in restaurants etc. You'll get on top of it.

@Sapphire29 It's also helpful if you can make allies out of other parents/children with different allergies. They will be the ones who are looking at every packet and so know which things are and aren't ok for various other allergies. They'll accept if your daughter says she can't eat something or eat somewhere and will be aware of cross contamination. It'll be part of their life too so they won't make a fuss.

Unfortunately, they are also the group hardest hit if any allergen bans are put in place which is worth bearing in mind when you are discussing situations where you feel a peanut ban would help your child.

I wish our SMSAs did that. We have pupils and staff with severe allergies and you would not believe the number of kids who bring nuts or Nutella into school.

That’s disgusting. Surely they can at least ask children to open their sandwiches for them if they want to see?

Their hands should not be making contact with kids packed lunch. I had some sensory and other issues around food when I was younger and anyone other than my mum touching my packed lunch in a relatively uncontrolled environment would have put me off. So I preferred packed lunches over school lunches and would have been horrified if they put their hands on it. Even as an adult if I go into somewhere like subway and see them handling money then touching bread without changing gloves I’ll just head back out.

Let’s face it most adults aren’t fussy about food hygiene when it comes to things for children, so they will indeed be touching and scratching their nose, hair, face etc , and then touching children’s food for these inspections.

Aside from the germ issue, as someone pointed out what about the risk of cross contamination of things like gluten? Wearing gloves wouldn’t even prevent that since they’d wear the same gloves throughout the inspection.